Seattle Schools Community Forum

One incumbent running, that is.  Director Peaslee today announced that, like Directors Carr and Martin-Morris, she will not be seeking another term on the Seattle School Board.  She says: Although serving on the Seattle School Board has been one of the more satisfying experiences of my life, it's now time to support my two children through college. She talks about the work still to be done and, like Director Carr, names the Seattle Pre-K program.  I have to say the public push for this program by the Board is interesting given how little attention it had before its passage by them.  (Or at least, publicly.)  It almost makes me wonder if any of these directors will have a second act in the City's Office of Education. What's fascinating is that the Board, with three members leaving in December is going to continue to devote a chunk of time on learning about governance.  I find that baffling for a group of smart people who have had numerous "board...

At every Board Retreat the Board discusses their governance model. They don't have a formally stated model, but they are loosely working towards using a sort of Carver Policy Governance Model in which the Board sets expectations (the ends) - both for outcomes and for limitations on methods - and the superintendent is given a relatively free hand in decided how those ends will be met (the means) and is evaluated on the accomplishment of the goals. It's not a bad model but it isn't working for Seattle Public Schools. It isn't working for three primary reasons: The Board isn't doing it's job of setting expectations. The Board isn't doing it's job of staying focused on policy. The Board isn't enforcing the policies that limit the means and three secondary reasons: The Board isn't evaluating the superintendent properly. A lot of the Board policies are not consistent with this model. The Board often abdicates their policy duty to the s...

Well, I just finished listening to the Mayor's press conference for the announcement of the new Education and Early Learning department. Is Murray "thinking" about a governance takeover OR has he "considered" it in an abstract way? The press conference video indicates he is aware of what other cities do (he compared the East Coast to the West Coast ) and said that " power is diffused in the West." I believe the Times - in their never-ending vendetta against the Seattle School Board (no matter who sits on it) - took the Mayor's statement about it might be easier to get things done if the City ran public education out of context. It was not any signal but an acknowledgement of how it could be different, but not necessarily better. The Board was NEVER mentioned.   By anyone.

A thoughtful piece from Northwest Progressive Institute by Robert Cruickshank about the ever-popular issue of departing superintendents.  The real story, the one the Seattle Times does not want to tell for fear of undermining their anti-democratic agenda, is one of repeated mismanagement by a succession of superintendents and of a central staff that is unresponsive or overtly hostile to the board and the general public. About Banda, he makes some good points: Banda cited the debate over math textbooks in his departure letter, but these are often contentious issues in any school district. A good superintendent would have navigated it more effectively, accepting the board’s decision and moving on. After all, math curriculum figured prominently in the 2011 school board campaign, and parents had been vocal in their call for a different approach. Rather than accept the verdict of the board that employs him and the public that he serves, Banda – already looking for the ...

It used to be that you could give CPRE a little credit for caring about other education issues than just charters schools.  It would appear that time has passed.  I'm on their listserv and if you go just by that, it's all charters, all the time.  What is worrying is that if they feel this way about charter schools in other states, I can't wait to see what they think should happen in Washington State. For example, you may have heard that newly-elected NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio came into office with a willingness to stop giving favors to charters in NYC and quit forced co-locations.  This has turned in to quite the epic battle with one charter operator (and quite a big mover and shaker in NYC), closing her schools and requiring parents and students to march in a rally.  (Try closing a real public school for this kind of thing - not going to happen.) The issue really was that the former mayor was not charging state-mandated rents to charters and the new mayor ...

Have you noticed that just about any time Melissa or I write something about APP or Spectrum or advanced learning in almost any way two things happen: the thread gets about a hundred comments and the comments get nasty. Have you noticed that school board candidates - like all other politicians - prefer to speak in vague platitudes and evade any discussion of specifics? It's a funny thing, but in their pursuit of a decision-making job they appear incapable of making any decisions at all. That's because having positions on any issue will alienate the people who have the opposing view. To prevent alienating anyone, they don't espouse any position at all. Sure they will assert their strong stance in support of motherhood, the flag, and apple pie, but the more contentious and heated the issue, the less likely they will take a stand on it. So we shouldn't be surprised that the School Board would prefer not to take a position on advanced learning which, according to the ev...

Seattle Public Schools - the District, not the schools - is poorly governed and poorly managed. Let's not pretend otherwise. The evidence is all around us. The routine violation of policy and regular violation of state and federal law are ample evidence of poor governance. Seriously, read the auditor's reports, read the policies, or talk to the families of students with disabilities and you'll know about the culture of lawlessness in Seattle Public Schools. Governance is shredded where it exists at all. The poor management is equally obvious - there are almost no meaningful performance metrics, timelines are rarely met, inefficiencies are inadequacies are readily acknowledged, and the District is actively undoing decisions made just a few years ago. So what are the solutions? How do we fix the governance and how do we fix the management?

I met the Mayor at a Starbucks (on the very day there were flash strikes at a few Starbucks but not the one we were in).  He was in an expansive mood and ready to talk Seattle schools. The Mayor always talks as "we" meaning his team at City Hall.   So he started by saying what "we"  have been doing.  It's a pretty long list: doubled the Families&Education Levy and helped support its passage launched a successful attendance campaign (with private companies and local celeb support) launched an Education Leadership Group, believing that many groups/entities are on the same education road.  It includes Superintendent Banda, reps from our community colleges as well as UW, a Labor Council rep, someone from the Gates Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, and United Way among others. worked on creating programs for pathways to careers, summer jobs  and summer food programs listened to Superintendent Banda's presentation on the district's new Strat...

I had a good interview with Senator Ed Murray recently who will be in the General Election against current mayor, Mike McGinn.  We sat down in his campaign offices to talk. I asked him about what he believes t he role of the Mayor is vis a vis Seattle public education. He said that he believes it has changed from what it was traditionally as something of a cheerleader position to a more visible one.  He believes that the Mayor should push for discussions about changes needed in the district AND in city government to find better academic outcomes.  He said, "Only the Mayor has the position to pull stakeholders together." I told him that sounded a lot like mayoral takeover of the district.

Today is July 31st, the due date for the quarterly program placement report. I was recently reminded of an email I sent to the Board at the end of January in which I asked about the status of the program placement process and the equitable access framework - both of which were overdue then. I was reminded of that email because I just saw it among the documents sent to Linda Shaw of the Seattle Times as part of a public disclosure request about all email traffic between Director Smith-Blum and Mr. Banda in January. Director Smith-Blum forwarded my email to Mr. Banda and asked him: " Just fyi below, and it is accurate - would love to have an update on the EAF - program placement - so we can start to get on top of the process and comply with the policy. Is it possible for Aleta to set a date for us and whoever else might be appropriate in the conversation so I can determine where on the Board calendar we might need an entry point in the plan as well? " Here we are, six m...

The proposed Board procedure 1620BP has been discussed quite a bit. I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other - except for one small part of it which is critically flawed. I'm very worked up about this little bit, but I'm not hearing anyone else express concern about it. Here's the sentence: The Board is charged with setting district policy and the Superintendent is charged with carrying out and enforcing that policy. This is horribly, horribly wrong. The Board absolutely must not delegate the duty to enforce policy to the superintendent. The Board absolutely must retain and exercise their authority to enforce policy. This is the heart of governance work, it is the heart of policy work, it is the Board's work. Policy enforcement is one of the Board's four governance tools; they can't give it up. Moreover, because the superintendent is the one person whose actions are most regulated by the policies, this abdication of the Board's ...

You can watch the Public Testimony portion of the School Board meeting here .

District leadership style has swung back and forth between two extremes. It needs to be stopped and held at the center.

I know that I've mentioned this as a comment on a couple of other threads, but I really want to bring it out for attention.

Just received this (partial) notice from Dr. Enfield and SCPTSA President, Lauren McGuire (highlights in red mine): On Monday, Oct. 17, we are jointly hosting an SCPTSA Fall General Meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Avenue South, to talk about how to best ensure all of our families are truly engaged and connected to our schools.  Have you ever wondered about how to get involved or what role you can play in your school’s decision-making process? Join us next Monday, Oct. 17 and get your questions answered . We will be there, along with School Board Vice President Michael DeBell and members of the District leadership team, to discuss and answer questions about the School Board's policies on School Governance.  All school communities and family members are welcome, whether or not your school has a PTSA. As part of our work together, we want to remind families how important it is to get involved in your school.  R...

The Times has an article about the smackdown between Governor Gregoire and State Superintendent of Schools Randy Dorn.  The issue is that the Governor is looking for more cuts and instead of prioritizing cuts, she's asked all state departments to submit cuts for taking 10% from their budgets.  That would mean about $97M in nonbasic education cuts.  Dorn said no.  He is refusing to submit any cuts, saying: "I cannot, in good conscience, submit a budget ... that is consistent with (your) requirements," he wrote. Now this is posturing because they largely protected K-12 last time around but now, cuts will be made.  (He is also spending a bushel on Common Core standards which are less stringent than the Washington State standards.  He could start there.) The outcome? And by not submitting a list of ideas to guide the Legislature — as all of the other agency directors have — Gregoire spokesman Cory Curtis says Dorn is making it harder for the state ...

During the Board Comments section of the Board's regular legislative meeting of September 21, 2011, Director Carr delivered an update on the Board's Governance improvement efforts since the disastrous audit of July, 2010. Director Carr seemed very pleased and proud of the progress the Board had made in the past 14 months. I am less impressed.

The Board has recently written and adopted new policies that define the duties of the Board. Among these new policies, the 1000 series, is this one, Policy 1005, Responsibilities & Authority of the Board , which speaks most directly to the question. Unfortunately, it does not speak in clear, definite, or enforceable words. This policy is a puff of hot air without any meaning whatsoever. There is a lot of detail in Policy 1010, Board Oversight of Management , but that detail is curiously deficient. The stated goals of the policy are to:  Evaluate each Oversight Area’s implementation plans, goals and objectives.  Enable the Board to perform appropriate oversight of management of each Oversight Area by monitoring progress toward performance indicators.  Ensure the district has qualified personnel overseeing its programs.  Ensure compliance with state law and Board policies and procedures. This is followed with exhaustive detail about information that must be included in a...

Since the Board has a new-found interest in governance, I have tried something new. I have tried reporting policy violations to them and asking them to enforce the policy. So far I have reported two. I reported the superintendent's failure to submit an annual program placement report to the board as a violation of policy C56.00 and I reported the creation of the APP program at Ingraham as a violation of policy D12.00 . In response, I got reply emails from Theresa Hale in the Board office. She said that the Board did get the annual report on program placement and that is it this document and this document . I responded to her that neither of those documents meet the requirements of the policy because they do not speak to how the decisions reflect the guiding criteria for program placement. She also said that policy D12.00 wasn't violated because it provides for additional sites in the vent of substantial district-wide growth, which, she says, has been experienced. She ...

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.