Seattle Schools Community Forum

Time for a discussion.  I had decided to research CRT (in this case, Critical Race Theory, but there is also Culturally Relevant Teaching) because of the tsunami of arguing, bill writing, etc. in the news.  I am hoping to do this as a series of posts because there is a lot to cover. This first post - for those who would like to learn more - is made up of links to provide information, both pro and con. I do want to note that back in 2013-2014, SPS  had an issue with a teacher at The Center School, Jon Greenberg, who had been teaching about race and equity for a long time before one family objected. The SEA stood with Greenberg.  What it seems to have come down to then, as in now, is teaching versus preaching. 

  Vaccination progress as of Friday, 6/18:

It is great that SCPTSA has been lending a hand to directors in organizing community meetings. If you have joined one of these meetings, you can see there can be 50,75,100 participants (one meeting had 300 people!) This, of course, is far more any regular in-person meeting. However, I also see that SCPTSA tends to call on people we hear from all the time. And SCPTSA knows who these people are.  And note to directors, it is YOUR job to make sure that multiple outlets know when you have a meeting. There is nothing about this at the SPS website. That’s on Director Dury.   Via SCPTSA Facebook page: Dear Community, The school year is almost over! Seattle Council PTSA is working with school board directors to set up community meetings to facilitate engagement with their constituents over the summer. Last year we hosted a Student Town Hall with over 300 participants. We are working on a similar event - stay tuned! We will be hosing a community meeting with Erin Dury, School Boar...

 I see this week is the end of SPS’ school year and that means graduation. Congrats to ALL the graduates and their families. What a long and difficult year for all so kudos for all the hard work. Best wishes for all the grads! On a less happy but no less serious note, the district has announced that remote learning for next year will ONLY be a pilot program. (Bold mine) While we are taking all the necessary steps to ensure in-person learning is safe and welcoming for all students, we will also pilot virtual options for a small population of K-12 students. A virtual option for preschool students will not be offered. Starting with a small virtual option pilot will best promote the district's goals for racial equity and will provide important data and feedback should the district decide to develop larger scale future virtual learning options.     For Fall 2021, there will be a limited number of students in grades K-12 who can participate in this virtual learning option. SPS ...

 Superintendent Brent Jones is certainly getting busy in a big way. From SPS Communications , an announcement of the newly-formed Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness (SDR). This office will report directly to Deputy Superintendent Rob Gannon. The Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness will work to bring strategic alignment and coherence to district initiatives in support of student outcomes. Providing cross-departmental and district-wide project management and coordination including timelines, deliverables, reporting channels, and ownership. Monitoring deployment of strategies and providing system accountability to students, families, schools, and staff. Developing and supporting a clear escalation path and resolution structure for key issues and decisions. Ensuring alignment and a consistent, coordinated cadence of internal and external communications; and Supporting district-wide knowledge management. The first task of the new office is to support a s...

 There is a group called “ We Heart Seattle” , led by Andrea Suarez, who have been very good at working with the homeless.  Andrea reports on their Facebook page that a man named Nicholas Bjarnson overdosed at the encampment next to Broadview-Thomson K-8 on May 28th. He was 35 years old.  In her posts, Ms. Suarez seems unhappy with “turf wars” and said, “Keeping people, especially addicts, comfortable in parks, on schoolyards or anywhere until they are ready is nothing short of assisted suicide. Please wake up Seattle.” We Heart Seattle’s mission statement:

 Earlier this week, I put up the link and info about Enrollment/Budget per the Work Session this week on that topic. Here’s the link and what I had seen in the documentation at that time. I listened into the Enrollment portion of the Work Session yesterday. (I will say that the budget looks pretty bad and they are going to use ESSER money to mitigate.)