Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Times is reporting that First A.M.E. Church operated a daycare at Seattle Central Community College - rent-free - for 16 years .  (Yes, I know - how is that possible?)  The daycare was allowed to do this by a program at SCCC called Seattle Vocational Institute whose students' children were to have first-in enrollment.  The daycare ran from Sep. 1997 to June 2013. From the Times: First A.M.E., which closed the daycare in June, paid no rent to the Institute - a value the school estimates would have exceeded $650k over 16 years.  It also paid no utilities or janitorial costs, worth an additional $158k or so.  SCCC president, Pual Killpatrick, said the college had identified this problem contract and that the church was notified in Jne they would need to vacate.  The church did end up paying for utilities and janitorial services from Sep. 2012 to June 2013. Troy Niemeyer, the auditor's whistle-blower manager, stated, " It amounts to the state giving ...

 Update:   a reader asked about who pays for these audits and I mistakenly said the SAO.  It turns out that the Legislature had passed a law for a hotline but had not funded it.  For the first year, the SAO ate the cost  for hotline investigations but could not sustain that cost.  So if the State Auditor chooses to go forward with hotline requests (and I'm sure they don't follow-thru with all of them), it costs the district $83.60 per hour.  (I just removed that "number of hours" as that is for the NEXT audit, not this special one.) On the one hand you could say, "Well, look at that money and the SAO found nothing illegal."  On the other hand, you can look at this sad and sorry mess of a process and say that it sure doesn't look good or smell good.  I'll have more to report on this after I read the SAO work product documents which I believe will make compelling reading.  End of update A new low for reporting is the Times' article a...

 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...

KUOW 94.9 FM will have several K-12 superintendents talking about budgets and budget cuts on tomorrow's 9:00 a.m. Weekday program. Tentatively, it will be Renton and Spokane with a third one not yet known. It could be interesting to hear what other districts are doing in the face of falling budgets. Also, KING-5 tv will be doing a story on the sale of the MLK, Jr. building to First AME Church and I believe it will appear on tomorrow's (3/11) news starting at 5 p.m. I heard Michael say, "I thought we had settled this." That was before Pottergate. The whole unfortunate racial aspect of Pottergate and Fred Stephens extremely close association with First AME Church (the eventual winners of the bidding) makes the sale worth revisiting.

The Weekly has a story about Fred Stephens and First AME. It's pretty much stuff I knew (and I suspect most of you know) but there are a few notable items: First AME Church's secretary says Fred Stephens is still a member Michael DeBell defended the Board's choice and said Stephens didn't play a role but that it was "entirely managed by Ron English." He also said that what the Board unanimously voted for was similar to what happened to University School, Phinney Ridge and West Seattle. I like Michael but that's just plain disingenious. They are not similar efforts except that they all, in some way community based. First AME is a church and the other groups running those community centers are not. I don't have time to work on this one but there's something there. I told the Board I thought based on Fred Stephens and the current crisis, they should revisit the First AME decision.

The district finally put the contract for the purchase of the MLK, Jr. Elementary property to First AME church. I'm no lawyer but maybe someone out there is because there are a few things that strike me. One is on page 15 section N. It's for something called Exchange Cooperation which is in the U.S. tax code, Section 1031. I can't tell if it was put in as a general course of how you execute this kind of sale or as a prelude to something else coming. From the IRS webpage: Whenever you sell business or investment property and you have a gain, you generally have to pay tax on the gain at the time of sale. IRC Section 1031 provides an exception and allows you to postpone paying tax on the gain if you reinvest the proceeds in similar property as part of a qualifying like-kind exchange. Gain deferred in a like-kind exchange under IRC Section 1031 is tax-deferred, but it is not tax-free. Okay, so the district may be able to put off taxes on the sale. But then there'...

Director Maier has a community meeting tomorrow morning (the 19th) from 10-11:30 a.m at Lake City Public Library. It seems he may be jockeying with Director Sundquist for president of the School Board. Ask him why he thinks he should be president. (Also, if anyone knows of any good candidates for District 1 - Mr. Maier's seat, please let me know at sss.westbrook@gmail.com. It is always good for every incumbent to have a challenger if only to have a more well-rounded race.) Before the Board meeting there will be a Work Session on "Test Scores." Sounds interesting especially in light of our discussion over MAP scores. They might also discuss Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's interesting comment that maybe some schools might only need to take MAP twice a year or only certain groups of students might need to take MAP 3 times a year. The meeting is from 4-5:30 p.m. Board meeting on Wednesday night so sign up now if you want to be on the Speakers list. (They have, in t...

Last week's Board meeting was fairly interesting (well, until you got to the staff updates but more on that later). The room wasn't full of the usual suspects but there definitely were sides. Highlights from speakers list: District watchdog Chris Jackins pointed out that the sale of MLK, Jr . property gives buyers all the money. (Apparently the presumed buyers - First AME Church - is getting the money from the state and the state will give it to the district. This is because the church, in its offer, says it will be offering youth programming and other community activities.) The idea of selling it to First AME is to create a community center in that neighborhood that would offer community services like youth activities. Then came a long line of people against the sale of the property to First AME. This was introduced and will be voted on by the Board in two weeks. Everyone spoke respectfully of the church's long history here in Seattle but the issue seems to be tha...

Anyone go to the first of the Superintendent's coffee chats last night? The next one is Tuesday, the 12th from 8:10 - 9:10 am at Jane Addams. (I admit a bit of a pause in attending as it is stated that the meetings are for "parents, grandparents and caregivers of Seattle Schools students. I have no student. I'd like to think the community can come as well if only to listen.) Tomorrow's School Board Director's Community Meetings: Director Carr at the Greenwood Neighborhood Service Center from 8:30 am-10 am Director Sundquist at High Point Library from 11 am-12:30 pm Director Maier at Bethany Community Church from 10:30 am-noon I'm sure you can come up with plenty of things to ask them but you could ask: Why Teach for America? Explain why you think this is good for the district and what that belief is based on. Where are the funds to pay the TFA Foundation fees for these teachers? What is being cut/reduced by having to pay back $1.2 M from the General Fund ...

There is a two-hour work session before this Wednesday's Board meeting with the topic of District scorecard and School Reports communication plan ." This is apparently a topic of some concern to the district because of the pending date of release set for November 9th. It is part of the Strategic Plan. From the district's website : The first annual school reports will be released by Seattle Public Schools (SPS) on November 9th 2010 , which will provide a snapshot of school performance on common academic measures. SPS wants parents, students, and the community to know how each individual school is doing – from test scores to absence rates to student proficiency – so we all can learn from and act on the information to make our schools better. In order to ensure excellence for all, the district needs to know how each school is currently performing and make improvement plans based upon that information. To be successful, we will need the community’s help. These school repor...

From the Central District News blog, this story about what will likely happen to the now closed MLK, Jr. Building in Madison Valley. This is an interesting story because of the compelling question of what we do with closed buildings if the district decides to sell. There has always been this conflict over getting the most money out of them versus helping communities to use these public resources. Apparently, there was quite a large crowd at the Board's Audit and Finance Committee meeting this past week (darn and I love a good crowd). Staff had been expected to give their recommendation among the 4 choices. They had eliminated one - Central Area Development Association(CADA) - from the group because it would only use 33% of the property with buildings on it. From the story: First AME (First African Methodist Episcopal Church) - $2.4 million to the district, $50,000 value to the community per year due to low rental rate for community space and a pledge to allow free use o...