Seattle Schools Community Forum

One final chance to see the candidates for Seattle School Board before the primary election appears to be a forum put on by the Seattle Council PTSA.

 Today, The Stranger released its picks for races in the upcoming primary election. For Seattle School Board, they picked Vivian Song Maritz for D4 and Michelle Sarju for D5. I concur with both picks and I endorse Song Maritz.  For Song Maritz, they like her finance background, her child of immigrants/first generation to go to college background and that having an Asian on the Board would bring more diversity. The Stranger feels like Michelle Sarju has many talents and a firm knowledge of her region to bring to the Board. There’s also a funny story about one of her competitors who did show up for the interview.  To note, there was a candidate forum for the D5 race this week put on by the League of Women Voters King County and Horizon House, a retirement apartment building for seniors. I’ll have a separate post on that. In case you were wondering about the demographics of the Board and the district: Board 2 Native Americans (Hampson and DeWolf, if elected Sarju, who is Afr...

Provide your Feedback on the Absence Rule for Next Year OSPI is proposing changes to Chapter 392-401 WAC – Statewide Definition of Absence, Excused and Unexcused. Find the proposed changes below.  Please submit your comments by 5pm on July 27 to krissy.johnson@k12.wa.us. Proposed Attendance Changes 2021-22 I am troubled by the changes in the section on expelled/suspended students. Plus, they want attendance taken twice a day in elementary.  I am going to suggest a survey of parents/districts before changes.

This is just going to be a random assortment of items I have heard from recent meetings of the Board.

So I listened in to the Board meeting Wednesday to listen to the discussion around the budget vote. (That’s a whole other post but I digress.) I caught Special Education PTSA president Janis White’s testimony about what seems to be a failure by the district for recovery services for Sped students mandated by OSPI. I also read Sped parent Mary Griffin’s post at the Special Education PTSA Facebook page about how, at the last Special Education PTSA meeting, staff promised clear info on summer school. Apparently that didn’t happen. But Sped parents shouldn’t feel badly because Director Harris, time after time, has asked for staff to PLEASE give the Board documentation in advance of meetings so directors can review it and ask pertinent question. Oh sure, says Superintendent Jones. That she has made this request over and over should tell you something. She also asked for an org chart because the shift in jobs and titles and new positions is quite hard to track.  But for Exhibit One of wh...

 In what feels like somewhat toned-down endorsements, the Seattle Times has endorsed Laura Marie Rivera for the District 4 seat and Michelle Sarju for the District 5 seat.

As you may have heard, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down an opinion this week that a cheerleader’s rant on SnapChat after she did not make the varsity squad was speech protected by the First Amendment.