Seattle Schools Community Forum

Readers : I am getting comments and some info I have may be wrong (it appears that Nadia GoForth is not running) but some that readers have wrong (KC Dems and KC Young Dems have not put forth endorsements yet).  Please provide a link for any info you put up for this thread; otherwise I cannot print your comment.  End of update I am listing how to contact candidates plus their websites (if they have one).  Now is endorsement season so I'll try to keep this current as I see them happen. My opinion is that candidates who are insiders in Seattle politics are certainly going to do better than those who are not connected. I'm not sure a legislative district endorsement means that those members know anything about Seattle Schools and/or the candidate who is running. Take those endorsements with a grain of salt. Likewise, those of other electeds.   I'm not repeating any information I wrote in my earlier post on who is running. You can read about candidates there.  Also...

Three articles in The Seattle Times this morning about Seattle Schools. The first is a big whoops from SPS:  Families sent money, but at these Seattle schools, student meals were free I read the article and I don't think anything nefarious was occurring but this seems like a fairly basic notification to families that didn't happen and a failure to communicate from the district on down to the schools.  I suspect if I did a public disclosure request on this topic, I'd get some interesting findings but nah.  Klumpp’s daughter — and all students at her school, Sacajawea Elementary School — were entitled to free meals under a recent state law.  They were among roughly 1,000 Seattle Public Schools students who newly qualified for free breakfast and lunch this school year, regardless of their family’s income.   But some parents at those newly eligible Seattle schools say nobody told them. Like Klumpp, they’d been sending their students with money or putting money ...

  Via Facebook: Saturday, June 7th, 11 am to 2 pm Event by  Seattle Children's Autism Center ,  Public Health - Seattle & King County  and  King County Target Zero Coalition 6901 Sand Point Way NE , Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98115 Duration: 3 hr Join us for a day of learning about transportation safety. Get fitted for a free bike helmet, watch car seat installation demonstrations by Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPSTs) and Occupational Therapists (OTs), learn about transportation safety resources, tour an ACCESS transportation vehicle, and check out a firetruck and police car! Don’t forget to bring your teddy bear or special stuffed animal for a teddy bear check-up! Other highlights include therapy dogs, exploring our playground and sensory garden, face painting, sensory friendly activities, adaptive bikes and tricycle’s to ride, and more! This free event is designed for families with children and adolescents with intellectual an...

 Just a brief note.  Acting Superintendent Fred Podesta, during last week's Board meeting, said that people could call him with questions.  His phone number is 206-252-0167.  Give him a ring if you have burning questions. 

This superintendent search meeting was held on Tuesday, May 13th and it was a virtual meeting. All the members of the Board were there as well as the HYA rep  (Hazard Young Atteas Associates) who will be guiding the search for a new superintendent. The themes gained from the recent Board public engagement meetings (3 of them) on this topic were: build back trust (some that was lost because of the school closure attempt) be accountable vision for the district don't rush the process educate the community on what the job of superintendent really is don't forget the families from communities of color Repping HYA were Nanci Perez who said she was the COO. She said she has participated in many large urban district superintendent searches. (To note, generally SPS is not considered a large urban district like LA, Chicago, or New York.) The HYA lead for SPS is Micah Ali .  Board members introduced themselves and talked about how long they had been on the Board. It's shocking how mos...

 I intended to write more about SOFG (Student Outcome Focused Governance) as more and more parents become aware of its sway on the work of Seattle Public Schools. I will say that I don't believe SOFG is "right wing" and I know several superintendents - including Seattle's Larry Nyland - helped to put this together. Now one member of the Seattle Times editorial board, Claudia Rowe, speaks up in a big way about SOFG. I intend to add to this post as I dig into what is happening in other schools districts.  When Did the Seattle School Board Lose Its Way?  Recently, that flight to private has been driven by the ballooning class sizes, slumping academic progress and general chaos that are now hallmarks of Seattle Public Schools. Four years ago, in an effort to stem these problems, the school board signed up for something called Student Outcomes Focused Governance, an approach to running large, urban districts that promised to streamline operations and simultaneously improve...

One speaker at last night's Board meeting was quite eloquent in speaking on the issue of waitlists. She said one thing about SOFG (Student Outcome Focused Governance) and it led to not one, but two Board members to later call it out.  That speaker was SPS parent, Erin MacDougall. Here's the transcript of her statement. (bold mine) Good evening, thank you School Board directors for your commitment to continuing to partner with us as we solve difficult problems together.  My name is Erin MacDougall and I am the parent of three SPS students and an SPS alum. The evidence of parent concerns about waitlists is pretty overwhelming at this point. Hundreds of emails sent to you, 500 signatures on a letter, and many media reports all describing how enrollment mismanagement is harming our students and families. Instead of rebuilding trust after the school closure controversy, SPS has amazingly created more distrust. See, SPS has lost sight of its core mission, educating students. By igno...