In a district the place priorities continually shift, state funding formulation fall quick, and good concepts die between idea and motion, there’s at all times one thing — or somebody — responsible for challenges in Seattle Public Colleges.
Whereas many points want consideration, the underlying issue is a faculty board that hasn’t constantly understood or fulfilled its function. For decades, confusion concerning the board’s function and lack of accountability has broken public belief and compromised pupil outcomes.
This isn’t attributable to an absence of concepts or good intentions, and it’s not for lack of steering. Skilled requirements from the Washington State School Directors’ Association, analysis just like the Iowa Lighthouse Inquiry and greatest practices from the National School Boards Association all say the identical factor: Efficient boards lead with readability, consistency and objective. The college administrators’ group and different organizations additionally present coaching and sources. These sources all agree that how the board develops and behaves as a physique determines whether or not the general public’s priorities are acknowledged, the district is responsive and whether or not there’s progress for college students.
Not like a metropolis council or legislature, college boards maintain each legislative and government authority. They set insurance policies that set up the imaginative and prescient, targets, and necessities for the district (governance) and rent and oversee a superintendent to hold them out (administration). When boards lose sight of those tasks, they turn into ineffective, reacting to short-term crises as a substitute of driving significant change. That is very true in massive city districts like Seattle, the place leadership turnover is high and group pressures typically battle.
Debates about college consolidation, gifted training, selection packages, security, enrollment, entry to companies, alternative hole, and price range deficits aren’t new. However until the board units clear course in coverage and ensures accountability by monitoring progress, the district will proceed to lurch from one emergency to a different, irritating households, burning out educators and failing our college students.
Previous boards have tried to maneuver ahead. Within the final 30 years, a number of exterior evaluations of SPS have urged the district to undertake a policy-based governance construction with built-in accountability. In 2021, the board adopted the Pupil Outcomes Centered Governance framework to enhance its work. However by 2023, progress had stalled. An assessment by Moss Adams introduced in December 2024 revealed why: Whereas the board had adopted SOFG, the central workplace didn’t comply with with agreed-upon administrative modifications. Moderately than insist on progress, the board has reverted to previous habits. That hole between board course and implementation has left households, educators and board members understandably annoyed.
The SOFG mannequin, like Coverage Governance and comparable fashions, is a instrument to assist boards focus, self-evaluate and align with greatest practices. However a instrument is just not an answer. Change will solely come from a board that constantly understands and commits to its function as a governing physique. That features avoiding interfering with workers tasks and as a substitute holding our chief government, the superintendent, answerable for managing the district consistent with contract, coverage and legislation.
When college students, workers and households elevate issues, they deserve decision. Most points needs to be addressed by workers by way of techniques aligned to board coverage. The board’s job is to make sure these techniques exist and are efficient. If coverage isn’t adopted, the board should maintain the superintendent accountable. If coverage is unclear, the board should revise it.
Upcoming board elections, a superintendent search and strategic plan growth supply an opportunity to reset. Whether or not this turns into a turning level or one other chapter in a rudderless trajectory relies on what sort of board we decide to being.
No particular person board member, superintendent, guide or framework will “repair” Seattle Public Colleges. What can, over time, is a board that is aware of its job, acts accordingly and holds the system accountable. We haven’t misplaced our means; the trail is correct in entrance of us. We simply want the collective will and self-discipline to comply with it.
The way forward for Seattle Public Colleges relies on a board that is aware of what it’s right here to do — and really does it.
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