Seattle Schools Community Forum

A local organization, School Board Leaders for the Future , is offering training for potential school board candidates, and it sure does sound good.

As some of you may have heard, there was polling done on the upcoming elections by Strategies 360.   They state:  None of the firm's clients paid for the survey, and Strategies 360 is supporting neither client.    (Yes, but someone thought up those questions and I can guarantee it wasn't all Strategies 360.)  The poll was 400 likely voters, 78% white, skewed to the north and highly educated.  Nineteen percent have children in public schools while 11% have children in other schools. Sad to say but in this poll, the School Board ranks only above "Republicans in Congress" and below Obama, Inslee, Democrats in Congress, Ed Murray, the City Council, and Mayor Mike McGinn.  The totals were favorable-37%, unfavorable, 32%, ouch. They asked a number of interesting questions about Seattle Schools, the School Board and the role of the Mayor.   They asked about which of the following items " will be most important to you in deciding who...

The No On I-1240 campaign has released an open letter rejecting I-1240.  The people listed represent those from 260 school districts across Washington State.  That's nearly 90% of the school districts in the state.  “The open letter shows that opposition to I-1240 is not bound by geography or income,” said Michael DeBell, Seattle School Board President. “It’s a bad plan for every student and parent in Washington, and that’s why so many people who have looked into I-1240 have come out against it.” I was just at the Superintendent's State of the District event (more on that later) and there was a press conference downstairs at Perkins Coie with the Superintendent, President DeBell, our SPS labor leaders and other Board directors.  They all had a unified message - I-1240 is wrong for our state and our districts.  President DeBell stressed that the timing for this discussion about charters is wrong until the McCleary decision is fully vetted and a plan ro...