Seattle Schools Community Forum

Diane Ravitch has this from Rep. Mike Sells, 38th Legislative District.  It is all the things that some of us knew were going on (and probably going on.)  The last paragraph - on the House debate and all those amendments? Watching the action, you could tell that at least some of it was prearranged because that's how smug and dismissive some of the Republicans were.  (emphasis mine) Just say no, Governor.

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...

There was some question about who was on the hiring committee for the Chief Communications Officer job. The job went to Lesley Rogers of Strategies 360, a firm that worked for the Alliance, laid down the Our Schools Coalition astroturf, and provided services to the District between Communications Directors. The press release announcing Ms Rogers' hiring said that "parents" (not very inclusive language) were part of the hiring committee. Some of us wondered who they were. Here, from Ann Chan, Chief Talent Officer, are the names of those who served on that committee: Participants for final interview were: Seattle Public Schools ---------------------- Marni Campbell, Special Education Holly Ferguson, Policy & Government Relations Bree Dusseault, Executive Director Patti Spencer, Communications Bernardo Ruiz, Family Partnerships Paige Hatcher, Communications Robert Teodosio, Communications Teresa Wippel, Communications Cathy Thompson, Curriculum & Inst...

Just when you think you've heard it all - this from the Seattle PI blog (and our alert readers here): The financially-struggling Seattle Public Schools has paid an outside consulting agency for public relations help since October. Patti Spencer, school district spokesman, said Seattle-based Strategies 360 was retained after the district’s executive director for Public Affairs left on leave. “We brought in Strategies 360 in to help until such time as a new person is appointed,” Spencer said Thursday. I'll interrupt here to say that is just nonsense. We live in a major metropolitan center full of smart PR people and we're in a bad economy. Bridgett Chandler (the former head of Communications) left months ago. They really couldn't find anyone? FYI, Communications, since MGJ, has been one part communications and two parts public relations for MGJ. Spencer didn’t know how much the consultants were being paid, but said their fee was coming out of private donor ...