Seattle Schools Community Forum

  From   FOX13 News: The Seattle City Council honored Amarr Murphy-Paine on Tuesday (June 2nd). He's the Garfield High School student who was shot and killed in 2024 outside the school. There was a round of applause as the Seattle City Council leaders proclaimed "Amarr Murphy-Paine Day" at the start of the city council meeting. From the Garfield High School website: On Thursday, June 4, from 4:30–7:30 p.m., the GHS and greater neighborhood community is invited to gather on the front steps of Garfield High School at 23rd & Jefferson. We will come together through art, shared memory, music, and dialogue. Community members are invited to help create chalk art, paint the front steps purple and white with messages of hope and resilience, and enjoy music, the Double Dutch Divas, a dunk tank, hot dogs from the grill, and other activities. On Friday, June 5, from 9 a.m.–3 p.m., Garfield will partner with Bloodworks Northwest to host the 2nd Annual GHS Blood Drive in the Gar...

The Seattle Times has a story about the Anitra Jones issue. The headline: Here are the documents SPS says mandate keeping controversial principal The backstory (in case you missed it because there were several investigations): An SPS spokesperson confirmed the district received complaints about this alleged “toxic” environment on June 13, 2023, and subsequently hired an independent contractor to investigate the allegations surrounding Jones’ disciplinary policies and allegedly discriminatory conduct. That investigator’s report, dated Sept. 27, 2024, concluded “that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate any of those allegations,” according to the district spokesperson.   In addition, the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction investigated community complaints from Rainier View families in 2023. The state agency conducted  three   investigations  into  allegations  that Rainier View staff failed to appropriately identify and sup...

As I previously reported, the Board Policy Committee meets Wednesday, June 3rd from 2-4pm. It's a fairly brief agenda: Policy Committee June 3, 2026, 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Board Office Conference Room, John Stanford Center 2445 – 3rd Avenue South, Seattle WA 98134 Remote access: By  Microsoft Teams By Teleconference: +1 206-800-4125 (Conference ID: 900 837 310#) Call to Order Roll Call Approval of  May 20, 2026 Policy Committee Minutes Resolution Discussion Resolution Draft Scheduling Discussion Adjourn That resolution is to address issues in some initiatives coming before voters.  Partial: A RESOLUTION of the Board of Directors of Seattle School District No. 1, King County, Seattle,  Washington Opposing Initiatives IL26-001 & IL26-638 , concerning parental rights relating to  their children in public school and participation in athletics at K-12 schools in the state of  Washington. WHEREAS, lnitiative IL26-001 would repeal legislative amendments to statute ...

  Interesting op-ed from an SPS senior, Dorothea Kaste: I’m a student. I’m in favor of a stronger SPS cellphone ban The quality of the op-ed is excellent and she makes some good points.  A policy that is not fully “away for the day” will always be a nightmare to maintain, especially because of the burden it places on teachers. “[enforcing the policy] would take five or 10 minutes, six times a day,” says one of my teachers. One of the most common concerns about an all-day phone policy in high schools is how to handle off-campus lunch and open campuses where students have different schedules due to programs like Running Start. But schools around the country have figured it out — why can’t we? High schools in other states (and five miles away on Mercer Island!) are making it work and are not allowing a minor logistical challenge to cost students a good education.   A huge GOOD LUCK wish to Hamilton's Raven Amrhein who is at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D....

Memorial Day editorial in The Seattle Times: Seattle’s Memorial Wall inspires youth to uphold timeless values Since its unveiling in 1951 at the east end of Memorial Stadium on what later became the Seattle Center campus, the landmark has displayed the etched names of 762 Seattle graduates who lost their lives in World War II.   When the renovation project is finished next year, it will be provided the honor and solemnity that is its due. Gratitude to city planners, Seattle Public Schools, volunteers and One Roof Sports & Entertainment for making sure to do that. Okay but SPS did NOTHING for decades to maintain and honor that wall. I hope when it is rededicated that Superintendent Shuldiner does indeed mention that oversight. SPS did run a design contest for the memorial and a Garfield senior won. Marianne Hanson, born and raised in Seattle to Swedish immigrant parents, was a senior at Garfield High School when her design was selected as the winner out of 61 entries for the wal...

From Danny Westneat's column in The Seattle Times : Seattle has the No. 1 big city school district. We should act like it  Apparently, it is our new superintendent, Ben Shuldiner, who did the research. " It’s like that old Mark Twain quote, I think the rumors of your death have been greatly exaggerated,” Ben Shuldiner told the School Board in February. So Shuldiner set out to do a sort of newcomer’s evaluation of Seattle’s schools. He visited 35 of them in the first month. He took a fresh look at local and national data. He asked a basic question: Is it working? What he found will probably come as news even to parents with kids in the district. “In the aggregate, Seattle Public Schools is among the highest performing school systems on the entire West Coast,” a surprised Shuldiner told the board at a retreat in March.    That list also includes Bellevue SD.    According to Stanford’s  Educational Opportunity Project ,  Seattle ranks in the top 12% of al...