Seattle Schools Community Forum

 The highest scoring firm out of three choices was Hazard Young Attea Associates, better known as HYA .  The Board members almost unanimously felt the top two - HYA and McPherson & Jacobson - would do a good job. As was noted, no one got a perfect score.  The only person who seemed to speak up for the third candidate, Ray&Associates, was Director Liza Rankin. She did mention that they said something interesting - that maybe the person SPS needs isn't necessarily looking for a new job and that Ray&Associates mentioned going out to find such a person. The Board was required to go with the highest scoring firm. Deputy Superintendent Kurt Buttleman told the Board that HYA also had the best score on their pricing and therefore, combining the scores, that made HYA the choice.  At tonight's Board meeting, the Board will vote to accept HYA as the search firm and that the negotiations for the contract are approved to start. 

Update: There are 25 people on the list for public testimony and 80(!) on the waitlist. Clearly, people want to be heard.  People on the waitlist mostly want to talk about Highly Capable as well as enrollment. There are several that want to talk about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. The people on the waitlist also want to talk about those same topics. There are several people  on the waitlist asking about Concord International Schools and they have one question, "Where is Ms. Peace?" I'd be interested in hearing more about that story. End of update   Before the meeting - from 3-4 pm - the Board will discuss, vote,  and then announce their selection for the search firm to find a new permanent superintendent for Seattle Public Schools. They have narrowed it down to three candidates. It will be interesting to see what the discussion sounds like, The regular Board meeting starts at 4:15 pm; here's the agenda. Both meetings will be live-streamed at the SPSTV broadca...

This report is embedded in the Board agenda for Wednesday's Board meeting. I decided to pull it out as a separate post. It is Item IX on the agenda way at nearly the bottom.  Enrollment Planning Update . Highlights: - The district gained 14 students from 2023-2024 and enrollment for this year stands at 49,240 students. That figure is slightly higher than enrollment in 2011-2012. After that year, enrollment climbed steadily to a high of 53,627 in 2019-2020. Of course, we all know what came after that so certainly a drop in enrollment wasn't unexpected. It's just that most of that loss never came back and more people left.  - From the Choice Application page (5) -  On average, 10% of SPS families participate in the choice process each year.  There's a heat map on this page.  Guess where is the most dense for choice? The SE. Nowhere in West Seattle even registers as that dense. Ditto Central and Queen Anne/Magnolia.  - Over 53% of families choose an ...

 Update:   Photo by Ken Lambert at the Seattle Times.  The Times reports that the shooter has been arrested.  end of update   From the Seattle Times : An 18-year-old man died early Sunday after he was shot at a party, the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office reported. The suspect was still at large late Sunday morning, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Around 2 a.m., sheriff’s detectives were informed about a gunshot victim at MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital. Detectives learned he had been shot after a fight in the 1500 block of South Keys Road. He died at the hospital. The sheriff’s department did not release his name. Detectives identified the suspect as Isreal Barriga Vargas, 21, of Yakima. They said he fled the shooting in 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer with Washington license plate CRH8859. He should be considered armed and dangerous, the sheriff’s office said. From Garfield PTSA: The Garfield High School Parent Teacher Student Association in a Fac...

First let me state that I know it must be a very hard job to be a principal. Technically, the principal is supposed to be the academic leader for the school. (That very much fits in with Student Outcome Focused Governance. )However, the reality is that principals have to juggle budgets, personnel issues, discipline issues, parent issues, etc. We all know from experience at home  - that parents juggle to manage a home, a job, and children - that not everyone is great at all things.  But in my long time watching Seattle Schools I have seen examples of one not-so-good thing and one bad thing around the issue of principals.  The not-so-good thing is principal autonomy. As I have stated previously, the superintendent who took over when John Stanford died, Joe Olchefske, had this idea of "tight/loose." This is basically, if a principal's school is doing most well, the district loosens their grip and those principals have more autonomy. If your school is not showing improvement,...

School Board Elections Director Joe Mizrahi has filed to run to keep his seat in region 4. He has two challengers, one new. His challengers are Nadia F. Goforth and former candidate Laura Marie Rivera.  There are two people running for region 2 and three people running for region 5.  Currently, there is no one running for region 7 which is Director Brandon Hersey's region. He has said he isn't running. I had thought there would be multiple folks running here.  The last day to file is Friday, May 9th.   Seattle Schools and Human Resources From the Seattle Times: The Washington state attorney general’s office has filed a lawsuit against Seattle Public Schools, accusing the district of failing to provide reasonable accommodations to its pregnant and nursing employees across various schools over several years. The suit alleges that the district failed to provide flexible restroom breaks, modified work schedules and the option to sit more frequently.  The ...

The Seattle Times has an article today about school closures in SPS. When I saw the headline I confess I was puzzled. Why are we revisiting this? But the Times sure got some good quotes from Board members so read on.  When Seattle Public Schools scrapped its school closure plans last November, the district didn’t entirely shut the book on the idea. But with significant leadership changes expected this year, including the departure of Superintendent Brent Jones and potential turnover on the School Board, school closures appear to be dead in the short run. Yes, a new superintendent AND a new majority on the Board certainly would point to at least tabling this idea for quite some time. But, as has been pointed out, the district still has severe financial problems and closing schools would be one way to save at least some money. (On balance, with all the issues around school closures, I'm not for closing schools to save money.) At the time, the School Board rescinded its directio...