It’s been a very long time since Seattle Public Colleges seemed like a supply of vitality or imaginative and prescient.
These are early days but. However the election of a brand new faculty board majority — and the work of the present board to pick out a promising new superintendent — counsel the daybreak of revitalized promise.
Ben Shuldiner, who nonetheless must finalize his contract with the district, has a stellar résumé that exhibits ferocious ambition and vital experience in an area that has hobbled many professionals earlier than him. At 26, when Shuldiner conceived and opened New York City’s High School for Public Service in 2002, he turned the youngest principal ever to steer a highschool in New York state.
At present, the 48-year-old heads Lansing, Michigan’s, faculty district, the place he has been heralded for elevating commencement and slicing drop-out charges in 4 years.
Is all of this mere spin? Native media are digging to search out out. For now, mother and father, workers and college students should put their religion in vetting carried out by the present faculty board, led by the considerate Gina Topp and her supporters.
This week, voters strengthened that group by reelecting Joe Mizrahi and Vivian Tune to seats on the board and including Jen LaVallee. All have made clear their distaste for Scholar Outcomes Targeted Governance, the hands-off administration mannequin that’s formed insurance policies, funds and oversight in Seattle for the previous 4 years — with dispiriting outcomes.
Shuldiner’s challenges shall be many. The district has an $87 million funds gap to fill after three consecutive years of $100 million gaps. These deficits have led to elementary lecture rooms of greater than 30 kids and highschool programs filled with as much as 40 youngsters. Neglect about private consideration in that context. No surprise achievement has flatlined.
There are, as nicely, ongoing questions round pupil security, a number of main lawsuits enjoying out and a deep mistrust amongst households that anybody at district headquarters can do something to make SPS what it needs to be: a top-tier faculty district in a metropolis constructed on brainpower.
Shuldiner seems unfazed by these hurdles, affecting a New Yorker’s tough-minded willingness to roll up his sleeves and get to work.
He’ll want it.
