by Ari Robin McKenna
On Sept. 27, a spirited crowd packed the SoDo auditorium where Seattle’s school board meetings are held. Word had circulated that anti-trans activists were signed up to speak. Trans students, their allies, and the adults raising them were in attendance, and a showdown of sorts took place.
Continue reading Seattle Trans Students Have a Message: We Just Want to Be Young Peopleby Ari Robin McKenna
After months of speculation, reaction was muted last week to the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) announcement that it will not close schools in the next two school years as it struggles to meet a projected $104.4 million budget shortfall.
Continue reading No Seattle School Closures for the 2024–2025 School Year, but Staff Reductions on the Horizonby Ari Robin McKenna
The Seattle Public Schools board of directors is facing tough decisions about how to address a $104.4 million funding deficit Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones called “a perfect storm” for the 2024–2025 school year.
Continue reading Seattle Public Schools to Use Parent Engagement, Renewed Budget Process to Determine What Is and Isn’t ‘Sacrosanct’by Ari Robin McKenna
Though the City of Tukwila has evolved to become majority-minority along with its schools, where students speak 80 languages, the Tukwila School Board is currently all white and has been for most of the last few decades. The superintendent of Tukwila School District (TSD) and the school board president are hoping to change that, and if more qualified candidates were to come forward in the next month, as many as three of five board districts could have representation from people who are part of the global majority.
Continue reading Tukwila School District Seeks to Diversify Its School Boardby Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Ari Robin McKenna
Ongoing negotiations between Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and IUOE Local 302 — the union representing custodial staff, culinary services, school grounds crews, and security workers — could potentially threaten the start of the 2023–2024 school year.
Continue reading Contract for Seattle Public Schools’ Support Staff Expired Thursday, Casting a Pall Over the Start of the School Yearby Ari Robin McKenna
After participating in the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition’s (SESEC) Advocacy and Policy Cohort in 2020, Liz Huizar wasn’t sure how she would put what she’d learned to use. Then, El Centro de la Raza — where she worked at the time running a dozen educational programs — decided to open up a new location in southwest King County to serve people who had been displaced from Seattle. Huizar took out her cohort notes.
Continue reading Liz Huizar, New Executive Director of the Southeast Seattle Education Coalitionby Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Ari Robin McKenna
While working to rebuild Rainier Beach High School throughout the cold, dark rainy winter, Israel Presley carries up to 60 lbs in his belt and pack. His pack often includes three drills (each with different bits), a double-jack sledgehammer, “cowbells,” “come-alongs,” and a “yo-yo” — a retractable lifeline that allows him to move about the jobsite, but would catch him should he fall.
Continue reading The Hopes and Fears of a Former Student Working to Rebuild Rainier Beach High Schoolby Ari Robin McKenna
In a stunning display of intellectual prowess, courage, and unity, five members of Hazen High School’s Associated Student Body (ASB) gave stirring testimony at the Renton School District board meeting Wednesday, in defense of themselves and two educators they say are being bullied by first-year principal Ashley Landes. Despite being told by a district official in the days leading up to the board meeting that they might “lose their voice” if they spoke up in such a way, the students delivered passionate yet measured assessments on their perspective of events. Their testimony from the center of the auditorium earned raucous applause from the sizable crowd while board members and Renton Superintendent Damien Pattenaude looked on from the performance hall stage.
Continue reading Renton Student Leaders Raise Awareness of Admin Bullying Them, Educators
