Excellence for All

December 2, 2009

Dear Seattle Public Schools families and staff members,

On November 18th, the School Board voted to approve a combination of initiatives that represent a sea change for Seattle Public Schools. Guided by Excellence for All, our five-year plan that focuses us all on student achievement, the board approved four major initiatives:

• Adoption of New Student Assignment Plan Boundaries
• Facilities Master Plan Updates
• Operations Levy and BTA III Levy Resolutions
• A new Capacity Management policy

This is the first time the district has attempted to integrate all of this important work. It is momentous not just because we are delivering on a long-needed new student assignment plan, but because we are at the same time putting systems in place to ensure that future work happens in an integrated manner. I thank you for the insights, feedback and contributions you have made to this work over the past two years.

It means that in the future, the District won’t be in the place we are today – operating from boundaries that haven’t been updated in thirty years, and needing to correct a way of doing business that resulted in a decades-old imbalance between where we have facilities with capacity and where our students live.

This is a significant shift in the way we work together to support our schools. It will lead to better outcomes for our students for two fundamental reasons:

• We are going to be able to make better decisions because we will have a deeper understanding of how our work connects and;
• Greater efficiencies in how we administer the district mean that we can continue to direct even more resources where they matter most - to the classroom.

This is, of course, the right thing to do in any event. But it is essential given the ongoing economic challenges we face.

The School Board also voted on resolutions that will enable us to move ahead with critically needed levies, made updates to our facilities master plan, and approved a new capacity management policy to integrate future planning for facilities, enrollment and program placement.

As we address all of these issues so critical to advancing student achievement, we will continue to build on the strengthened relationships that have resulted from working together to create new boundaries for the student assignment plan. We are particularly thankful for the role that our family connectors played throughout the boundary development and review process. They are modeling what we know our new assignment plan will also help foster: the extraordinary power of meaningful family engagement opportunities at each neighborhood school.

We all want a district where every school is an excellent school. We know we have to continue to make significant changes for that to come true. I want to recognize that the School Board faced extremely difficult decisions as they considered these policies. It is an honor to work alongside such dedicated board directors, and I remain tremendously enthused about what we are poised to accomplish together on behalf of all our students.

Sincerely,

Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools

Every student achieving, everyone accountable.

Contact the superintendent at superintendent@seattleschools.org.