From superintendent-search hopes to tech wariness, here’s what two school-board members heard on ‘engagement’ stop in West Seattle

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

This Wednesday, Seattle School Board directors will hold the third and final “community engagement” session in their new series.

The second was in West Seattle, this past Wednesday evening, in Denny International Middle School‘s library.

Two board members showed up – president Gina Topp, who represents West Seattle and most of South Park, and Evan Briggs (arriving a bit late), who represents Northwest Seattle. Both are in their first term.

They heard a long list of concerns. Topp said that was the intention – a “chance for us to hear from folks, what’s on your minds, potential questions,” adding that the board hopes to do this monthly. Asked how the feedback/information would be put to use, she said they’re taking notes so they can be referred to. “I know it’s a lot to come here” with everyone taking time out of busy lives, she acknowledged.

Much of the gathering was spent just going around the room giving everyone a chance to introduce themselves and explain what issue or concern had brought them to the meeting.

One of the first to introduce themselves was Topp’s predecessor on the board, Leslie Harris, who listed three areas about which she’s “extraordinarily concerned” – the budget, the district’s handling of waitlists, and the board’s decision to operate under “student-outcome-focused governance” (SOFG).

Three of the next four people were district or city employees. Then a Denny staff member, who said she was there because “safety is #1,” explaining that parents keep asking her “what is the game plan?” for safety.

And again, three of the next four were district employees; one said they were “here to see what engagement looks like.” Then a student and a parent who said it’s difficult to communicate with the district, “hard to reach the division you need to reach.”

A Roxhill Elementary parent listed the budget as a key concern and described the previous year – which included proposals to close schools to save money – as “a rough rollercoaster.”

A school nurse said she wanted to know how SOFG could work with equity. A fourth-grade teacher, with 30 years in that occupation, said she doesn’t have the support she needs to help her students become successful.

Student success was a parent’s concern, wraning that the “quality of education has plummeted,” noting that her child isn’t being challenged, “he’s not learning anything,” he’s getting perfunctory coursework and no homework. “How is this getting our kids college ready?” she asked plaintively, saying she was frustrated “because I moved to the area for its good schools.”

She was followed by a teacher from Roosevelt HS who had a very specific, urgent concern, a project installing new A/V equipment but in the process throwing out whiteboards and bulletin boards that she said teachers desperately need and students like using. She said they’d tried to stop the contractors and were told they’d be happy not to toss the boards as long as they got direction from district managers, saying that they were “fine saving it, but you just have to tell ‘downtown’ to tell us.” (We don’t know whether this was resolved.)

Another parent declared that communication with the district “is terrible.”

Then a former teacher – herself an SPS graduate – talked about cuts she said would displace assistant principals, particularly at option schools, because of “how enrollment was managed” – the waitlist issue to which former board member Harris had referred earlier.

Next, a Gatewood Elementary PTA board member who said she came “because I care a lot … public education is the foundation of democracy and it seems like it’s crumbling everywhere.” But, she said, as a poster in the library reminded her, “Everything is hard before it’s easy.” Finally she added that she too had concerns about SOFG.

A shift back toward redlining was what concerned a parent who said her kids were in elementary and middle school. With boundaries moving that way over the past decade, she said, schools were suffering.

Anybody want to run for school board? asked longtime district watchdog Chris Jackins, offering his help, since it’s now “filing week” and four directors’ seats are up this year.

Another parent with elementary and middle schoolers expressed concern about too much screen use in schools.

Two Pathfinder K-8 parents followed, saying that the assistant principal cuts threatened to take away an AP who had done an amazing job in the wake of an administrative shakeup at the school. “We need to fight for our AP,” one said. “Schools are being starved of APs,” warned another.

Megan has a Gatewood and 7thgraer (diff Megan) – concerned about screens

A Highland Park Elementary parent wondered if money the district was allotting toward capital projects could instead be spent on operations. (Short answer: No.)

The around-the-room continued with a Seattle Times education reporter, a parent of a special-educataion student, another Pathfinder parent, a West Seattle HS family with a specific problem involving a teacher.

Another Denny employee, parent of an adult SPS alum, declared herself “tired of asking for fully funding public education.” She also wondered why the 300-student enrollment difference between Denny and Madison MS hadn’t yet resulted in boundary-redrawing. Instead, she said, the district continued to “fill portables … it feels racist.”

When the around-the-room ended, the hour-and-a-half meeting window was two-thirds over. (Topp and Briggs stayed past the scheduled end, though, talking with attendees.) Topp noted printouts on the tables with suggested questions, including one regarding the search for Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones’s successor. Attendees were split into two groups, one to talk with Topp, the other to talk with Briggs; that’s the group we stayed with.

She first addressed a question about the superintendent search, saying the search firm was chosen “beccause of robust community-engagement strategy … (they have a) very multi-pronged approach so they reach as many stakeholders as they can.” Asked about the hiring timeline, she said it’s an “awkward time because most have a job for next year,” so if they don’t find the perfect candidate, they might “settle for an interim for a year and then start again in fall.” But whichever they chose, she said they’ll have someone in place by the start of August.

They’ll be meeting with the search firm May 14, she said, stressing that she understands families’ frustration, as she has three kids in the district. It was pointed out that you can read chosen search firm HYA‘s full proposal in the April 9 meeting agenda (starting on page 84).

One parent suggested the new superintendent should not be “hellbent” on shoehorning every possible bit of technology into the schools: “I don’t want another technocrat.” Another parent agreed they didn’t want to “go too high-tech.” The big question would be, it was suggested, what’s the vision? An interim superintendent could come in and do a deep dive into that. Support for teachers is crucial, someone declared, saying teachers are being thrown into situations for which they have none.

The topic of SOFG came up again. Briggs said she wanted to offer “a little context, saying it came about because the board needed “a policy-governed framework,” and that while SOFG might not ultimately be The One, it hasn’t even been “effectively enacted” yet, so “nobody knows what it would look like if we were doing it well.”

So how are they assessing the outome? Many complaints about testing ensued. One teacher said that students “know these tests don’t matter” and don’t provide “meaningful data … you’re sending our money down the drain” to the materials providers. She suggested the community should run the schools, and that it would result in greatness: “The most important thing you as school-board members can do is advocate for the community.”

What does Briggs consider helpful to hear? she was asked. She said she truly doesn’t know “because it’s a truly broken system,” mainly because “public education in our country is broken,” so “what we’re .asking of schools and people who work in schools is impossible.” She said she asks herself sometimes if there’s any point to her work because “how do you fix something that’s so fundamentally broken? All these desperate people (herself included) … we’re trying to put Band-Aids on this big gaping wound and maybe that’s all we can do right now.”

But in the meantime, the next superintendent must be hired. Briggs said she’s hoping for a “systems thinker” and some fresh ideas. Someone suggested, for example, that the district sell its SODO headquarters and have central staff work out of the many (school) buildings. Briggs also said there’s the opportunity to learn from history, via work like this.

The next attendee to speak was a student who asked about Native-focused curriculum, such as Since Time Immemorial. Briggs said implementation could be a “funding issue.”

So what about making the schools a little less tech-dependent? it was suggested again. Briggs said she would like to see that, but it’s not simply up to her. Maybe start a petition, she suggested, and get “a lot of people (to) sign on.” Yet, she cautioned, she also hears from people who are resigned to it – “this is just our new reality now.” The counter to that, though, could be separating the screens into a lab that students use part of the time, rather than having it be pervasive. There’s a lot of research supporting a reduction in tech dependency, a teacher offered, saying that’s how they were able to move toward attendance schedules geared toward age groups’ needs – citing research.

Not long after that, with the clock well past the advertised 7 pm end, the gathering was officially ended – though conversations continued.

WHAT’S NEXT: The third “engagement session” is at 5:30 pm Wednesday (May 7) at Daniel Bagley Elementary School‘s library, 7821 Stone Ave N.

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