Seattle Schools Community Forum

I have never asked the school district to do anything that they didn't promise to do. The fact that I have to ask them to do things so often is a testament to how rarely they do what they promise they will do. We hear - all the time - about how there is a division of authority with the Board focusing exclusively on policy and governance work while the administration and management decisions are delegated to the superintendent. If that were true, then the school assignment decisions should never have been subjected to a Board vote. Drawing attendance area boundaries is clearly an administrative or management decision - not a policy decision - and should have been delegated to the superintendent. Policy 3130 is nearly all that the Board should have to say about student assignment. One mistake leads to others. Putting it before the Board for a vote made it a political decision. The more political the decision, the less it is based on data and reason, the more it is influence...

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...

As the day nears when the Board will vote on Policy 2200, Equitable Access to Programs and Services, I have to wonder about the policy writing process. I have to wonder because I don't understand how such a poorly conceived policy could be written in the first place or how such a badly written policy could advance so far without major re-writing. Who is in control of the policy writing and what is the process by which policies are formed, drafted, amended, and approved?

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 ...

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.

The School Board will meet today at 4:00 as a Committee of the Whole for the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee to review the Series 2000 and 3000 Policies. The agenda has links to the relevant documents. You will note that the staff suggests that some of the current policies be retained without changes, some be deleted, some be revised now, and some be revised at a later date during "Phase II". In addition, they also recommend the adoption of some new policies. The public will have only very limited opportunity to review and comment on these policies. There will be plenty of time to do it - about a month - but, let's face it, you'll have to do it via email and, as we know, emails to the Board get little or no attention. I made multiple comments on the Series 1000 policies before they were adopted and not only did I not detect any effect I didn't get the courtesy of a response. I don't think anyone read what I sent. I certainly don't have any...

As readers may know, I have been contacting the Board about the district's violation of the program placement policy. The policy requires the superintendent to make an annual report to the Board on program placement decisions and requires the superintendent to make the program placement procedures available to the public. There was no report to the board that met the requirements of the policy and there are no procedures available to the public. I finally have my answer from the district. It acknowledges the violation of the policy, but makes no apology and expresses no intention to comply with the policy in future. In short: "Yeah, we violated the policy. So what? Stop bugging us about it." This is Susan Enfield's transparency. This is Sherry Carr's culture of compliance. This is Steve Sundquist's accountability. This is Peter Maier's community engagement.

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...

I know that I harp on Program Placement a lot more than folks want to hear about it, but here I go again. The Program Placement Policy, C56.00 , isn't particularly enforceable. It does, however, have two elements that can be enforced. 1) It requires the superintendent to make an annual report to the Board of program placement decisions. The District claims that this is that report. However, this report does not meet the requirements of the policy - not by a long shot. The policy requires: On an annual basis, the Superintendent shall report program placement decisions to the School Board, including describing how the decisions work to achieve the above listed criteria. This report makes no reference whatsoever to how the decisions work to achieve the criteria that are supposed to guide program placement decisions. The report is inadequate. The superintendent is in violation of the policy and the Board has a responsibility to demand compliance. 2) The Policy also requires th...

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.

At the recent School Board Retreat, the Board discussed a Governance and Oversight Policy that would define the Board's job. On page 18 of this 21 page document, is a section titled " Board-Superintendent Communications ". Under this section is this set of guidelines for communication between the Board and the superintendent: Communications between the Board and the Superintendent will be governed by the following practices: a. Exercise honesty in all written and interpersonal interaction, avoiding misleading information b. Demonstrate respect for the opinions and comments of each other c. Focus on issues rather than on personalities d. Maintain focus on common goals e. Communicate with each other in a timely manner to avoid surprises f. Criticize privately, praise publicly g. Maintain appropriate confidentiality h. Openly share personal concerns, information knowledge and agendas i. Make every reasonable effort to protect the integrity and promote the positiv...

The Board had a half-day retreat last Saturday with all the directors in attendance.   Others in the room included Noel Treat, head legal counsel, Holly Ferguson, director of policy and governance, Susan Enfield, superintendent, Karen Reed, consultant, Theresa Hale, School Board office administrator.  (There was to be someone from the Alliance but she didn't show.  This was somewhat disturbing to me because even though the Alliance states they now want to guide SPS policy, I have no idea why the Board thinks this should be so.) Michael DeBell and Sherry Carr have been the lead directors around this work.  This work is slated to be finished and voted on by the Board by May./June 2011.   Karen Reed led and guided the discussion. This retreat was around revisions/additions to core policies around the Governance and Oversight Policy .  Basically, what is the work that the Board does?  Namely: Board Oversight of Management - purpose, oversigh...

How does the District respond to reports of crime? There has certainly been a good deal of press about how schools have responded to reports of crimes committed by students. But what is the District's policy? I can't find one that speaks to this. The Basic Rules of Seattle Public Schools says " If there has been a criminal offense, normally, the police will be called. " What if a district employee is suspected of a crime? There is Policy F09.00 that says: " It is the policy of the Seattle School Board (1) to encourage the reporting by its employees of improper governmental action taken by district officers or employees " but this policy is mostly about Whistleblower protection. It doesn't say anything about reporting "improper" action to any outside regulatory or law enforcement authorities. The Ethics Policy says: " These ethical requirements shall apply in addition to any other applicable laws, regulations, and policies governin...

Turns out my spidey sense was correct; the Executive Session on Wednesday/Thursday is about the long-awaited principal contract. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in its final form. Also, just as a reminder, there is a new head of labor relations for SPS, Howard Pripas who came to us from the UC system. As well, the Board did make a decision on their new policy/governance person but I will wait for their formal announcement. I would like to ask the Board how this person will work as she/he reports to district staff but works for the Board. How will the Board take this person's research/advice in context to what they hear from parents/community.