Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Seattle Times is reporting the following: - Silas Potter was sentenced to 3 years, 7 months in jail.   He could get credit for the eight and a half months time that he has already spent in jail. - One accomplice, David Johnson, was convicted in early November of 30 counts and will sentenced in early Jan. - Potter and Johnson "are jointly responsible for restitution of $168, 275." - The other accomplice, Lorrie Kay Sorensen, was sentenced to 60 days of home detention with electronic monitoring.   She must pay $83k in restitution. The most basic lesson is accountability. There was failure from the top down.  Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, the superintendent at the time, is the least responsible but she should have realized that Mr. Potter's direct supervisor, Fred Stephens, was distracted by the murder of his son and the subsequent trial.   Additionally, employees within JSCEE either feared or avoided Potter; that was a well-known situation and yet no o...

When the Silas Potter incident was exposed, naturally I was following it very closely.  But when Potter took a plea, I was less interested and so forgot that one of his co-conspirators was going to trial.  According to the Times Potter and David Johnson are turning on each other.    Mr. Johnson is on trial for 42 counts of theft. What is slightly amusing is that Potter testified that he forged Johnson's signature: On the stand, Potter testified that he occasionally forged Johnson’s name on contracts. He said that made it hard for him to say definitely whether it was he, or Johnson, who signed certain documents admitted into evidence. Well, that ought to make dropping some of those 42 counts easy for Johnson's lawyer if no one knows who signed the contracts.   It looks like each could receive between 4-5 years in prison. On a happier note, Diane Ravitch will be on The Daily Show tomorrow - Wednesday, the 30th.  I'm going to love watching ...

From KOMO TV: Silas Potter Jr., one of the central figures in a financial scandal in Seattle Public Schools, pleaded guilty Monday to 36 counts of theft for stealing funds from a Seattle Public School District program designed to assist minority-owned businesses in receiving school district contracts.  He could get between 3 1/2 to 5 years in prison.  He is to be sentenced in late May. That leave one final co-conspirator, David Johnson, who is going to stand trial starting May 13th.   The third co-conspirator, Lorrie Kay Sorensen, pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced in June. Seems like my hunch was right - Potter had nothing that was going to mitigate or save him. I believe the district received some sum of money from insurance but not the entire $250k Potter took.  The vendors who made about $280k from questionable work may look like they are walking away unscathed but I hope the district makes note of who they are and gives pauses before hiring...

When we last left Mr. Potter, he had been extradited back to Seattle from Florida and charged, along with two others, with various counts relating to money missing from the program he ran for SPS.   Last week, he failed to show up at a scheduled hearing and his lawyer didn't know where he was.  The judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Yesterday he was arrested in Seattle and booked into King County jail.  The KC Prosecutor's office says he will stay there until his trial next month.  (I suspect he is considered a flight risk.) I was wondering why he was even going to trial instead of taking a plea.  (One co-conspirator did take a plea, the other is on the lam.)  I had thought that perhaps he had some tantalizing information that he was going to reveal at the trial in order to try to save himself.  But once he ran, I have to believe he has nothing to offer and simply does not want to go to jail. 

Honestly, I just don't get the Times.  So now they have trotted out an op-ed against BOTH levies (and, gotten the name of the pro-levy supporter, Greg Wong -not Wang - wrong to boot).  It's yet another person who is late to this party of "accountability" and yet this guy even casts a bigger swath.  And he's a public school parent who wants both levies to fail.  I understand his unhappiness but failing the Operations levy won't change that.  In fact, if he wants to see our district fall to its knees, let the Operations levy fail.  He gives NO solutions to what might happen after that failure - not so helpful - but yes, he's voting against both of them.  (He also points out "big-city cronyism" from the Potter scandal.  Yes and that came at the hands of a superintendent who swept in with big changes supported by the powers that be.  Let's remember that.) I'm with him on changing how we run SPS and frankly, changing the protection...

Very busy week. Monday, December 10th Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee Meeting from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda Some interesting issues but there is not enough detail to know what they are specifically going to cover.  Work Session on Weighted Staffing Standards from 6-7:30 p.m.  Agenda Tuesday, December 11th  Work Session on Creative Approach Schools from 5-6:30 p.m.  Agenda Special Ed Advocacy & Advisory Council Meeting from 6:30-9:00 p.m., Room 2700 (2nd floor), JSCEE Community Meeting on Capacity and BEX IV from 7-8:30 p.m. pm at JSCEE. Wednesday, December 12th Executive Committee Meeting from 8-10 am.  No agenda available. School Board meeting at 4:30 p.m.  Agenda Of note: - Native American Education update - election of new President, Vice-President and Member-at-Large for the Board (nominations to be posted on Monday).  I suspect the president will either be Smith-Blum, Martin-Morris, Carr or Patu as they h...

From KUOW : Former Seattle Public Schools manager Silas Potter faces 33 new felony theft charges for allegedly embezzling more than a quarter of a million dollars from the district.   King County Prosecutor's Office Deputy Chief of Staff Ian Goodhew says prosecutors brought the new charges because Potter has declined to plead guilty to the nine original felony theft charges. "Each of those counts are for additional checks that we believe were laundered through dummy companies from the Seattle Public School system for services that were not rendered or that they grossly overcharged for," Goodhew said. Hard to believe he wouldn't plead guilty given that one of his co-conspirators (Lorrie Kay Sorenson) did already.  The other co-conspirator, David A. Johnson, did not appear at the Potter hearing and a bench warrant went out for his arrest.  Potter is to be tried in Feb. (let's hope AFTER the levy elections).    He could get up to 10 years i...

Monday, November 26th Superintendent Banda's meeting with the Latino community from 6-8 pm at El Centro de la Raza. Feedback, concerns and questions are welcome. Tuesday, November 27th Work Session: Strategic Plan Guiding Principle s from 4:30-6:30 pm.  No agenda available. Work Session: Ethics Training from 6:45-7:45 pm.  (I'm not sure who this is for - the Board or staff or both.) No agenda available. Wednesday, November 28th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm.  Sign up first thing Monday morning if you want to speak. Agenda. Action items reflect the 2013 Legislative agenda, approval of "superintendent evaluation instrument: the CSIP approvals, voting in a new Policy 1400 about Board meetings. To note about Policy 1400, it appears the start time is to remain at 4:15 p.m.  It also changes the policy that saying that any changes in the prepared agenda may be requested by the Superintendnetn or a Board member and is approved by majority vote (an...

District updates: I asked the Board about their stand on I-1240 and received this reply from President DeBell: A Resolution opposing I-1240 is on next week's agenda  for introduction and action.  It was recommended unanimously by the Executive Committee to the full Board at yesterday's meeting and will be posted tomorrow.  This follows the Renton School Board's rejection of I-1240 as well.   So here how it is lining up against I-1240: Community groups, many legislators and other elected officials, the Washington State PTA, the Washington State School Directors Association, the Association of School Administrators, the principals' association, numerous labor groups, and, I predict, a huge number of specific school boards.  On the other side: Billionaires, LEV, Stand, DFER, many editorial boards and all the people who believe that by voting for charters they stick it to the teachers union.  (I say the latter because I have tracked the editoria...

From today's Seattle Times: $1.3M more might be misspent in Seattle schools scandal The hits just keep coming.

Charles Rolland, a former state Democratic party chair and education leader in Seattle, died yesterday.  Mr. Rolland helped to start and lead CPPS - Community & Parents for Public Schools - in Seattle in 2004.  He also served on the City committee that selected a new police chief. He was also one of the vendors caught up in the Silas Potter Scandal in 2010.  He had refused to cooperate in the SPS investigation and the King Country prosecutor found insufficient evidence to show that he had failed to perform the work under his contract with SPS. Mr. Rolland was 61.

From the Times : Silas Potter Jr., the central figure in the Seattle Public Schools financial scandal, was arrested during a traffic stop early Wednesday near Tampa, Fla., after he failed to appear for arraignment Tuesday on theft charges in King County Superior Court. A King County sheriff's detective who handles fugitive cases received a tip and relayed it to U.S. marshals, who found Potter, sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said Wednesday morning. I had a feeling that since Potter was a non-violent criminal that it might hard to find him (he only pays cash and had disconnected his cell phone).  But sure enough, he got stopped on a traffic stop. He will make his first court appearance in Florida on Thursday, Kincheloe said. Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, said prosecutors hope to learn on Thursday whether Potter will waive extradition. If Potter agrees to extradition, he could be brought to Seattle in a matter of days, Donohoe said...

I attended the arraignment this morning.  Always interesting to see how these things work. I had never seen the two co-conspirators before - Lorrie Sorenson and David A. Johnson - both appeared and both put in a plea of "not guilty."   Both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Sorenson were to be fingerprinted and processed and then released without bail. The lawyers for Johnson and Sorenson said that they needed to work together on discovery items.  Additionally, since Ms. Sorenson lives in Nevada and had to fly in for the arraignment, her lawyer asked for two months so she could make arrangements in her life before coming back for the trial. The trial date was not set (from what I could hear) because of the non-appearance of Potter.   Given the request by the lawyer for Sorenson, I would assume it would not start for a couple of months. They called Potter's name and he did not appear.   The prosecutor said they had attempted multiple times to contact Potter....

Here's are some notes from the press conference and follow-ups from it.

Got up this morning, lots to do and a huge number of stories to write about.  So errands first but tell me, dear readers, what should I write about first? Reuven Carlyle's blog thread on the incumbents/paying School Directors/limiting campaign funds for School Board races  the fairly pitiful Times' story on the SB races (no bias there) with the great headline, "School Board races hinge on whether district needs change"  last night's very interesting and insightful talk with Dr. Dina Brulles on - yes, I'll say it because she used this word repeatedly - teaching "gifted" students updates on Silas Potter case  Whatever has the most votes, that's what I'll write up first. 

Just got back from the press conference with Dan Satterberg, KC Prosecutor, Dr. Enfield and Director DeBell.   I'll write a longer thread but here are the highlights: Silas Potter is to be charged with 9 counts of Theft in the First Degree David Anthony Johnson is to be charged with 9 counts of Theft in the First Degree Lorrie Kay Sorenson is to be charged with 4 counts of Theft in the First Degree I do not recognize Ms. Sorenson's name but Mr. Johnson had been mentioned in the State Auditor's report. The accused funneled about $250k through two corporations - one, a non-profit called Grace of Mercy and the other, a for-profit, called Emerald City cleaning.  Mr. Potter operated on cash with several large cash withdrawals in his name.   Potter turned over about $21k to his accompliances and kept the rest.  There is no evidence that anyone further up the food chain had knowledge of or benefited from these actions. If convicted as charged, Potter and...

The Seattle Times is reporting that  King County prosecutors plan to file first degree felony theft charges against Silas Potter Jr. for his role in the recent school district financial scandal. Others may be charged as well. Mr. Potter has said that he was scapegoated and that people further up the org chart knew about everything he was doing. Given a chance in Court he might provide details about who knew about his activities.

From the Seattle Times comes this story about how much money it is costing to review the Facilities department.  Sigh. Yes, it wasn't just the Silas Potter-connected programs but the whole thing is getting a good look-see.  From the article: While the district's initial consulting contract was $25,000, the scope of work quickly grew. The district extended the contract three times for varying amounts that now total $162,000, according to records obtained by The Seattle Times under the state's public records act. I have to wonder, out of all the things the Times could investigate, how they picked this one but fine. It's a great thing, frankly, because ALL of Facilities and Capital Projects should get this look.  It's disturbing to listen to Board Committee discussions on these topics and get worried about where the money is going.  From the article: The hiring of the consultants and the scope of their work indicate the department was more troubled than ...

From the Stranger comes reporter Riya Bhattacharjee's look into Peter Maier and red flags that he either didn't follow-thru on or didn't wave in the faces of his colleagues.   The key one? As chair of the school board's Operations Committee, Maier acknowledges that he read warnings in a document called the Sutor report, commissioned by the district, about irregularities with a small-works contracting program, originally a component of the regional small-business development program. Peter had The Sutor Group report (given to him at an Ops Committee meeting by Stephens).  I have never heard Peter say why Stephens gave it to him (and only him) but that seems to be the case. At a March 6 school board meeting, right before the board unanimously voted to fire superintendent Goodloe-Johnson for her role in the scandal, Maier said he had been alerted to the problems and didn't tell the board. Bhattacharjee was looking for evidence that it might have made a d...

This Accountability Audit Report by the State Auditor was better than the one in February if you are only looking at money.  But yes, money was once again lost and while the amounts are smaller than in February, it still damning and painful.