This coverage was commissioned by Ellen Kowalczyk, the winning bidder in last year’s Lowell Elementary benefit auction and the mother of a second grade Lowell Dragon. Want CHS to “donate journalism” to your Capitol Hill organization? Drop us a line!
The crises of a modern Washington public school system are sadly cyclical. An annual budget process that results in “staffing adjustments” across Seattle Public Schools is shaking out again this week as officials tally enrollment and make headcount decisions that mean some schools get new teachers while others lose educators in the midst of the just-begun school year.
Last year, CHS covered the adjustment process as it sliced away budget for teachers at Garfield and Stevens Elementary due to lower than expected enrollment. For the 2015/2016 school year, though SPS says the process is not final yet and won’t confirm the planned cuts and additions, word has spread to impacted schools including Capitol Hill’s Lowell Elementary which is in line to lose headcount in the cuts.
But this year, parents and guardians across Seattle along with those at Lowell are pushing back on the process. In a letter sent to the school board members and district superintendent Larry Nyland, PTA and parent leaders are calling for the planned changes to be put on hold:
Yesterday, 40 Seattle Public School Parent Leaders, from Legislators to PTA Presidents, came together for two hours to accomplish one thing: develop a strategy to put a full stop to the current staff cuts due to take effect this week. This group has every intention of working with the District to find an equitable and financially sound path to cost savings necessary to maintain operations. However, before this can begin it is imperative the following take place:
Toward Accountability1) District administration must halt all cuts immediately, leaving staff in place in current schools and positions.
2) The District must provide full transparency as to the short and long-term cost savings to which the October staff cuts contribute, balanced against overage and administrative costs associated with the cuts.
3) District must specify, how current cuts contribute to existing or projected deficit.
4) District must provide specific information regarding reserve and rainy day balances and usage relative to this year’s and future budgets.
Toward Shared Responsibility
5) District must specify how cuts are being shared across the system including central administration and office.
Toward Future Sustainability
6) District must support a collaborative approach of budget and enrollment projection processes.
7) Future staffing cuts will be prohibited by policy after the start of the school year.
We are prepared to enter into a deep partnership with the district on individual school and collective levels. However, the level of disruption to over 12,000 students at the thirty-two schools impacted is unacceptable without substantial rationale, community engagement and transparency. We refuse to let Seattle continue to be fodder for advocates of continued non-compliance with McCleary in Olympia.
In the next 48 hours we will be organizing legally, in the communities and the media, requesting to meet with you directly, proposing Board policy changes, acting on our right to public disclosure and activating our fellow parents to action. We ask that you hit the pause button on the planned cuts and meet us at the table of community discourse to determine how we can solve this problem together. Let your community support you in determining how to create a healthy school district.
Finally, please remember, behind every class ratio and revenue stream feeding your budget is a child’s face—a face that smiles at the prospect of going to school every day in her own community, in the same classroom, with the same teacher, to learn. Let that enthusiasm for learning reign, let that child’s stability remain and let’s work together on the hard task of funding our schools.
Signed,
#KidsNotCuts Strategy Group*
- Brian Jones, SPS Parent, PSG Films Creative Director and Co-Founder
- Shine Sun, Lowell Elementary, PTSA VP, MD
- Sandra Stehling-Sun, Lowell-Elementary, PTSA-VP
- Kirsten, Donovan, Alki Elementary PTA, President
- Patricia Johnson, Alki Elementary PTA, Treasurer & VP Fundraising
- Deb Zaret, Wedgwood PTA, Board Member, MD
- Liz Huehnergarth, Wedgwood PTA, Co-VP, Events
- Maizun Blackbird, Sand Point Elementary PTA, Legislative Chair
- Jodi Somm, North Beach PTA, President
- Steve Albertson, BF Day PTSA, Board President
- Melissa Westbrook, Seattle Schools Community Forum, Moderator/Writer
- Jody Jones, Schmitz Park, Parent
- Jennifer Ogle, Alki Elementary School
- Susan Goplen, Schmitz Park, Parent
- Nancy Bacon, Eckstein/Roosevelt Parent
- Kelley O’Connor, Schmitz Park Elementary, PTA VP
- Megan Sun McIntosh, Sand Point Elementary PTA
- Robin Graham, STEM / SCPTSA
- Jessyn Farrell, State Legislature, Representative 46th
- Elizabeth Chenette, JAMS PTSA President
- Robin Schwartz, Concord IES PTA, Co-President
- Eden Mack, SCPTSA, Legislative Chair
- Richelle Dickerson, Soup for Teachers Co-Founder, West Woodlands PTA Co-President
- Katie Kahle, Olympic View PTA, Co-President
- Rachel Gleeson, Bryant Fundraising Co-Chair, JAMS
- Rachel Brooks, Thornton Creek Site Council District Relations
- Rebecca Garcia, STEM K-8 PTA, President
- Kim McCormick, JAMS PTSA, Legislative VP
- Mardi Brekke, Thornton Creek Site Council
- Gerry Pollet, State Legislature, Representative 46th
- Eliza Rankin, Soup For Teachers, Co-Founder
- Malik Davis, Alki PTA, at large member
- Chandra Hampson, Sand Point Elementary PTA, President
- Davina Inslee, Wedgwood Elementary PTA President
- Shawna Murphy, LB STEM K-8 Parent
- Katie Weisend, Sacajawea PTA Co-Chair
- Marina Gray, Lowell Elementary PTSA President
- Katie Kadwell, Parent Volunteer, Pathfinder K-8
*the endorsement of the signatories here does not necessarily represent the organization with which they are affiliated, the name of which is provided for identification purposes only
Chandra Hampson,
President, Sand Point Elementary PTA
The movement comes following a period of increased public school advocacy and community awareness in the wake of this summer’s teacher strike, the first teacher strike in Seattle in 30 years.
Meanwhile, some SPS parents are taking a different route — one West Seattle parent says he will donate $70,000 to stave off a planned cut there.
The adjustment process is remarkably fickle — last year, it should be noted, Lowell gained a teacher in the process.
A SPS spokesperson said the final decisions on cuts and changes at individual schools are not yet final.
Tuesday, a group will hold a “Half Baked Sale” at the schools headquarters:
A group of parents dubbing themselves T.R.A.P. – Teacher Retention Advocate Parents – will be holding a bake sale on the lawn of the John Stanford Center to peacefully protest district wide staff cuts.
The bake sale will run from 11 AM – 1 PM, this Tuesday, October 13th.Our goals are:-To highlight the absurdity of trying to fund basic education with bake sales and car washes.-To remind the Legislature of its paramount duty to fully fund basic education.-To point out to the district its responsibility to manage our scarce education dollars responsibly AND in a manner that prioritizes spending these dollars in the classroom.-To show solidarity and support for all of the schools facing staff cuts.-To advocate for a district wide solution to the impending staff cuts.
