Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Just to tell you, first-person, there is NO emergency at our southern border in Arizona. Does immigration policy need an overhaul? Sure, but it's not the emergency that it is being portrayed. If there was, I'd be the first to speak up and demand help. We lead peaceful lives and sleep well at night.

Update: Topp did not get the nod; that went to Brianna Thomas. Topp continues on as Board president. End of update   A reader commented on another thread:  You could change the headline of this item to "Goodbye President Topp." She was the top recommended candidate to the County Council by the district Democratic Party committee, and seems like a sure thing now to enter the legislature. Another commenter said that Topp had a huge lead over any of the other candidates and... Topp was a breath of fresh air as board chair for Seattle schools. Now their very dysfunctional group could be facing a very hard choice of getting a new person on board at a time of severe challenges. Maybe Leslie Harris would volunteer to be a place holder? From the West Seattle Blog: WHAT’S NEXT:   After ratification by the KC Democrats, the names go to the County Council, who will make their decision Tuesday. Public comment will be accepted at the council’s 11 am meeting, either in pers...

From Tech Crunch (bold mine): On January 7, at 11:10 p.m. in Dubai, Romy Backus received an email from education technology giant PowerSchool notifying her that the school she works at was one of the victims of a data breach that the company discovered on December 28. PowerSchool said hackers had accessed a cloud system that housed a trove of students’ and teachers’ private information, including Social Security numbers, medical information, grades, and other personal data from schools all over the world.  Given that PowerSchool bills itself as the largest provider of cloud-based education software for K-12 schools — some 18,000 schools and more than 60 million students — in North America, the impact could be “massive,” as one tech worker at an affected school told TechCrunch. Sources at school districts impacted by the incident told TechCrunch that hackers accessed “all” their student and teacher historical data stored in their PowerSchool-provided systems.  D...

As I previously reported, the district is embarking this month on a series of community meetings about the upcoming levies in February. One is the Operations levy, the other is the BEX/BTA levy for buildings.  FOX 13 had a story about a meeting this week. I found some of the comments, well, interesting. While the year's operation's levy hasn't had much pushback, critics say the capital levy is causing controversy, including concerns it will lead to school closures. While there has been notice in previous levies about scattered disagreement, this sounds bigger than usual. "Seattle Public Schools has 106 schools. We have facility needs we are going to place before the voters," said Richard Best, Executive Director of Capital Projects, Planning and Facilities of Seattle Public Schools.  "That would be, I won’t say catastrophic, but there will be declining systems that could have consequential implications in that, when we do implement that system repair, it cos...

  KUOW  had a recent sweet story on the smaller schools that had faced closure and how their communities embrace them.  Parents like the staff or the focus or inclusivity or all of those.  The story mentions the John Stanford International School. That mention reminded me of a comment at The Seattle Times about the budget hole. In the story, one person said their children was taking Mandarin at Concord International School and how much it meant to their family. The comment said something to the effect that it was all good and well but now, at this point, those schools are something of a luxury the district can't afford. I have always wanted to see this programming expand even more throughout the district but even getting the immersion schools that SPS has now was like pulling teeth. But I perceive that dual language immersion schools are more costly than other Option schools. Am I wrong? I note that the story also mentions the many supporters of school librarians are...

Tonight are the only two meetings for the Board's community engagement around "goals and guardrails" in service to a new strategic plan. Oddly, this is the exact same day and time that South Shore families have been invited to a district-organized community meeting at Aki Kurose. That meeting is likely about the City Year manager at Aki who groomed and raped a student off campus.  President Gina Topp answered a query on why the Board's community meeting AND the district's community meeting had to be on the same night which presents a dilemma for South Shore and Aki parents. She said that the communities had said they wanted the 15th. I'm sure she was told that by district staff but I think, if pressed, they could not prove that either community demanded it.  There will be a virtual "goals and guardrails" meeting tomorrow night at 5:30 pm. Microsoft Teams Access: Join the meeting now Phone access: (206) 800-4125, Conference ID 778 863 12# I would gue...

Readers, I ask you - what do you want to see President Topp try to focus the Board on? Less of X and more of Y?  Topp is not a member of the Gang of Four - Hersey, Rankin, Briggs and Sarju - so I'm hoping she will have her own ideas. One of those new ideas she has expressed is for the district to market itself to raise enrollment and attract parents across the spectrum. What would I like to see?  - Again, for the hundredth time, accountability for public dollars . For example, I would like to see a complete list of consultants, who they are, what they are hired for, how long have they been contracting with the district, etc.  The district likes to tout that Central is full of experts. In tough times, you cut the fat and use your own people. It can be done. - For a district that claims to care about safety , there is a remarkable lack of action.  And it's not safety in the abstract, now is it? Two murders in two years at two different high schools? Sexual assault by s...