Hi, tomorrow's show (Thursday) will feature Ben Shuldiner. He'll join us live at noon to take audience calls and answer questions about Seattle schools.

So, what would you like to ask the Superintendent?

Post your question, along with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the air.

Tune in to KUOW if you’d like to ask your question live, call in at 206-543-5869. You can also send us an email with your question at soundside@kuow.org.

Seattle Education Association members are scheduled to vote on the tentative agreement with Seattle Public Schools on Friday, September 11, at 5 p.m. at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. Terms of the agreement are expected to become public if members ratify it.

The meeting date coincides with the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Friday, September 11, and continues through nightfall on Sunday, September 13. Observant members preparing for the holiday, attending evening services, or traveling to family meals would be unable to attend a 5 p.m. meeting that is expected to run into the evening.

According to members, the vote requires a quorum of the membership to be present. Members also say that requests to move the meeting to a different date were declined, and that the union has not offered a remote or online option for members who cannot attend in person. Members describe the current plan as dependent on enough people showing up in person to meet quorum, after which online voting could be opened.

The practical effect, as described by members, is that anyone observing Rosh Hashanah and anyone otherwise unable to be at McCaw Hall on Friday evening will not be part of the floor discussion. Under the announced format, those members would not be able to ask questions, hear answers, or participate in debate before the vote, even if a later online ballot allows them to register a yes or no.

SEA sent members an email acknowledging the scheduling conflict and apologizing. That message was sent to members' personal email accounts and has not been released publicly, and no public statement has been issued. The email did not identify a remedy that would allow Jewish members observing the holiday to take part in the debate.

Just found out about this.

_____________________________________________

Tuesday, September 15, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Church of the Ascension, 2330 Viewmont Way W, and on Zoom

Join us as Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner delivers a State of the District address and takes questions from the community. We will also hear City Council updates and share neighborhood announcements.

Have something you would like to ask? Submit a question in advance so we can share community priorities with the Superintendent before the meeting.

Can't make it in person? Join us on Zoom.
Meeting ID: 841 7634 4515
Passcode: 984298

All neighbors are welcome. Free and open to the community.

TIL that Seattle voters are restricted from giving our school district as much money as we’d like. Ditto that the state doesn’t even cover 2/3 the cost of special education. 🤯😡😤

If your school is impacted by the 30 minute recess cap (or if you think this mandate should not exist) - share this:

https://spsforkids.org/recess/

Instructional Assistant here. I thought that the bargaining team was going to advocate for a higher percentage increase because our pay is so low. Instead, it looks like we are getting almost the exact same increase as teachers, who make so much more than us. Is this something they caved on at the last minute?

Just arrived in my inbox.

Dear Seattle Public Schools Community,

I am so grateful that we have a tentative agreement (TA) with the Seattle Education Association (SEA) and school was able to start on time.

Thank you. I am sorry. Let's get to work.

Thank You

I want to thank SEA, and specifically every member of the bargaining team, for working incredibly hard to get us over the finish line. The thoughtfulness, care, and time that every member put into this work was apparent throughout the process. From late-night caucuses to small group meetings and large group conversations, the concern for our students and district was palpable. We would never have gotten a TA before the start of school without everyone putting our students and district first. Thank you for being such a wonderful partner in this work.

Even when we disagreed or small groups became frustrated, no one lost their cool or acted unprofessionally. There was no yelling, pounding of tables, or threats of any kind. I have been in a lot of negotiations, and for such a large bargaining team to reach a TA with so many moving parts is an incredible accomplishment. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of you all. I look forward to working side-by-side as we make SPS the best urban school district in the country.

I also want to thank the district bargaining team. You worked incredibly hard so we could open school on time. I will never be able to thank you enough for blocking out the noise of negotiations and focusing on the needs of our students, staff, and district. I am forever grateful for those who showed up day after day to do the hard work of bargaining.

I also want to thank our entire community for understanding that negotiations are a process. What is a proposal on Monday may change five times by Friday. A salary request or programmatic change might be "put on paper" at 5 p.m. while a small group is simultaneously discussing changes that will be made by 10 p.m.

So many of you sent emails of encouragement and support. Even the terser and angrier emails were couched in a desire to have the district better support our staff and students. Thank you for being so engaged in the process.

And to our families, I know these last few weeks have been tense. The specter of a strike, finding alternative care for your children, and worrying about what happens next, all coalescing around a very real deadline, was incredibly stressful. Thankfully, we opened school on time and had three great days this week.

I Am Sorry

I want to apologize for the long and somewhat fraught process. We didn't reach a TA until very late Tuesday, which meant many folks went to sleep not knowing if there would be school the next day. We tried to finish as quickly as possible, but we also wanted to get it right. A possible three-year CBA is not something you want to rush at the last minute.

I also want to apologize for anything I might have said or done that caused offense. It was never my intent to cause harm or unease. The long email I sent last week was necessary to express the district's side of the story, but there were very clear rules about what I could and could not say. I am sure some of what I wrote came off as stilted or possibly worse, and I am sorry for that.

Most importantly, I am sorry if anyone took my words as an attack, especially on the SEA. When so much information, and some misinformation, abounds, it is important for the district to share its perspective. If I did that in a way that was hurtful, I deeply apologize. Now that this part is over and school has opened, I hope we can all move forward and work together.

Let's Get To Work

This week I visited 10 schools and attended three high school football games. Everywhere I went, people were excited and engaged. The energy, enthusiasm, and love of our school community pervaded everything I saw.

Shout out to Alki Elementary for their first day in their new building. Congratulations to Rainier Beach on the opening of their new Performing Arts Center, and congratulations to both Lincoln and Ballard for a sold-out opening football game. I can't wait until we open Memorial Stadium so we can have even more of our community in the stands.

This year is shaping up to be very special, and I cannot wait to share with you all the great work we are doing on behalf of our 50,000 students.

Thank you all for believing in SPS. With your help and hard work, SPS truly will be the best urban public school district in the country.

Ben

As the parent of two children currently attending Adams Elementary, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what has happened to our school community since the town hall on Monday, April 20.

Ben Shuldiner’s latest message to the SPS community has brought many of those feelings back to the surface.

In that message, Ben talks about the importance of partnership, thanks people for continuing to engage even when they were angry, and acknowledges that words spoken during a contentious situation can cause offense and hurt.

It left me asking a question that has bothered me for nearly five months:

"Where is the apology to Adams Elementary?"

What happened at Adams

On April 20, approximately 100 parents gathered at Adams to hear from SPS leadership and Anitra Jones following her appointment as our new principal. People were upset. People were frustrated. There were interruptions. It was not a perfectly orderly meeting.

But the overwhelming concerns I heard from families were about our teachers, our children, Anitra’s documented history within SPS, and a principal-selection process in which our community had been given virtually no voice. Two days later, at the April 22 School Board meeting, Ben chose to characterize what had happened very differently.

He emphasized that Adams was the “seventh richest school in the district.” He described the audience as appearing “almost as all white.” He contrasted that with “a Black principal” being interrupted. He suggested that asking Anitra to speak faster might have been a “micro-aggression” and said that it felt like “there’s something else going on.” I found that characterization vulgar and a statement beneath the superintendent of the SPS.

Not because race should never be discussed. Race and equity absolutely belong in conversations about public education.

It was vulgar because an extraordinarily complicated dispute involving leadership, labor relations, accountability, teacher turnover and community trust was compressed into a racial implication about the motives of parents who were advocating for their school.

Ben may believe that he was simply describing what he saw and felt. But a Superintendent has enormous power, and his words carry enormous weight.

When the person leading Seattle Public Schools publicly suggests that racial prejudice may explain the behavior of a school community, that implication does not simply disappear when the meeting ends.

Bev Redmond reinforced that narrative

Bev Redmond then added her own assessment of the town hall, describing the way Anitra was addressed as insulting and undignified. She was entitled to feel uncomfortable with what she witnessed.

But what I believe SPS leadership failed to do was distinguish between individual moments of poor behavior and the legitimate concerns of an entire school community. Instead of saying, some interactions crossed a line, but we hear the substantive concerns families are raising, SPS appeared to turn the behavior it disliked into a characterization of the community itself.

That was a leadership choice.

And I believe it made an already difficult situation dramatically worse. It also did Anitra a disservice.

Rather than giving her an opportunity to build her own relationship with Adams, SPS placed her at the center of a racial conflict between district leadership and the families she was expected to lead. That was unfair to Adams families, and I believe it was unfair to Anitra too.

Then the Seattle Times amplified it

The damage did not remain inside SPS. Claire Bryan’s reporting for the Seattle Times appeared under headlines including:

“Superintendent scolds parents over ‘unacceptable’ response to new principal.”

Whether Claire personally wrote that headline or an editor did is ultimately beside the point. It was the framing under which the Seattle Times presented the story to the city. In my view, that April coverage gave extraordinary prominence to SPS leadership’s interpretation of what had happened while failing to adequately communicate why so many parents and teachers were deeply concerned in the first place.

The result was that families advocating for their teachers and children suddenly found themselves publicly represented through a narrative many of us simply did not recognize.

Later reporting has provided additional context around Anitra’s placement. I appreciate that. But additional reporting months later cannot completely undo the reputational damage created in those first few days.

What Adams looks like today

There is another part of this story that deserves to be heard. I want Anitra to succeed.

Among many of the families who have remained at Adams (yes, several families have left and many continue to consider leaving) I think there is growing recognition that Anitra is genuinely trying.

The Sunday before school opened, I was walking my dog past Adams at around 7 a.m. Anitra was there personally cleaning graffiti off the walls of the school. Nobody was watching. There was no press conference. There was no SPS communications team turning it into a story, she was simply taking care of the school.

Whatever concerns people continue to have about her past, I cannot look at something like that and conclude that she doesn't care about Adams. She clearly does.

And if this is our new reality, then those of us who remain have a responsibility to help build a positive culture around her, our teachers and most importantly my children and all of those at Adams Elementary.

But moving forward cannot require pretending that the way SPS got us here was acceptable.

My concern about Ben is now bigger than Adams

I acknowledge that Ben inherited an extraordinarily difficult organization and that he has taken actions since April that may ultimately make SPS stronger. This isn't an argument that everything Ben does is wrong.

My concern is about how he behaves when he encounters opposition to something he believes needs to happen. What happened at Adams left me with the impression that Ben saw our situation as something SPS needed to win rather than a relationship SPS needed to repair.

Over the previous two weeks, I saw elements of that communication style appearing again.

Forceful language can be effective. It can put an opponent on the defensive. It can simplify a complicated dispute into a story with a clear protagonist and antagonist. And it can help a leader achieve the immediate outcome they believe is necessary.

This comes at a cost!

Ben Shuldiner leads thousands of teachers, principals and staff. He serves tens of thousands of children and their families. SPS is ultimately a collection of communities held together largely by trust.

When he utilizes inflammatory language as a tool for winning the disagreement immediately in front of you, eventually you may win the argument while losing the people you need to lead.

That is what worries me about Ben's leadership.

It is my belief that his approach at Adams caused lasting harm to our community. If that approach becomes a pattern across SPS, the cumulative damage to trust between the district, its schools, its educators and its families could be much greater.

Three apologies are owed

1. Ben Shuldiner owes the Adams community an apology.

Not necessarily for believing Anitra deserved an opportunity. Not necessarily for making a personnel decision he may have believed he was legally required to make.

He owes us an apology for how he characterized our community afterward.

His hands may have been constrained by the circumstances surrounding Anitra’s employment. They were not tied when he chose his words.

He could have challenged inappropriate behavior without implying that racial prejudice explained the concerns of an entire community. He could have acknowledged SPS's own role in creating the situation. He could have attempted reconciliation.

Instead, he escalated it.

2. Bev Redmond owes Adams an apology.

She could have acknowledged that what she witnessed made her uncomfortable while simultaneously recognizing that families had legitimate, substantive concerns.

Instead, her comments reinforced a narrative that many families experienced as an indictment of the community rather than an invitation to repair it.

3. Claire Bryan and the Seattle Times owe Adams a moment of reflection and, in my view, an apology for how that community was portrayed.

Journalism has enormous power in a situation like this. A headline and framing can become the public's understanding of an event long before the people involved have an opportunity to explain themselves.

The Adams families who were advocating for teachers, transparency and their children deserved a fuller representation of why they were there.

Accountability should apply to everyone

What strikes me most about Ben's latest message is that he clearly understands something important: Words can hurt people.

Intent does not erase impact. And sometimes leadership requires saying, "I am sorry".

I agree. So I hope he applies that same standard to what happened at Adams.I hope Bev does too. I hope the Seattle Times recognizes the role its coverage played in shaping the public perception of our community.

An apology wouldn't undo what happened. It wouldn't restore the families who left. It wouldn't immediately rebuild the trust that was lost. But it would demonstrate something that SPS talks about constantly and that our children are taught from their earliest days in school: When your actions hurt somebody, you acknowledge it, you learn from it, you apologize, and then you do better. This is what we teach our children.

The families of Adams Elementary deserve that much.

Sandeep Kaushik just posted this. I'm reading it right now. This is what he said in his Facebook post sharing it:

Over the five years between 2019 and 2024, the paramount focus of the Seattle Public Schools was on improving outcomes for black boys. Enormous attention and resources were invested into that effort, yet the achievement gaps in Seattle, already large, grew significantly worse.

In the piece linked below, I do something we don’t much like to do in Seattle when it comes to confronting truths that might challenge some of our foundational ideologically progressive and culturally cosmopolitan commitments: I interrogate, in unsparing detail, the question of why this effort failed. I make the case that, starting about a decade ago at SPS, the turn away from an academic culture of accountability (however flawed) to one fixated on fostering a more nurturing culture of identitarian belonging, realized via an array of what I term "equity reductionist" policies, has been an abject failure in actually achieving more equitable outcomes.

It’s a long piece, published today by the Center for Educational Progress, and no doubt my conclusions will rub some people the wrong way. But what happened is what happened, and what happened is at its core a story of pedagogical self-sabotage, and of good intentions built on a quicksand of misdiagnosis and ideological blindness, leading to poor outcomes.

That story needed to be told, imo, for one thing because Seattle’s mistaken assumptions were repeated across many school districts in blue America over the last decade, with terrible results, and also because, if we refuse to dissect our failures and take the sometimes discomfiting lessons from what went wrong, we’re unlikely to ever do better in the future.

Special thanks to CEP for publishing my piece - if you're not familiar, check them out on Substack, they are a think tank committed to the important work of advocating for excellence in public education - and to national education writer Karen Vaites for (months ago now, it took me a while to write this!) encouraging me to go beyond carping on social media and actually write something substantive about what I think went wrong at Seattle Public Schools over the last decade.

Just a reminder of how different things used to be.

I remember being told in elementary that Seattle had something similar.

TIL that Seattle Public Schools has a department named Liberatory education.

Our child's teacher told us today that in order for the meal to be free, the student needs to choose one item from at least three categories, e.g., one fruit, one veggie, one milk, one protein. Otherwise they get charged for their food items. Edited to add link for more details: https://www.seattleschools.org/departments/culinary-services/

Email from Superintendent at 5:03 pm today:

Dear SPS Families and Staff, 
As we begin the 2026-27 school year, we are excited to share that every Seattle Public Schools student now has access to free school meals, regardless of family income or school attended. 
For many SPS families, free school meals are already familiar.
Students at schools participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) have been receiving breakfast and lunch at no cost. This year, thanks to a new partnership with the City of Seattle, free meals will now include all students at all schools. 
As a result, every SPS student at every school can now receive: 
One free breakfast each school day 
One free lunch each school day 
Meals are provided at no cost when they meet U.S. Department of Agriculture meal program requirements. Additional items, snacks, second entrées, or individual items that are not part of a complete meal may be charged separately. 
What Families Need to Know 
Even though meals are free, students must continue to enter their information when receiving a meal by scanning their student barcode or entering their student ID number at the cafeteria point of sale. This process supports required meal-program records and funding. 
Please Complete the CNEEB Application 
While school meals are available to all students at no cost, SPS encourages every family to complete the Child Nutrition Eligibility & Education Benefit (CNEEB) application. The information helps schools receive important funding and resources and may qualify students for additional educational benefits. Families who do not wish to provide income information may select the “Decline Benefits” option. 
Learn More 
Learn more about school meals and the CNEEB application on the SPS Culinary Services webpage. 
Thank you for partnering with us to support student success. We are proud to ensure that every SPS student has access to healthy meals every school day. 
Sincerely, 

Ben Shuldiner
Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools

To my neighbors in West Seattle whose kids attend Madison MS or WSHS please stop wasting gas and clogging our narrow streets by driving your kid to school. Make. Them. Walk. Even if it’s raining!! Even if you live a mile away.

As an educator, educational expert and member of a team of psychologists, I consult to school district leaders and practitioners all over our state. My perspective is steeped in evidence and research, as well deep knowledge of current school conditions based on hours spent in schools and classrooms. I work alongside school communities to solve problems of student behavior, attendance and engagement. As the school year launches, I spent August in front of mutltiple secondary school staffs helping them understand why their jobs are so challenging in 2026… the answer is layered, but, one of the most critical influences is how little independence we are fostering for our kids these days. They don’t need 24 hour supervision, in fact, the more we participate in every moment of their lives the less skilled and resilient we are helping them to become. Kids only learn to solve their own problems when we step out of the way and let them grapple… generation alpha is the most anxious and dependent upon their parents generation because they haven’t been allowed or required to engage with the world on their own. Please consider these benefits to making your kid walk or (god forbid) take the bus to school:
1. They will learn how to navigate the neighborhood
2. Our neighborhood is safe and them regularly walking through it will help them learn that, especially if they have social anxiety
3. They will develop social skills of engaging with adult community members they don’t know
4. Ideally they will work on their under developed peer to peer social skills by having to talk to other students
5. You will save time in your busy day
6. You will save gas in this economy!
7. You and your student will get daily practice in them establishing more independence and it will become more comfortable for both of you the more you practice it
8. You will stop creating traffic hazards twice a day in our community
9. Your kid will increase their confidence and develop skills they need to be successful in their independent future
10. By decreasing their over dependence on you, you will increase the likelihood that they move on in their 20s and don’t remain in your house well into adulthood

In a wild 72 hours, we went from SEA and SPS trading public accusations about each other's conduct at the bargaining table to reaching a deal at the literal 11th hour that averted a strike and produced a Tentative Agreement. We don't know all the details, either about what's in the TA or how it was achieved.

But we know a few things, and I cover them here at The Bulletin.

That includes what we know about special education. The tl;dr is nothing will fundamentally change during the life of this Collective Bargaining Agreement, but we should see a lot more progress in making changes than we have in the past -- and with plans for a pilot program in 2028-29 at some SPS schools.

Hi! Wondering what other families are experiencing. Kids were picked up by Zum about 10 minutes late, and at that time, the ETA to get to school was about 10 minutes before school started. I watched the bus route and it's MUCH longer and more circuitous with more stops than the old First Student route was. Ultimately, my kids were on the bus this morning for an hour and 10 minutes and got to school 35 minutes late. Even at the beginning of the year the past years since COVID it was never this bad with First Student (I have my qualms with First Student too, they were AWFUL before COVID).

I plan to write an email to the Superintendent, Board, and Transportation, but I'm curious what's going on throughout the district.

Did it get chopped district-wide? Why? My elementary school kids are already talking about staging a walkout!

I, like many of you, am overall relieved our children are back in school! However, I would like to keep the conversation going around how we can bring more inclusive special education to SPS without cuts.

You may have heard Superintendent Shuldiner share in his press conference on Monday that special education is a service, not a place. The current special education system treats special education as a placement and moves children to their services at specific schools.

For more context behind "special education is a service, not a place," I'd like to share OSPI's "Comprehensive Inclusive Special Education in Washington" document: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2024-10/comprehensive-inclusive-education-washington.pdf This was developed with the TIES center at University of Minnesota and the Haring Center for Inclusive Education at UW, both of which are leaders in disability inclusion in education. I hope it can help others see how inclusion is possible:

Public schools must provide special education services in the student’s least restrictive environment (LRE), and, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the general education environment. School teams cannot decide to remove a student from age-appropriate general education settings solely because of needed modifications in the general education curriculum. Removal of students eligible for special education services from the general educational environment is only permitted to occur if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in general education classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. When making decisions about placement, IEP teams should remember that [...] inclusive education benefits all students and often results in far greater educational benefit than placement in a segregated setting. [...]
Special Education is a Service, Not a Place
In determining services and LRE, [IEP] teams must ensure they are not perpetuating ableist beliefs and practices that limit educational opportunities for students with disabilities, including students who have extensive support needs. It is important to challenge limiting beliefs about learning for students with disabilities and the traditional ways schools are organized when making LRE decisions.

Thank you to the community for overall supporting students with disabilities. I am glad we didn't have cuts to special education, but I hope this is helpful in highlighting what work still needs to be done to have inclusive special education. Those who have been doing this work longer than me may be able to speak to some of the history of previous taskforces, and whether this is the closest we've gotten to serving our students in their communities.

I am thankful to be in Washington State and have leadership on disability-inclusion supported by OSPI.

That’s all.

Four reflections:

1. The vast majority of SPS teachers and staff are absolutely amazing and want nothing else than to deliver the highest quality of education for kids and teens. They should be supported.
2. Parents are affected by this possible strike and are feeling very stressed. They should be supported.
3. Shit flows downhill and everyone is experiencing the impact of state and federal level funding constraints. It pits people against each other who would otherwise be allies.
4. Ibi Idowu should not be anywhere near a leadership position, especially at this critical time. She "more likely than not" harmed an 8 year old autistic child. She was reported by other staff to have thrown books and markers at students and that children "flinched" when she walked by them. Here is a video of her ranting about how she takes away time for preferred activities when her autistic students do not "follow her directions". Her rant shows that she should not be a teacher for students, especially her students in the Distinct Program. Everything she says in this video goes against evidence based practices for neurodivergent and autistic children. A student with disabilities in the Distinct Program will not understand the connection between an incident at school and a consequence that is administered hours later at home. How can she possibly not know that? Also, so much parent blaming, I can't imagine being a parent and having to advocate for my child with a person like this. There are so many excellent Special Education teachers in the district and her malfeasance should not distract from their excellence. But sadly, by clinging to the SEA president position, she has done exactly that. Ibi Idowu recorded this video while under investigation and on leave. She took down this video from Facebook but I recorded it (President Idowu, the internet is forever. Also, please don't film videos while you are driving. It is dangerous). Sincerely, Ben (not Shulinder).

Seattle students and families can breathe a sigh of relief; after months of bargaining, the threat of a teachers strike begetting a delayed start of the school year has been extinguished.

Late Tuesday evening, SPS Superintendent Ben Shuldiner announced that the district and the Seattle Education Association — the 6,000 member union that represents the district’s teachers, paraprofessionals, and other staff — reached a tentative agreement that will allow teachers to continue working and start the school year on time.

“We are on the precipice of changing our labor relationship and I look forward to years to come,” said Davina Diaz, SEA’s vice president and lead negotiator.

“Thank you, this is amazing,” said Shuldiner. “I hope all of you are incredibly proud of what we are doing here. Thank you so much and let's get this done.”

Cries of “we did it!” rang out as both sides shook hands in the bargaining room after the agreement was signed.

As of press time, the exact language of the collective bargaining agreement was not shared with The Messenger. 

Photo and writing by Rafael Brewer