A Union Torn Asunder... Or, Woeful Tales of the Seattle Teacher's Union

I like to there is truth in advertising.

Let me begin by saying, I am not against Unions.  Not at all.  I support unions.  But what I am against is a badly run union.   A union that is at war with itself.  A union which should favor its teachers more than its management.

That's not what we have in Seattle.  What kind of union takes a terrible contract, votes to approve it, and then complains about the way it is treated, until they vote for the next terrible contract?

Sometimes you have to teach people how to treat you.  The Seattle teacher's union has not figured this out.

They deserve the treatment that they receive and by ratifying weak and insufficient contracts.

When there was word of a strike, it was obvious that the public was behind them.  We, the public, would love for the District to be shown that you can't push teacher's around.

This was a chance for the teacher's union to gain some credibility, some legitimacy, some support.  But they caved. 

In the future, maybe some good PR  would include striking for the kids.  Smaller class sizes, summer school, effective staffing -things that actually affect children's lives. 

Instead, it looks like they sold out the children for a 2-4% raise.

Another Superintendent Bites the Dust

In March, when I was appointed Interim Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, the District was in crisis. I was tasked with assembling the very best team of professionals to help lead this District, create transparency, improve communication and restore trust between families, the community and Seattle Public Schools. 
I am incredibly proud of the work our students, teachers, principals and staff have accomplished over the past 10 months. Seattle is fortunate to have such a team of dedicated educational professionals. The progress we have made is significant Seattle Public Schools students outperformed the state average in every tested subject in Grades 3-8; Our four-year graduation rate is up from 67 percent to 73 percent in the last year; Our overall school performance is increasing, with 27 schools increasing their overall performance level during 2010-11;  Enrollment is on the rise; an Our city passed yet another Families and Education levy that will provide essential supports to our students.While I am proud of what we have accomplished together, today I am announcing my decision to neither seek nor accept the permanent position of superintendent after my contract ends in June. This was not an easy decision for me to make given my commitment to Seattle and to our students. I wish the school board well in their search for a new superintendent, and will work with the new appointee to ensure a smooth transition for our staff, students and families. It is my sincere hope that the board will continue to build on our successes to date and continue the momentum we have built. I believe strongly that losing this momentum would be a disservice to our students and staff. 
Our work here is far from over. Continuing to improve outcomes for all students and attack our achievement gaps will require great principals, great teachers, connected families and community partners and a central office serving schools by supporting high quality teaching and learning in every classroom. Please know that I remain dedicated to Seattle Public Schools and will continue to partner with, and serve you all to the best of my ability in the months ahead. 
While we may hold different opinions on how to best serve our students, we must remember they are counting on us to fulfill our mission of ensuring that they are prepared for college, career and life. It is essential that we discipline ourselves to keep this mission—and our students—at the forefront of all we do, and not allow adult issues, egos and politics to stand in the way. 
I want to thank you for your support. I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to serve the students and community of Seattle. 
Sincerely
Susan
Susan Enfield, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools

This is the letter that Dr. Susan Enfield wrote and sent out to district employees.  Here is my response by Nick Esparza:
Well Dr. Enfield I am more than please you are resigning as the superintendent at the end of the year.  It seems like Christmas and New Years came early.  I find it really interesting that you say the district has done a better job with the graduation rate.  You said that graduation rate is up from 67 percent to 73 percent.  Yes that is an improvement but not by much.  You came from being the chief academic officer and pushed to not spend money on Summer School and drop it altogether.  So you have not increased the graduation rate but rather decreased it.
You of all people should know that when kids do not graduate and get into trouble and become incarcerated that we the people of Seattle pay for it later.  Due to the districts faulty budgeting and not finding money for alternative programs and making sure kids graduate, we now have a higher drop out rate.  I am now pleased to hear you are hitting the yellow brick road.
You spend a lot of time talking about closing the achievement gap in your interim as a superintendent. It does appear that you and your lack of leadership have widened the achievement gap.
Some places I think you have failed the taxpayers and students are:
1. Not funding summer school
2. Trying to make a terrible graduation rate seem like a great thing
3. Teach for America and 5 week trainees
4. Financial mismanagement and financial stewardship and your inability to run a district effectively
5. Lastly, you were never a superintendent in the past, had no experience and did a poor job
Basically you argue that our enrollment is on the rise.  But you have not found out how to effectively not over enroll students and help to create an effective learning environment.  You as an academic individual should know that when schools are over crowded it is hard for teacher to teach and students to learn. Your answer is to hire more administrators and make costs larger.  But admins the last time I checked do not instruct or teach classes.
You have also gotten rid of school counselors and instructional assistants.  Also, you have not provided students with text books.  I think that the other screw up was you were not effective in your hiring staff.  All the people you hired were new trainees.  Nobody is held accountable for mismanagement under your leadership.  There is always somebody else to blame it on.
However, there will be some people whom will miss you in the Seattle School District.  That would be the ineffective leadership of the Seattle Education Association.    I am sure Johnathan Knapp will miss you dearly because he will have to cozy up to another superintendent.  
Lastly, Stand for children and Teach for America will also miss you.  But I bid you a fond farewell.  Hopefully you have as much fun screwing up the next school.  Because you have an impressive resume.  

Best of luck in your future,
http://seattleschooldistrictexposed.com/3/previous/2.htmlNick Esparza

West Seattle schools: 226 assigned to K-5 STEM at Boren

I am so frustrated and puzzled to see folks pining about being on the waitlist for Pathfinder, Why would people want to put their kids into a predominantly white school that is failing in double digits, rather than to have them attend a culturally diverse, neighborhood school that is succeeding, and NOT in its fifth year of failing AYP? Even the Department of Education suggested to the District that they close this school because it was failing. I don’t know why you would want so little for your children. Would you same people be in such a lather to get their kids into this school if they were still in the practically condemned Genessee Hill Building instead of the gleaming Cooper building? For example, Roxhill is not in any step of failure, yet it is whispered in the “good circles” of West Seattle as being a “bad” school and a ghetto school, A predominantly brown school that is succeeding is not worse than a school of failing white kids in a nice building, but it appears that that might be the consensus here in Seattle. These are patterns that the country saw before the “Brown vs, the Board of Education” decision was handed down in 1954. Please understand I am in no way against predominantly white schools, but I am tired of rewatching this perception that schools of color are “bad” and failing when a lot of them are not.
Maybe if all of you just attended your neighborhood schools, no schools in West Seattle would have a bad reputation. More commentary nickesparza@seattleschooldistrictexposed.com
I’m just sayin…
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"Joy Anderson "STEM Meeting Last Night"

"Joy Anderson "STEM Meeting Last Night"

02/22/2013

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Joy Anderson
I left the school boards meeting early, drove around Schmitz Park for 20 minutes trying to park, and was shocked to see the overflow crowd. It was only dissapointment from there. The District representatives knew the answers to one out of eveey five questions asked. You could cut the frustration with a knife. They could not even tell the crowd how many students they thought would be admitted. That building housed an an entire high school for years, yet they can't decide the enrollment? 350, 500? Class size? Not a clue. I felt compelled to ask them some of the harder questions, such as, "The last time this school was used as an elementary school, as the Cooper kids were housed there, waiting for their new building, there were no portables at Boren. Will the portables be removed so that the children be able to play on the playground again?" They did't know. What about the children who were assigned to schools not in their neighborhood due to the District's school closures? If they try STEM school, and it isn't a good fit, they lose their spot in their current school, and would be forced, due to NSAP, to go to their neighborhood school, which may not have been their original school. 3 schools. With so few details about this new school, why would a parent take that chance? Since there would probably be more boys at this school than girls, would there be an effort to hire more male teachers? What about teachers of color? A study was done, citing that many immigrant children of African descent, scored higher on math tests than other children of color. At Cooper, the children scored higher on the math WASL than the children at Arbor Heights. Yet it did not look like the District made any real effort to.include our sizeable African popluation in this conversation. With as many Somali cab driving PH.D. engineers I have met, this just slays me. I suggested that the District have this meeting at West Seattle Elementary and be aure to have translators. This was hailed as a "good idea" as if it were a.completely new concept to them. Unbelievable.
This meeting really seemed to me to be an lacklustre attempt to appease the parents of North West Seattle on their capacity woes. Unfortunately, I think it may have backfired, due to their incredible lack of information. The Disrtict underestimated parents every time, and they always blow it for the children. Business as usual.
Oh, yes. And the big carrot they dangled in front of these parents, was "Apply to be on the design team! Then you can make this school whatever you want!" To a lot of those parents fresh of a stint from one of those control freak PTA's we hear so much about, I am sure this sounded like nirvana... (The paradise, not the band...) I hope that the District makes a concerted effort to build a culturally diverse design team, and listens to the opinions of ALL parents, and even children, from West Seattle. This coukd be a eeally great thing, or a real distater. Only time will tell. The District is at a fork in the road wirh this one. Hope they choose the correct one for a change

Equal Employment Opportunity

Equal Employment Opportunity
It has come to our attention at Seattle School District Exposed, that the seattle school's human resources department is using race to screen out people for jobs.  It is illegally not letting us choose to answer this question.  It is an optional question by law.  I have brought this to the attention of the human resources department manager Nathan Fitzpatrick.  I informed the department that it is illegal under I-200 to not have this be section be optional.  Nearly 4 months later nothing has been fixed.  This is not done by accident, it is done to fix the numbers. Schools are making this not an optional race section to skewing the equal employment opportunity numbers and make it look like more people of color work there.  Then the district gets credit for doing this, being diverse and abiding by the EEOC rules.  
My advice to anyone applying for a job at Seattle School District to not answer your race.  Select white.  This is an optional question and if they are not going to abide by the rules then why should we give them information make them look good?  
Options to solve or prevent this:
E-Mail or call the human resources at the school about this, or the EEOC.  This is not allowed under federal law.  
If you have applied and forced to provide please redact your answer.  Have them remove that from your file, or the numbers they send to the federal government.  
You can also  e-mail or call the school board and tell them about what is going on and have them put a stop to this.
Lastly, have people come forward and fight legally against the laws they have broken.  Call them out on their wrongful practices.  
Incase you think I was joking here is the online form as it is posted on the job site, you will see  Q 20 Hispanic is optional but on Q 21 there is not an option for no answer:
20.Per Federal mandate, educational institutions are required to report race and ethnicity data for employees. This information is private and only collected and reported as required by state and federal laws. This information will not be part of your employment file. 
Are you of Hispanic or Latino origin?== Populated
YES, Hispanic/LatinoNO, not Hispanic/LatinoNo Answer21.What race(s) do you consider yourself? Please check all that apply.== Populated
American Indian or Alaska Native(A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment)Asian (A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast, Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam)Black or African American (A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa)Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands)White (A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa)
On another note about equal opportunity, we at Seattle Schools Exposed have learned that the interim director of nutritional services was given the job without a competitive interview.  The job was not advertised or made aware to the general public.  I see several problems with this.  Was she really the best person for the job.  You can't just hire someone without doing a thorough job search. 
The above is just another example of business as usual.  Just like when hiring the Superintendant they just handed it out like candy Halloween.  No interviews.  These are the reasons why there have been 11 directors in 11 years and nobody has faith in them.  It is being run like Daffy Duck is in charge.  As looney as a tooney. 
We at Seattle School District Exposed are calling for resignation of the HR Director.  Ineffective management in following policies and abiding by EEOCguidelines.
I look forward to your comments and help in these issues.  We can also be followed on Youtube at SPS schools exposed, at Twitter at SPS Exposed and Facebook as well.tle School District Expo

How to win Friends and Influence Journalists

It is self evident that our school board is dysfunctional, and it has been so for at least a decade. We know, we know, we know, you and Charlie have let us know in every graphic detail. but instead of chronically complaining about them (which by the way, I glaze over after reading some of your complaints by now), so, can you put your political capital where your mouth is? Any solutions in your bag of tricks? With the six or so scandals that have been brought to light, why you keep frothing up the Silas Potter scandal? And I haven't seen your name on a lawsuit, nor have you run for school board. Either back up your views with facts and an edge, or sit back and transcribe. You can't play all sides. You were on the school closure committee before you were against school closures.  You were vague and noncommittal about the MOU until Chris Jackins beat the District in court on it. I would respect you a lot more if, instead of trying to second-guess the winning horse, you would just pick a position, hold your head high, and see it through.  It is the only way for you to graduate from being a blogger to being respected journalist.

poor leadership and union 609

I'd like to start by saying that I am not anti-union I'm anti-poor leadership.  I have come to the conclusions that union 609 offers just that to union members.  As of last week I had the opportunity to see Dave Westberg (Union Business Agent) come the day of a meeting about cutting hours for food service workers to get their input on the situation for the first time.  Hours before the meeting was to begin.  During this twenty minute visit Mr. Westberg was not interested in suggestions about how to make food service more efficient nor did he have any feed back that did not reflecthe views of management.  This is why I believe that it's time for the members of union 609 to abandon 609 and find a union that will advocate for it's members.
In the past five years Union 609 has lost on major issues that have effected it's members significantly. They have lost hours, wages, benefits; many of the members of union  609 qualify for food stamps, and free and reduced lunch.  These are economic issues that effect almost every aspect of union member's lives.  Unions were created to protect the worker's rights, hours, wages, benefits, not to bargain them away.  With representation like this, members would almost be better off on their own.
We ask respectfully that Dave Westberg do the responsible thing for Union 609 and resign.  His failure to represent his members wholeheartedly and to fight for them at every turn has proven David Westberg   lacks the will to lead.
Let us know  what you think.
Email us at nickesparza@seattleschooldistrictexposed.com