Seattle Schools Community Forum

I previously mentioned how, at a recent Board meeting, Superintendent Brent Jones went on about all the committees forming around school safety but not a word about what is actually happening at schools.  The district has a LOT of capital dollars at their disposal - don't allow ANYONE to tell you differently. That they are taking TWO YEARS to change all the locks at all the schools is disgraceful. Those buildings need security now and the district should be spending to make that happen by the fall. Not the fall of 2024. The West Seattle Blog reported this story yesterday: Message from Principal Brian Vance: Good morning West Seattle High community – Yesterday we received several notifications regarding social media posts that included threats to our school. We have reported these threats to Seattle Police and to the school district’s Safety & Security Department. The most recent update is that the person who made the threats is receiving care now and we don’t believe the t...

A national news roundup of public education stories. First up, Proposed Texas Law Wants to Make School Children "Battlefield" Ready" - this from Parents Magazine: A  new bill introduced in Texas  would require public and open-enrollment charter schools to install "bleeding stations" and train kids in trauma care methods developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Department of Homeland Security. This type of trauma care is intended to be used by trained professionals to prevent or stop perilous blood loss. It also includes using "battlefield trauma" tools such as tourniquets, chest seals, and compression bandages.   Meanwhile over on Twitter, actual ER doctors are saying no way. Especially given the horrific wounds that come from an AR 15. For example, a witness on the scene in the Allen, Texas shooting said he ran to help and turned over a little girl whose face was gone. If we are at this time and place in this country where w...

 The two issues I am speaking of are: - the renovation of Rainier Beach High School - the renovation of Memorial Stadium Superintendent Brent Jones has been here to see these projects in their earliest beginnings. But will he be here when either project is done? In normal times, I'd say yes. But there are two issues that might see him beat a quick exit.  One is that, oddly, when Jones was offered the permanent superintendent job, he opted for a two-year contract, not three which is the usual. Why he did that is a mystery but my thought is to make it easier to jump ship if he got offered something better. Two, Jones is gonna feel a LOT of heat soon from parents and school communities. Because yet another project that will start under his term is closure and consolidation of school communities. The district's Budget review document shows that they expect to gain $28M from closing buildings. It seems like they will focus mostly on elementaries but I suspect with their complete la...

Superintendent Brent Jones and senior staff presented what they said was part one of the discussion of next year's budget. (Part Two will be next Wednesday, the 10th, probably around 4:30 pm. It will be streamed live on the SPS channel on YouTube.)  First, a detour.  I'll confess that I did not watch all of the Work Session. My main issue was because  - for whatever reason - they had about 45 minutes of the Work Session and then stopped to put forth the Board proclamation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day for May 5, 2023. The proclamation is at the end of the documentation attached to the agenda. That break made it difficult for me to get back to the work session. FYI, the proclamation uses this terminology: WHERAS (sic), MMIP is an acronym inclusive to all our Indigenous relatives including LGBTQ+2Spirit and is alternatively written as MMIWG, MMIP2S, MMIW. I did not know what 2Spirit meant and here's the definition: Two-Spirit” is a term used with...

In 2020, the district decided to partner with the Technology Access Foundation to bring an already established STEM program working in other districts to Washington Middle School. This week, we learn that the 10-year contract with TAF has ended and the program will be leaving at the end of this school year.  As I previously reported, the Seattle Times had a scathing editorial about the district and singled out WMS and the exit of TAF, calling TAF "highly-touted."  Founded by former Microsoft executive Trish Dziko, TAF had been contributing almost $800,000 annually to pay for its own team of 10 at Washington Middle School. Those educators worked alongside Seattle teachers, seven of whom were added to the middle school to enable smaller class sizes. But next year, the extra Seattle teachers — as well as half of the school’s award-winning music program — will be pulled to cut costs. TAF put out a statement (partial): A key component of our partnership is SPS’s commitment ...

This may only be a partial list of reasons; please, add anything else in the comments. The deadline to file to run for the Board is May 19th. Entire Board Majority NOT vetting the Superintendent in any way, shape or form. Even the Seattle Times thought that was wrong.  It was just absolute hubris and it was wrong. For the second time in just over a year , board members voted to negotiate a superintendent contract during a special meeting with no opportunity for public comment. This time, they showed an even deeper disregard for their responsibilities as public servants: Aborting a national search for a new superintendent and denying Interim Superintendent Brent Jones a chance to show students, parents and taxpayers that, indeed, he is the best person for the job. Government bodies can’t fast-forward through transparent processes just because they think they know the right answer. One other odd thing about the hiring of Brent Jones - most permanent SPS superintendent contract...

Let's go to one example that I have written about before - Tracy Castro Gill.  It recently was announced that Gill, a self-styled ethnic studies expert, had lost her bid in court to prevent public disclosure requests to review curricula that she created .  The public disclosure request was sent to OSPI who had her curricula as one kind available for Ethnic Studies.  OSPI let her know that the request had been made in Jan 2023 and that they were going to offer to send "a representative sample." Gill's group got a temporary restraining order in Feb. 2023.  On March 23, 2023 in King County Superior Court, Just Indu Thomas ruled that: “The public records act and Washington administrative code does not require an agency to first produce records to a notified third party before that party is required to seek injunctive relief under the statute.” The judge added that there is “no basis under the statute to enjoin the release of records to a public records requester.” ...