Seattle Schools Community Forum

Apparently not, at least when it comes to charter schools.  My second batch of public disclosure e-mails raises more troubling questions. In my first batch, I explained how a couple of other districts' lawyers were worried about running afoul of state law in signing interlocal documents to allow students within their district borders to have an ALE with Mary Walker School District. This batch reveals more concerns from other people. Among them was the overarching role of Washington State Charter Schools Association. Who are they?

I just wanted to note one thing from this thread about the recent Management Letter from the SAO to the district.  It covered quite a few items like a mysterious $50K salary increase to the Native American program director (now gone) and raises for all the upper management in HR (still no explanation).  There was also an issue about a couple of schools that appear to have allowed events at their school but did not charge for use of the building and, in one case, tried to make it appear like it was a school function.  This may have been to build goodwill in the community and/or make some money for the school.  (When a building is rented, the money goes to the district, not the school.)  It is unclear in either case whether the school actually got any funds but it is clear the district DID lose money. The main culprit seemed to be Cleveland STEM which allowed a couple of basketball tournaments to be at the school as well as a basketball league being allowed t...

It's summer and yet it feels busier than ever. Saturday community meeting with Director Patu at Cafe Vita at 10 am. Concerning story about the use of Roundup and links to autism, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's from Nation of Change. The authors of the new review call for more independent research to validate their findings, stating that “glyphosate is likely to be pervasive in our food supply, and contrary to being essentially nontoxic, it may in fact be the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment.” From Director Carr on the subject of the Management Letter from the SAO: Please be clear that the Board doesn’t respond to the SAO – our management team does. The SAO doesn’t require to response to management letters, only to findings. The management team is required to develop corrective action to the Board as we track all levels in A&F (findings, exit items, management letters) though they are provided some flow time to develop that plan (so we don’...

The School Board page has links to the following: SAO report (16 pages) School Board President/General Counsel response Independent Investigation Report (this is from the lawyer, Patty Eakes - I haven't read it yet) Exhibits to Independent Investigation Report (197 pages of exhibits - haven't read yet) Steve Sundquist's Response to the lawyer's Independent Investigation Report From Steve's response: In my view, this report demonstrates multiple failures of management oversight and accountability. Systemic failures allowed these absolutely unacceptable activities to persist, and that is not tolerable. Every day in classrooms across Seattle, teachers and principals are helping students understand what it means to be ethical citizens and to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. The Board will not tolerate unethical conduct, nor will we tolerate a lack of accountability. It is our responsibility as a Board to carefully consider the hard...