Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Update:   a reader asked about who pays for these audits and I mistakenly said the SAO.  It turns out that the Legislature had passed a law for a hotline but had not funded it.  For the first year, the SAO ate the cost  for hotline investigations but could not sustain that cost.  So if the State Auditor chooses to go forward with hotline requests (and I'm sure they don't follow-thru with all of them), it costs the district $83.60 per hour.  (I just removed that "number of hours" as that is for the NEXT audit, not this special one.) On the one hand you could say, "Well, look at that money and the SAO found nothing illegal."  On the other hand, you can look at this sad and sorry mess of a process and say that it sure doesn't look good or smell good.  I'll have more to report on this after I read the SAO work product documents which I believe will make compelling reading.  End of update A new low for reporting is the Times' article a...

The Weekly has a story about Fred Stephens and First AME. It's pretty much stuff I knew (and I suspect most of you know) but there are a few notable items: First AME Church's secretary says Fred Stephens is still a member Michael DeBell defended the Board's choice and said Stephens didn't play a role but that it was "entirely managed by Ron English." He also said that what the Board unanimously voted for was similar to what happened to University School, Phinney Ridge and West Seattle. I like Michael but that's just plain disingenious. They are not similar efforts except that they all, in some way community based. First AME is a church and the other groups running those community centers are not. I don't have time to work on this one but there's something there. I told the Board I thought based on Fred Stephens and the current crisis, they should revisit the First AME decision.