Tom Tangney: Lack of communication from Seattle Schools is ‘unforgivable’

It’s one thing for teachers to be reassigned to schools, disrupting the start of a school year for students. It’s another thing altogether when school officials won’t communicate what’s happening with upset and confused parents.

“That’s unforgivable,” said Tom Tangney, from the Tom and Curley Show, said on Wednesday.

Parents are on the offensive over the lack of transparency with teacher reassignments and class sizes at Seattle Public Schools.

According to The Seattle Times, students, teachers and parents held a “half-baked sale” and staged a protest Tuesday outside the SPS headquarters to bring attention to the planned reassignments of about two dozen teachers. The district claims the reassignments are tied to lower-than-projected enrollment.

Shine Sun, a parent of a Lowell Elementary School student on Capitol Hill, told KIRO Radio’s Josh Kerns on Tuesday that the reassignments are just the tip of the iceberg about what parents are really mad about.

“We need transparency, that’s all we’ve been asking for from the beginning,” Sun said. “Can you tell us why this was done and where are the cost savings that you say are gonna happen?

“Explain to us, partner with us, the parents who want to fix the situation. We are not here to be adversaries. We are here to be advocates for our children. We are here to partner with people. We trust that you are smart people, we trust that they actually want to take care of kids or else why would they get into this businesses in the first place? Maybe I’m naïve but that’s kind of what we’re going with. Partner with us, let us into your decision making.”

The district has said enrollment came in 675 students below projections, with the need to cut costs to keep pace with the lower revenue.

The Seattle Times’ Danny Westneat noted that this year’s schools budget devoted to central staff and the superintendent’s office jumped 16 percent apiece and the public-information office popped up 25 percent, while the teacher’s budget went up 8.4 percent. Meanwhile, enrollment was up just 1 percent.

“Something is funky about those numbers and we need the school to explain it,” Tom said.

While Tom considers the lack of communication “unforgivable,” Curley wasn’t surprised.

“They don’t need to because the people are trapped, they can’t go anywhere,” he said. “The rich people have the option to leave, and they leave, and those that are poor are stuck and they get screwed by people that are inefficient. It’s a monopoly against them and they can’t get any changes that they want.”

On Wednesday afternoon, SPS Spokesperson Jacque Coe held a news conference where she explained how staffing adjustments are related to state funding. She said that SPS should know by Friday where all the staff will be moved, but it’s “still a very fluid process” and that all staff moves should be in place by Oct. 26.

“This is what inadequate state funding looks like at a local level,” she said. “We would love to be able to fund class sizes down to 1 to 15. Unfortunately, that’s not really the reality we’re living with in Washington state.”