What the “New Way?” Encompassing the entire district, we see changes aplenty with near zero explanation. I’ll start but do chime in with yours.
- Minutes of committee meetings. Man, these are starting to look like charter school board meeting minutes. Which is to say, sparse and just the facts (and maybe not even all the facts).
Example: the scribe appears to have been told to not flesh out any discussion with back-and-forth. So you see this: “Questions were asked and answers were given.” Seriously, that’s what is written. Clearly, of little use to any parent, teacher, administrator, student or taxpayer.
I do have my suspicions that there are TWO sets of minutes. I say that because if someone internal to JSCEE needed info on what happened at a particular meeting and all they see is, “People were here and talked,” it just might make their job harder.
Another example of this is when Keisha Scarlett leveled her accusations about racism at Chandra Hampson and Zachary DeWolf, her complaint named a specific committee meeting. Let’s go to the minutes and....nothing. I wouldn’t expect the scribe to make judgements about what was said but there is nothing wrong with “a lively discussion ensued.” I did find someone who was at the meeting who confirmed Scarlett’s account and said it was very uncomfortable.
- Work Session documentation. To review, a citizen has to make a request to the Board office for documentation attached to a committee meeting. The reasoning here is that staff may change something at the last minute. So for CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: The New Way in Seattle Schools