Seattle Schools Community Forum

The agenda for the regular legislative Board meeting of September 21 has been posted. There are relatively few motions on the agenda. The ones that stand out are: Approval of the 2016-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Principals' Association of Seattle Schools (PASS) and Amending Board Policy No. 5251, Ethics

I can see where the district might want to run their own internal investigations after the generous help from the City (and the ever-professional and helpful Wayne Barnett in the City's own office of ethics) but a whole department?  Banda is certainly churning out the work as he exits.  I hope there will be no last-minute surprises.   From SPS: In order to improve accountability and transparency in Seattle Public Schools, Superintendent José Banda on Tuesday announced that Seattle Public Schools is establishing its own Office of Internal Audit and Ethics, reporting directly to the Seattle School Board.

I couldn't stay long (darn cold) but I did make some remarks and heard other interesting remarks. First up was Wayne Barnett of the City Ethics department who gave a concise and lively wrap-up of what has been happening with this joint ethics venture between the City and the district.  This is a mid-term report as they are in the middle of the 3-year process. He said that everyone at JSCEE had been given the ethics training as had all the principals. In terms of advice, as of now about 80% of the contacts had been via phone or e-mail.  He said they have slightly less active than at the City level but that is to be expected (given the relative sizes of each). Investigations.  He stated they received their 100th call this week.  He said about a quarter of all calls had launched investigations.  He said about 60% of those calls did not fall under their jurisdiction but that the City had been pleased to act as a liaison between the district and the callers t...

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...

I filed an Ethics complaint against Director DeBell for his participation in the discussion of the MOU with the Alliance for Education despite the fact that he sits on the Alliance board. The District's Ethics Officer, Mr. Wayne Barnett, dismissed the complaint because Mr. DeBell's service on the board of the Alliance is ex officio . That is, he isn't there as himself but as the president of the school board and therefore there is no conflict of interest because in both capacities his duty of loyalty is to the District. Mr. Barnett also cited analogous decisions by the federal Department of Justice. This is, it would appear, well-traveled ground in the Ethics business and it has been determined that situations like this are not conflicts of interest. In short, exceptions are made when the person's ties to the other institution is a direct consequence of their work for the District. Case closed.

So how is that Ethics Hotline working out? There's at least one documented case now in which a member of the staff at the City's Ethics office has revealed the name of a complainant to the person about whom the complaint was made. This was a clear and inexcusable violation of the confidentiality expectations. There may be others. By the way, the revelation resulted in nearly immediate efforts to retaliate against the complainant. This, of course, is a violation of the anti-retaliation policies. This manager's confidence that he or she could retaliate with  security bespeaks of a dysfunctional culture. I would think that if I were already reported as having violated the ethics policy, the last thing I would do is dig myself in deeper by violating the anti-retaliation policy, but I guess that's not how those folks think. Can anyone else offer a report on the new whistleblower hotline or the new Ethics policy? Can anyone report a success? I know that there's an...

The agendas for the Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday morning and the Audit& Finance Committee meeting (Audit) on Thursday afternoon have been posted. Executive Committee Agenda -  There is an item for Government Relations (no details), Community Engagement (no details, no surprise), and then Discussion. Under Discussion there is: Ethics Policy - I believe Mr. Barnett from the City may be giving this update. Update on Public Survey from Director DeBell (not sure what this is referencing) Board retreat follow-up Intermediate Capacity Management Plan - status and legislative calendar IT Strategic Plan Parents Bill of Rights  Program Placement Policy Board calendar/workplan Communications/community partnerships That's a lot to cover in two hours. Audit & Finance Committee (Audit) agenda - Audit response, Department of Internal Audit work plan,  Series 5000 Phase II policies.   There is one vague item - Special Attention Items (no de...

From Wayne Barnett of the City's Ethics & Elections Commission (bold mine):

Monday No school, of course, for the Memorial Day holiday.  However, if you wish to speak at the Wednesday Board meeting, they are still counting Monday as the day they use to see who signs up.  So if you wish to speak at the Board meeting, do not wait until Tuesday (the next business day).  Sign up on Monday starting at 8 am, boardagenda@seattleschools.org or 252-0040.  I note a more sternly written instruction for being on the list: Provide your " full legal name, topic you will be speaking on, telephone number, and email address.  If complete information is not provided, you will not be included on the list. " Interesting that "full legal name" stuff.

Wednesday Work Session on Integrated Capacity Management - 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.  No agenda/presentation available yet. Exit Conference for Financial Statements and Federal Single Audit Report - 4:45 -5:30 p.m. - This would appear to be for the State Auditor's office.  I'll call for more details.  Board Meeting - 6:00 - 9:00 pm.  Agenda Highlights: Science update by Cathy Thompson - ( for fun, look for those grammatical errors).  They feel they need to keep explaining what alignment is and is not but teachers, how are you seeing the alignment as it rolls out?   Page 8 gives the science scores for last year - there is quite a clear divide and I'd be interested to know what factors are in play.  (It can't be facilities; Nova does almost as well as the higher ranked schools like Garfield and Center.)  There is finally a written validation process - again, teachers how likely is it an alternative science course can be validated as this is ...

As I mentioned in a previous thread, another high level manager has left the district.  The story is in the Seattle Times. A top-level executive who took over the Seattle Public School's facilities department after it was rocked by scandal that led to the superintendent's ouster is losing his job in what the district describes as a management reorganization. William "Bill" Martin, who was promoted into the $142,000-a-year job of executive director only three months ago, acknowledged that his management style is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the district. What does this all mean?  No head of Facilities?  Ongoing investigation of a "management" style?  But, he might remain with the district.  Okay, so too rough for the head of the department, just right somewhere else.   Boy, does Pegi McEvoy now have a lot on her plate - COO and now Facilities.  And - Martin's promotion during the scandal had some scratching their ...

The panel last night was Steve Sundquist, Sherry Carr, Pegi McEvoy (COO), Robert Boesche (CFO) and Dr. Enfield.   Peter Maier also attended but was not part of the panel.  Linda Shaw from the Times attended and there were about 30 people in the audience. The Seattle Council PTSA was very gracious in dispensing with the business part of the meeting and went right to comments from the panel and then questions.  It was an interesting format because you could submit a written question and, at the end, ask a question.  I had printed out all the budget questions I had received from my thread and gave it to the moderator.

Lynne Varner of the Times wrote what is probably one of the least clear editorial columns I have ever read I just don't know what to make of it so I leave it to you to decipher it.  (She does use her fav phrase "Sturm und Drang" which I never thought of as all-purpose but okay.) Hint: I think it's about ethics. Here's one of the weirder lines: Wow, is city government so clean Barnett has time to police the educational equivalent of Libya? I'm a pretty big critic of the district but I do not believe it is the educational equivalent of Libya.

I attended DeBell's (crowded) meeting yesterday.  I'll post about it later but would like to hear from others. Update:   Michael DeBell's meeting had about 13-15 people (at various points).  I like how Michael has people introduce themselves and then he writes down their topic and tries to get to everyone's topic.   There were several teachers and staff as well as Ramona Hattendorf from the Washington State PTSA.

This morning I attended the joint press conference between City representatives and district representatives who announced that the district will now be using Seattle's Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) services for complaints of violations of SPS ethics policy as well as retaliation complaints for those who do speak out. Good lineup;  for the City, the Mayor, Tim Burgess, Wayne Barnett, Executive Director of SEEC, Robert Mahon, SEEC Chair.  For the district, Susan Enfield, Noel Treat and Steve Sundquist.   There were folks from all the tv stations as well as print/radio reporters.   The two state auditors assigned to SPS were also there. There were brief remarks from Enfield, the Mayor, Burgess and Sundquist.   Enfield stated that the City had "expert" services and their program is highly regarded.  She said it was not all they were doing to restore accountability but that it was a "keystone" step.   Sundquist said that th...

Update:   according to the Seattle Times , it looks like this is about a report that SPS and the City are working on a deal where the City's own watchdog in charge of ethics/whistleblower investigations would monitor SPS employee complaints and any retaliation complaints for whistleblowing.  This would only be for those cases, the district would still set its own ethics policy, determine outcomes for violations and handle complaints about job performance.  The district would pay the City for the services but no amount has been announced and the district hopes it will be less than hiring outside investigators.   (Maybe I should ask how much the Board's own investigation cost.)  There was one odd line in the Times article.  It was stated that Councilman Burgess is worried the scandal will hurt the Families and Education Levy.  The Times article then said: The council will decide in the next two weeks whether to put the levy on the November ba...

Snappy answers to stupid questions, anyone? 1) Not saying it was timed (really, I'm not) but how is it that Dr. Goodloe-Johnson manages to NEVER be around when things get hot? I saw on the news that she's out of town somewhere. It never fails. 2) I appreciate that we have an Ethics Officer and now a visible whistleblower program but apparently there were people who had doubts, expressed doubts and either got brushed off or left the district. How is the district going to make sure this doesn't happen again? 3) Steve Sundquist, at the Seattle Channel Town Hall, gave the district a grade of "B". I wonder what he would give them now. 4) Who at the Times thought it would be a good idea to challenge Charlie? David Boardman took Charlie on. It went something like this: Charlie: Just so everyone knows: The Seattle Times knew all about this and has known all about this for months and months. Maybe they sat on the story so it would not negatively impact the Suppl...

The outside ethics counsel has delivered the first of two or three reports on ethics complaints brought against the superintendent for her failure to disclose her affiliations with non-profits with business with the District in the proper and timely manner required by law. This first report has to do with the superintendent's seat on the Board of the NWEA, the company that publishes the MAP tests the District bought. The outside ethics counsel concluded that the superintendent "did not violate the ethics policies of Seattle Public Schools ("SPS") by being a member of the board of directors of NWEA and not disclosing that board membership before the SPS first voted on the NWEA contract." The ethics counsel goes on to write that, as a matter of best practice, the superintendent and School Board members should disclose their non-profit board memberships and refrain from participating in matters related to those non-profits, but that " the current SPS ethic...

As I reported before, tomorrow is the day when the district has their " Construction Management Exit Conference " with the State Auditor's office. This is an audit of the capital building program known as BEX (Building Excellence). I believe it covers the last 3-5 years. I've said repeatedly that this is important because: this audit has taken the Auditor's office two years to get through (not normal at all) that on the first reading of the audit more than a year ago, members of the BEX Oversight Committee starting talking about how to cover themselves and because Garfield went nearly double over its original construction budget (the early published number was $60M) and it costed out at about $120M. That is not a sign of a well-managed project or program. we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when we have a huge backlog of capital work I want to be clear that we have gotten a lot of building done under the BEX program. But, like ma...

So SPS: Why is there no news and information on the News and Calendar page for 2011? Not one item. Also, no new SPS Schoolbeat e-newsletter since December 2, 2010? ( Update: so on a hunch, I went and checked the new SPS website and lo and behold, there was calendar information for Jan. 2011. So now, until the old website is gone, we get to check TWO websites for information. I thought the link to the new one was just for observational/input, not that it would have information not available at the old one. It would be nice if the district had told people this.) In the job description for the new communications director, there is mention of a "School Board communications point person." Who is that? Why doesn't the job description for the new communications director mention something like "effectively communicating information and issues about SPS to the parents, community, voters and elected officials?" It seems odd that communicating with your ...