Seattle Schools Community Forum

As if to only reinforce the idea that the real action of the district is at committee meetings, there was the Audit&Finance committee meeting yesterday. On the upside, I think this district has made tremendous strides in bringing in some bright and capable people as district staff.  Duggan Harmon, head of Finance, Richard Staudt, Risk Management, and Andrew Medina, Internal Auditor, and Ronic Lirio, also in Finance, all come across as quite knowledgeable about their area of expertise within the district.  I think they are all capable of laying out the facts clearly to the Board.  I do not hear the hedging that I used to with, say, Don Kennedy, the former COO/CFO. There was an update of First AME and their compliance with the contract wording for the sale of MLK, Jr. building to them.  There were members of the First AME board on-hand to listen.  District staff went through a chart that showed areas of compliance for use for youth-centered activities for...

Way back when, David Letterman used to give celebrities about $5,000 to make a short film for his "Holiday Film Festival."  My favorite was one with Bette Midler who made a film about a boozy barfly laying out her life and views and she always ended with, "Why bother?" The Lady Di one was about Bette's character explaining how Diana came to the U.S. for the first time and "she brought 2 trunks and 15 suitcases.  She went to...JC Penney.  And I said, Lady Di, why bother?" And so I say about the media in Seattle on Seattle Schools, why bother?

One thing is clear - there were people in the district who just did not want the MLK, Jr. Building to go to an affluent private school.  Didn't matter the price - it was a non-starter.  The issue was also about gaining something for the public besides money.    How that was to be balanced in the minds of the School Board is not ever made clear. 

The State Auditor's office released their report on the sale of the MLK Elementary building in the the Madison Valley. Short answer: ugly, ugly, corrupt process, but no actual laws were broken.

Not a complete bust but not a great interview with these candidates on The Conversation this afternoon.  First, KUOW should make up its mind on the format.  For District 2, the candidates were interviewed individually and for a longer period of time.  (There were three of them.) For District 6, they had them all in the studio and interviewed each for a much shorter period of time but did allow them to interact.   I think it would be better to have the interaction among candidates AFTER the primary and allow people more time to get to know these candidates now.  Steve was first.  He was asked about Pottergate and the sale of the MLK,Jr. building.   His answer will now set the tone for his campaign.  He says they acted promptly when they had the State Auditor's investigation report.  What!?   If he is saying he had no idea anything was wrong until that point, he was simply not paying attention.  He stated that the...

I ask that question because of the meat of this editorial .  You'd think that Charlie or I wrote it because it is strong medicine down to its last line. I'm not even going to excerpt it - just read the whole thing, please. Maybe it's all the churn between Pottergate and the sale of the MLK, Jr. building.  Maybe it's one poor state audit too many.   Maybe it's the discouraging knowledge that despite having some exceptionally bright and capable people on the Board, we still cannot get our act together as a district. I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe these people on the Times' editorial board, are tired of making excuses for when - when - when ? will the district stop flailing around with crises and settle down to the real business of educating students with no education-word-of-the-day named plans.  Just good teaching with good supports for teachers/principals AND students.   Just well-maintained buildings.  Just a website where you can find ...

Lynne Varner of the Seattle Times wrote another editorial on the sale of MLK to the First AME Church. Apparently the parties are getting together on Thursday to discuss the Church's ability and willingness to fulfill the covenants of the sales agreement. That provided her with the occasion to cluck her tongue at this a bit more, like a pekingese tugging at a linebacker's pants cuff. She fretted that the District could suffer " a loss of fundamental trust and credibility ". Seriously. Only people at the Times think the District has any trust or credibility left to lose. The thing that struck me most about the piece was how it cast Ron English as tragic hero of this little drama. He alone stood up for the right thing, but his expert input (and the unanimous opinion of a committee formed to pick a buyer for MLK) was cast aside and overridden by the evil Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson (never mentioned by name) and the scheming Fred Stephens. Now the bitter irony: Mr. Engl...

Yes, it's true.   Within a week after First AME Church purchased the MLK, Jr. building from the district, they turned around and did a quit claim (for "10.00 cash in hand paid and other good and valuable consideration, conveys and quit claims" ) to - wait for it - the MLK Family Arts Mentoring Enrichment Community Center (MLK FAME CC).  So FAME sold to FAME.   According to the Washington Secretary of State, FAME CC was incorporated as a non-profit on 1/25/11.  The agent name is "National Registered Agents, Inc." which is a national registry group.  The address is in Tumwater. What's interesting is if you Google "MLK Family Arts Mentoring Enrichment Community Center", it pulls up a new business listing for a group in Tumwater that handles auto sales and repair.  Very strange.  It has the same address as the address for the incorporation.  Okay, let me first say that the MLK building sale has been troubling from the start.  I wa...

Update:  The Times' editorial board weighed in today on this subject.   They are shocked! and appalled! to find this kind of thing happening.  Well, it may have happened under MGJ but some of the stock players are still there.  They end with this: The school district is developing a grim reputation for sloppy stewardship of tax dollars. A legacy with consequences. No kidding. It appears that Ron English, the interim General Counsel, is peeved over the Seattle Times' article about the sale of the MLK, Jr. building to First AME church. He is asking the Times for a retraction and a copy of the audiotape of the interview with him.

 From the Seattle Times and boy, these reporters pull no punches after they explain how Bush offered 3 times the money ($9.7M leased or $3.75 purchased) as First AME church who offered $2.4M (mostly in taxpayer dollars).  The reporters lay out the oddities: • The district staff changed the way it handled and evaluated offers for the building, which pushed the church's proposal to the head of the pack. • Then-Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson shot down The Bush School's high offer, at the same time urging voters to pass a $48 million levy. • One former district employee told The Seattle Times that her boss, Fred Stephens, director of the district's property division and an influential First AME congregant, was determined as early as 2007 to help the church get the school property. • The district did little to investigate the accuracy of the church's proposal — while closely scrutinizing and ultimately rejecting a similar, competing bid from another c...

Updates:  first, I was wrong about the grant money for the purchase of MLK, Jr. bldg to First AME Church as partially coming from the Department of Commerce (where Fred Stephens now works).   I had gone off of a news report and did not double-check it myself.  It turns out it is a state fund that formerly had "commerce" in its name ( not the federal Department of Commerce) and there was my confusion.  My apologies.   Also, the KING 5 story says that someone in the community is going to the Auditor.  As of this date, only I have filed a request for them to look into it.  If you want an audit of this sale, fill out the form here at the State Auditor's website.   Keep in mind, I feel certain the sale is a done deal BUT it may be a good idea to make sure everything was done properly.  We don't know precisely how Fred Stephens recused himself, if it was just something verbal, then he may have felt justified in receiving update e-mails on the...