About 35 people or more came to chat with the Interm. Superintendent for Seattle Public Schools, Dr. Susan Enfeild at the Rainier Vista Boys& Girls Club. The group was made up of mostly African American parents, guardians, and community members.
*OVERALL GOALS
- Dr Enfeild expressed one of her main goals is to have great teachers, and principals in every Seattle school. She understands that the District isn’t exactly where they want to be, but feels like they’re on the right path to achieving this goal. She says there will be a shift in the system; one example was changing teachers accountability level from a 2 to a 4 level in effort of holding them more accountable for there actions.
*DISCIPLINE POLICIES
- Issues surrounding the current discipline policies came up, with parents telling some very disturbing stories about their child or children being disciplined differently because he/she is African American, and District staff telling parents that harsher discipline in necessary when dealing with young black males because they’re chances of going to prison are greater than others.
- Dr. Enfeild responded to these stories with an apology, and saying she’ll do all she can to ensure things like those don’t happen again.
- Someone also mentioned a Cultural Competency course, and how it should be a required component for all staff within the District. Parents are afraid of how their African American student is viewed by teachers. They want data collected, and teachers evaluated on how they interact with black children. Dr. Enfeild agreed but says there aren’t any funding resources available right now to do so.
*BEING MORE RESPONSIVE TO PARENTS
- Parents are also disappointed about how complaints, and concerns are responded to. Dr. Enfeild realizes that she has limited staff at this time due to budget cuts, but plans to put in a grant for a Board ombudsmen,and a District ombudsmen, to allow families better access to problem solving when there’s an issue.
*RB HIGH SCHOOL
- A major topic was the closing of RB High School, and the firing of Principal Dr. Gary. Parents were caught off guard by Dr. Gary’s termination because they weren’t notified of it until right before Dr. Gary was scheduled to be out of the building.
- When asked if the school would be closing next year, the Superintendent said there is no plan to close RB high next year, but she couldn’t guarantee that the school wouldn’t close eventually.
*FINAL STATEMENTS
- Dr. Enfeild concluded her chat with some final statements. Her, and her staff have some challenging work ahead of them, and some of the changes will make people uncomfortable.
- She may not be able to fix problems instantly, but she’s confident that problems are fixable…
-Jacquel Redmond
Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition
Neighborhood Journalist
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