Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: The Action item on the pilot program for metal detectors at Nathan Hale HS and Rainier Beach HS passed. I note that before the vote Director Jen LaVallee told the Board that she had gone on a safety walking tour in her district with some city officials. One person mentioned the detectors and ask how long it would take to install them and would it be years.  Shuldiner smiled and said yes, he had heard that it sometimes takes a long time to change things in SPS. He said they were going to go for having them in place in a couple of months.  It was a unanimous vote. end of update The agenda shows just 15 people giving public testimony. You cannot call in at this point but if you have something burning to say, you can show up and sign in for any of the five remaining spots. The top two topics are lights for Eckstein Middle School's field and tech issues.  There is one BAR about Special Education Vendor Contracts. From the BAR: These contracts are a combination of Non...

2027-28 Financial Aid Applications are Available  Many people assume they won’t qualify, but about half of families in Washington can get free money to help pay for education beyond high school . For 2026-27, a family of four making up to $139,500 can qualify for financial aid  in Washington. In 2027-28, that income cutoff is expected to be even higher. The only way to know for sure if you’re eligible is to apply. Learn more, get support, and apply for financial aid on Washington Student Achievement Council’s website .  Guidance on SPS Middle School Students Taking High School Courses Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is committed to providing every student with equitable access to advanced coursework. To support this, SPS course pathways in middle school allow students to earn credit for high-school level courses taken at any SPS middle school. These accelerated pathways are carefully designed to support students while ensuring alignment with Washington State learning standards, SPS curri...

New Drug Alert The drug Ketamine has been in the news a lot lately but have you heard of Kratom? The story from CNN (all bold mine): The drug products found near two University of Mississippi students who died on September 21 contained three kratom-related compounds, according to court documents reviewed by CNN and law enforcement.   The substances aren’t natural kratom — as was suspected due to earlier law enforcement reports — which is an herb from the leaves of the tropical tree Mitragyna speciosa native to Southeast Asia. Having both stimulant and sedative effects, the herb carries a risk for addiction due to how it interacts with the brain, researchers told CNN in a previous story . What’s in the packaged tablets that law enforcement discovered when investigating those deaths are mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and 7-OH, which are semisynthetic, concentrated and potent derivatives of certain components of kratom. In states that haven’t banned the substance, it’s sold at ...

And here we are again.  I've written on the subject of sexual assault several times, both in K-12 and higher education. Here's a recent video asking young men and women "if you were guaranteed safety after dark, what would you do?" The women all say, "walk around, stay out late at a club or bar, walk in the park, etc."  Most of the men are puzzled because they say they feel safe already. Of course they do.    Yes, I am talking about the event at Cornell University.  I'll start out by saying what I tell young women going off to college/university.  1) Do not go to frat parties. Parties at frats are a brutal combination of alcohol and group think.  2) If you must go, take a friend. Stay together, even to go to the bathroom. Leave together.  3) Do NOT accept any drink that you did not open yourself. Get your own bottle of beer or can of soda and never leave it unattended. And NEVER drink that "magic punch" concoction.  Know what I would add t...

Why is the best known national public education leader (Randi Weingarten) and the new superintendent of the largest public school district in Washington State on a panel for selective regional private schools?  I am also hearing that members of the Board have been invited.  Is this a paid gig for Shuldiner?  Things that make you go, hmmmmmm  

 Readers, sorry about the cutoff from the last post. I'm having issues with Blogger. 

  What have we got on the good side? From his weekly Superintendent's Newsletter, dated September 27th: - Yesterday, more than 60 high school students came to the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (JSCEE) to spend their Saturday with me and other district leaders as part of this year's Student and Superintendent Advisory Board. I t was awesome. For an hour we discussed topics that were meaningful to our students. We talked about safety and security and the use and misuse of artificial intelligence, specifically large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. I heard students discuss their desire for more rigorous instruction, and I listened intently around the availability or lack of availability of programs and classes, as well as many other important topics. - I also want to talk about the "October Shuffle. " As many of you know and have experienced, the district has a history of moving teachers from one class to another in October to make up for enrol...