The new geographical boundaries do not affect student attendance boundaries; their purpose is to make sure each region within the city is represented by a board member who lives in that region. Mary Fertakis, Kevin Wang, Patty Wood - At-Large Positions Seattle School Board chooses new board member, approves plan to return Specifically, the recall petition itself reports that Seattle school board members have: Delayed reopening Seattle schools to full-time, in-person instruction, compared to the great majority of other districts; Violated their legal duty to provide special needs students with access to in-person instruction; Given away school property in West Seattle in violation of legal standards; Failed to correct a 2015 school board decision to take $2.7 million in private money while keeping the donors name secret; Approved contracts on planned Rainier Beach High School and Northgate Elementary construction projects which involve conflicts of interest and violations of environmental review laws; Failed to protect student privacy online; Failed to consult the Duwamish Tribe regarding environmental review of the Northgate Elementary project; Failed to provide adequate school-day recreational areas for students; Sold school property to a favored buyer without holding a public hearing; Discriminated against students by canceling the Highly Capable Program at Washington Middle School; Violated the rights of Kimball Elementary School students by improperly changing the attendance area. However, the investigation did not conclude Hampson and DeWolf discriminated against staffers based on their race or gender. The anti-racism policy has not been adopted by the school board. Their feelings about why or how they were targeted do not replace the need for evidence. Board of Trustees - Seattle Preparatory School. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. School Board student members will receive $17.27/hour for their work in this role, not to exceed 20 hours a month. The petition is accompanied by a detailed list of news reports, recorded school board votes and official school board resolutions to back up the recall petitions claims. Applications for the 2023-24 student member positions will be open soon please continue to check this webpage and district social media for updates. Seattle Prep. WA to end masking requirement in health care, correctional facilities, Fire on Lake City Way in Seattle raises smoke, flooding concerns, One Seattle business is taking a stand against tipping mania, Chef Ethan Stowell buys a historic Seattle dive bar, Amazon shutters some convenience stores, including 2 in Seattle, at least three days before public meetings. Its unfortunate that another story like this has surfaced. MFR investigators interviewed 20 witnesses and reviewed over 5,600 documents. SEATTLE, WA- Massive homeless encampments have taken over several school grounds in Seattle.Instead of demanding that the growing tent communities be removed, the Seattle School Board president and one of its directors have reportedly urged Mayor Jenny Durkan to not clear them out.. Best believe anywhere else, there would be zero homeless camps outside a school. SPS board members wrestled with the district boundary lines over the course of various public and community meetings, and debated how race played a role in the redistricting process. Follow@JasonRantz onTwitter,Instagram, andParler,and like me onFacebook. Al-ansi noted that DeWolf was pushing for a HIB investigation because he is familiar with the law and the level of scrutiny that is required around a racial claim., She calls it an institutional tactic where DeWolf is trying to find a different way to discredit their named experiences., The choice to move forward with an investigation is the most institutionally racist way you can do it, Al-ansi wrote, according to the investigation. Staff involvement was a privilege, not a right, Hampsons attorneys argue in court documents. The School Board has not yet voted on the policy. More info. The six officials parents are seeking to recall are Chandra Hampson, President, Brandon Hersey, Vice-President, Zachary DeWolf, Liza Rankin, Leslie Harris, and Lisa Rivera-Smith. Board of Directors and District Map. The investigation itself was extensive. And in a district like Seattle, a $1 billion annual enterprise, its a big job for someone who isnt getting paid.Dont we deserve a higher quality education system for our 50,000 kids, asked Carlyle.Carlyle argues that many of Seattles problems, and many problems in other districts, including the achievement gap, low graduation rates, and high turnover, can be tied to the fact that board members are volunteers, arent up to the job, and dont have much time for it.Carlyles plan would pay board members, starting in the biggest, most complex district in Seattle, a salary in-line with state legislators, which is $42,000 per year.It is unreasonable to expect people to have all of that knowledge and then be full-time volunteers on top, said Carlyle. So, the actual people who actually do the job clearly like it and want to keep doing it.Mas argued theres a better solution to the fact that the job can be demanding, a solution that doesnt involve paying board members.They dont need to be paid themselves, they need some paid staff to answer those emails, to do some independent data gathering, he said. The events that took place between Seattle public school staff and board members Chandra Hampson and Zachary DeWolfe . Hes no longer in office, with Nov. 17, 2021, being his last day serving on the school board. But you wont find the report on the districts website. 1250, and incorporating student voice into district decision-making. While I started to look into it then, I purposefully withheld my reporting until now. Each School Board student member will be assigned to one of three board committees: the Audit & Finance Committee; Operations Committee; or Student Services Curriculum & Instruction Committee. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Seattle . It was only days after Sami Al-Abdrabbuh was re-elected to . Student members will serve as experts through their own experiences and as representatives of their peers. In 2023, voters will choose board members for districts 1, 2, 3, and 6. Seattle Public Schools faces nearly $190 million budget shortfall . School Board student members should also possess an awareness of challenges and barriers that they or others experience in education and in society. I certainly understand that SPS did not make it easy to track this story. Mason Trinca for The New York Times. Food, Drink, and Coastal Christmas Anacortes has it all. General election date. Talk with Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors member Leslie Harris, who represents West Seattle and most of South Park, at 2 pm at Delridge Library. Scarlett and Al-ansi did not appear pleased with the process. Seattle school board members demand city not remove homeless As a former elected official, its bloody nonsense.. DeWolf did not run for re-election and will suffer no immediate political consequences as a result. Hampson and DeWolf were required to review the policy, according to the motion passed by board members, and the district was to provide harassment, intimidation and bullying training to all new board members as needed.. Kirby has served as Board Chair at Special Olympics of Washington, where he helped bring the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games to Seattle. Once selected, student members will need to obtain written permission to work from their parent or guardian. Work. AMDG; For the Greater Glory of God; Seattle Preparatory School. Facebook Parent Group Moderator - Kaye Smith. 206-252-0000, Distributing Information to Students and Schools, Northwest Coast Art by Andrea Wilbur-Sigo, Squaxin/Skokomish, Posting documents for regular Board meetings at least 3 days in advance of the meeting to allow for public review, Maintaining accurate and timely information on the School Board?s website, Noticing all Board meetings on the District?s website in a timely manner, Responding to and tracking constituent communication, Complying with requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), Providing administrative support to Board members (e.g., travel arrangements, expense reimbursements, and document preparation). The findings call his conduct unprofessional.. Redistricting is required by law. RT @mrandystevens: We need to replace the activists school board members with parents whose only agenda is to ensure a good education for our kids. The school board members did not publicly respond to the recall effort. All students and the more than 100 full-time faculty members live on the grounds. Board member Zachary DeWolf will not be running for re-election to the seat representing District 5, which covers the bulk of Capitol Hill, the Central District, downtown and the area near the stadiums.. It's a tumultuous time for Seattle and the city's . While serving, School Board student members must be enrolled in courses that ensure normal progress towards graduation and maintain the number of credits necessary for advancement to the next grade level. Two Seattle School Board members violated a board policy against harassing, intimidating and bullying staff members last year when they were working on an anti-racism policy with two Black district employees, an outside investigation has found. DeWolf did not respond to requests for comment. In an emailed statement, the district said its not able to comment on personnel matters but that Seattle Public Schools is committed to nondiscrimination in all our educational, employment and staff endeavors., We firmly believe this commitment to anti-racism increases student success, the statement continued. If a superintendent or board member directed staff to get something done by a certain time and the employee refused to and claimed that was bullying, I mean thats just unworkable, said Talmadge, who served as a state senator for 16 years. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The two SPS employees believed board members were silencing, undermining, discrediting and discriminating against them based on gender and race, court documents say. "It is unreasonable to . West Seattle Blog | Community meeting with School Board director I have been doing this for 30+ years, and I dont need to hear your qualifications. Broad coalition of parents seek recall of six Seattle school board members Its not considered harassment when an elected board member reprimands staff for failing to follow board directives, Hampsons attorneys argue in court documents. Seattle School Board chooses new board member, approves plan to return to classrooms. Applications for the 2023-24 student member positions will be open Monday, Feb. 27 - March 24. Performance & security by Cloudflare. This behavior is always done to Black folks and holds up anti-Blackness. Melissa Westbrooks local blog which I just discovered actually covered this story back in October. School Board Audit Quarterly Meeting. At least one of the employees was supposed to present a 10-minute update on the anti-racist policy. Some of the biggest changes: District 2, which incorporates Green Lake and Phinney Ridge, has expanded west to include Ballard and Magnolia. Her attorneys filed a brief on Friday to the appeals court. The student-led Selection Committee will support the Boards selection of three (3) students for the 2023-24 school year who will serve as Student Members. 2445 3rd Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98134 The motion also waived the need to post the report on the districts website, which typically needs to happen at least three days before public meetings. Washington Democrats are trying to force employers to hire or retain potheads with new legislation. One of the accusers tried to tell Hampson and DeWolf twice they were disrespecting her, the report said. Come one, come all! A primary was scheduled for August 3, 2021. Im sorry. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. These meetings are held Wednesdays at 4:15 p.m. at John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence. Volunteer to help people understand their Medicare options! Thats quite clearly the opposite of being an anti-racist. District staff thought they knew better and felt sidelined. The School Board student member positions were created in response to student advocacy about the need to uplift and increase BIPOC student voices within Seattle Public Schools, to work toward a student-centered educational system, and to help students understand the educational system around them and share their perspectives with district leadership. Theyre not against racism; they want to favor one racial group over others. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Leslie Harris (incumbent), 61. A school board candidate must: Be a registered voter. The second instance that was investigated was an executive committee meeting on Sept. 16, 2020, according to the report. And thats not an unbiased source of data.Carlyle is working to get legislative support for his idea before lawmakers reconvene in Olympia in January. With one week to decide on fall remote learning, Seattle School Board Before she was first elected to the District 6 seat in 2015, she worked on the Schools First campaign in support of district levies. Contact the Student Members through Lets Talk. Seattle School Board chooses new board member, approves plan to return to classrooms . Its a bridge too far.Carlyle says the quality and diversity of the board would improve if members were compensated.Retiring Seattle School Board Chairwoman Kay Smith-Blum agrees that its time to start paying some kind of salary.This is a job that averages, I believe, anywhere from 20-30 hours a week, Smith-Blum said. Enrollment ('17-'18) 54,573 students. Seattle, Washington, United States. He was elected twice to the Seattle School Board serving from 2007 to 2015. Student members are encouraged to utilize course credit, service hour, independent study, free periods, or other opportunities, as available and appropriate for their own academic schedule, to modify their class schedule to accommodate committee meeting attendance. One year appointment. Posting documents for regular Board meetings at least 3 days in advance of the meeting to allow for public review. The Stranger, normally interested in amplifying claims of racism, offered the bare minimum in covering the story, only to link to the Seattle Times. (One recently-appointed member is not eligible for recall.). Currently, Liza Rankin holds the district 1 spot, Lisa Rivera Smith represents district 2, Chandra Hampson represents district 3, and Leslie Harris represents district 6. 174 (Teamsters 174). As Scarlett was discussing her desire to ensure the policy is a pro-Black anti-racist policy, she was repeatedly interrupted by DeWolf. Inspired by the Angela Davis quote that Walls turned sideways are bridges, the board recognizes the organizational structure of the district can create a wall between decision makers and the students the district serves. Normally, this investigation would be posted online three days ahead of a school board meeting. Consequently, media coverage has been scant and inadequate. In other words, they are far-left activists who dont practice what they preach on anti-racism, nor do they serve the kids they are supposed to protect. The tension came to a head during an Aug. 28, 2020, phone call between Hampson, DeWolf, the complainants, and SPS staff. 11% of the management team is Black or African American. Last month, the school board voted to repeal the harassment, intimidation and bullying policy for adults (a student policy still exists) and replace it with civility procedures, citing the extraneous resources it took to go through complaints that often didnt meet the threshold of the policy and prevented more serious complaints from being addressed.