Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Update: I was confused on Bernardo Ruiz' role versus what James Bush is doing.  Here's the helpful explanation from SPS Communications: James is replacing Carri Campbell’s open/former position. Bernardo is still here. His title is Director of School-Family Partnerships and Race and Equity. (The difference is Community vs. Family Partnerships.) End of update From SPS Communications: Seattle Public Schools (SPS) hired James Bush as the district’s School and Community Partnerships Director. In collaboration with community partners, Bush will lead the district’s efforts to build on the strengths of students, improve outcomes and provide enriching learning opportunities for all youth. SPS and the School and Community Partnerships staff are thrilled Bush has decided to join the SPS family.

I'll print this in its entirety.  From Superintendent Banda: Today we are announcing several leadership changes that will improve our ability to support our schools and students. Our Strategic Plan outlines a series of goals we must achieve over the next five years to improve academic success for our students. To meet the objectives outlined in the Every Student. Every Classroom. Every Day. strategic plan, we will need to accomplish several complex projects and develop a way to support and guide this work. We recently made two key hires that will help us strengthen our ability to provide better service to schools, students and families. Barbara Robbins will now serve as the Director of Project Management and Guillermo “Bill” Echeverria has been hired as Director of Continuous Improvement. These are new positions for Seattle Public Schools and they bring a much-needed skill set to the work we are doing. Together, they will help us improve the coordination, sequencing, and exec...

This new webpage at SPS is a welcome addition.  It has an FAQ page (chock-full of info), Building Rentals page and a Contacts page.  The main page, called PTSA/PTO Resources, also has links for forms/documents, policies and procedures and info for various groups/individuals.  I am also glad to see PTOs given the same rank and recognition as PTA/PTSAs.  It's the right thing to do.