Seattle Schools Community Forum: Boundary Talk with Marty McLaren

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Boundary Talk with Marty McLaren:

Boundary Talk with Marty McLaren

I attended the Growth Boundaries meeting hosted by Director McLaren this morning and two themes stood out. One came from the District and the other from the community.

The District's theme was mystery. There is simply no telling who would make the decisions about schools and buildings, no clue about how they would make these decisions, no sense of what data or criteria would be the basis for the decisions, or even when the decisions would be made. Nevertheless we got a very strong message about what the decision would be: K-5 STEM placed at Schmitz Park in 2016. This is the pre-ordained choice, despite the fact that this is probably the worst option of them all.

The theme from the community was primarily frustration. That frustration was directed a bit at the mystery - the decisions are made by a secret committee using a secret process and secret criteria - but mostly at the trainwreck of a decision.



The absence of any kind of transparency or accountability has rendered the process corrupt.

The problems are clear. The choices are clear. The best path is also clear. But there is little confidence or reason for confidence that the District will choose the best path because quality is clearly not a criteria for them. The District is making