Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update 2: The Board had an Executive Session today for an hour which I suspect was to discuss Superintendent Brent Jones and his contract. I don't know when they put this up but it was after I posted this story here and tweeted about it. The rule is 24-hour notice for ANY meeting and maybe they got it posted just under the wire. But not only that but there is now ANOTHER meeting right before the August 28th Regular Board meeting, starting at 3:30 pm. Hmmm  end of update Update: I am tracking district progress on the school closures work and I can report that there is NOTHING on the calendar for closure engagement inAugust, save the August 28th regular Board meeting. You may recall, I did urge Director Gina Topp at her last community meeting to ask the district to submit their plan on closures at that meeting.  I do note that there is another Board "special meeting" the next day on August 29th. There is no explanation for this. Hmmm. Maybe the Superintendent asked for a c...

 In an incredibly shocking turn of events, it turns out that on the day of the Garfield High School murder that happened in June on the grounds of the school, a shooting incident had just happened shortly before that in a classroom. From the Seattle Times story (who got this info from the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog ): A Garfield High School student allegedly fired rubber bullets from a realistic-looking rifle at his science teacher in a classroom in June, just minutes before a different shooter killed a student on the same Central District campus , according to Seattle police. The Times' article says it was an "air rifle shooting" that happened 20 minutes before the murder outside.    The teacher's story: The teacher, who reported the attack the next day, told a police officer he thought the gun was real and feared for his life, according to a police report provided to The Seattle Times on Friday. The next day, the teacher went to the Seattle Police Department’...

Update: it appears that former SPS senior staffer Keisha Scarlett is out as superintendent of St Louis Public Schools. Just after a year in that position, she has taken a leave of absence. Scarlett’s recent hires included at least 12 former Seattle administrators and employees from Seattle – with some jobs going to spouses of those coming to SLPS. In addition, SLPS’ new communications chief Phoenix Jackson posted online last week that she would be living in both Houston and St. Louis and “float as needed between two lives and I love that for me,” while managing the essential role. This and the Seattle hires led Board of Education President Toni Cousins to call for an investigation into SLPS hiring and temporarily freeze any additional employment additions. SLPS had also reportedly has gone from having a $17 million budget surplus to facing a potential $35 million shortfall. In addition, teachers and staff in the district were notified that raises approved by the bo...

You all in Seattle know The Needling, Seattle's Only Real Fake News ? It's like The Onion for Seattle. It can be somewhat amusing in its pokes and digs at Seattle and its denizens and the Seattle Way. However, a new post about school closures in SPS is decidedly unfunny and tasteless and you have to wonder what the real message is (which has little to do with Seattle in specific). Here's the title:  SPS Contracts with IDF to Close All Seattle Schools In case you don't know, the IDF is the Israeli Defense Force. They accompany it with this photo:   You all know that I am not supportive of how Seattle Schools is handling school closures but I do feel compelled to stick up for them here.  The Needling does several things wrong.  One, they give the attribution to Superintendent Brent Jones of several alarming statements. I might not have been so unhappy with this post had they not done that.  Two, clearly they are using Seattle Schools and school closures to feed a ...

Following up on the news that the Chinatown Seafair Parade was interrupted because bystanders saw guns present.  The people with the guns were young teens - two 14-year olds and a 13-year old. Two of the three guns were stolen and one modified to be automatic.  Questions abound like: 1) Who stole the guns?  2) How did these kids get the guns? 3) It appears to the eye that there is an uptick of robbery and violence from some very young teens. I recall there has been a wave of crime over in West Seattle using stolen cars that are then used in robberies. And, of course, both the murders in Seattle high schools, with the shooter at Ingraham High School being a young teen. 4) Where are we on the Garfield shooter? 5) Why no safety updates on the planning and work around school safety from Superintendent Brent Jones? Schools are closed so nothing needs to happen? The Seattle Times follows up with this article today,  Many more kids are being shot and killed in King County ...

Here's what we know from the SPD blotter about this Seafair parade in the ID which a Reddit user wrote about: Seattle PD map shows them receiving a "shots fired" report around 8:11 pm on parade route. That was about when we saw the one group of dance drill girls get stopped and turned around by police and over their radio of near by police heard Shots Fired and to redirect. A little later heard over near by police radio about a suspicious person with firearm. The police did not think shots were fired (and to add to the confusion, I guess there was a cannon that the Seafair pirates used.)  The police detained one guy having a gun which turned out to be a replica. By 9:30ish,  "Police have three individuals in custody and have recovered three firearms. The investigation is ongoing to determine if there are any outstanding suspects." From The Seattle Times: SPD received reports of several youths with handguns near Seventh Avenue South and South Weller Street around...

Where some interesting things were said. I must first confess that it has bothered me for some time about Director Gina Topp; she reminds me of somebody but I couldn't put my finger on who. She is clear and measured in her statements, even the ones she puts some teeth into, she seeks answers and you really feel her as a leader. Then, it came to me. She's the female Pete Buttigieg. The meeting last night via Teams had 10 people. There were two press people - me and Tracy Record at the West Seattle Blog. One participant was the former head of SPS CTE Shep Siegel, one was a lunch lady at Denny MS, one was a SPP teacher at a K-8  and the others were parents.  It seemed that closures was the main item on their minds plus concern for their individual schools like Pathfinder. Not one parent seemed to support closures or questioned why it had to be such a large number of schools. This thought came into play later on in the discussion. Director Topp expressed disappointment that the di...