Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, March 19, 2012

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Weak This Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Weak This Week:


What's Weak This Week

There will be a board meeting this week and it's gonna be a doozy. Check out this incredibly long agenda. Good thing they cut twenty minutes from public testimony. Those twenty minutes were the whole problem that created long meetings. Now the Board meetings will be over in a flash.


As you can see from the agenda (and every single previous agenda ever), the board is primarily concerned with property management issues. A full 40% of all school board votes are property related. Sometimes I think that we shouldn't be looking for people with education experience for the school board so much as we should be looking for people with construction and property development experience. The Seattle School District is one of the biggest property owners in the state - think of the value of the District's real estate - yet they are renown for their atrocious property management skills. That really needs to change. Someone needs to take this real estate portfolio more seriously.

Outside of property management, the board will vote on the Teach for America contract and the Board Procedure