Re: “Make Seattle family-friendly again with effective school governance” (May 23, Opinion):
Kudos to Donald P. Nielsen’s call for restructuring Seattle Public Schools’ ineffectual governance system.
Since the 1960s, major policy quagmires such as desegregation and school closure ushered in a new breed of activist board members, many of whom knew little about overseeing complex systems. Seattle School Board selections of superintendents since Forbes Bottomly have been equally uninspired, with the exception of John Stanford.
We must be realistic about the future of leadership for Seattle schools. The SPS board is incapable of righting its own ship. Asking a new superintendent to bring about needed change while simultaneously dealing with a green and politicized board is folly — as history has shown.
Nielsen points us in the right direction of entertaining innovative options for school governance. Such a radical change will require fresh thinking and a coalition of community leaders outside SPS to re-vision governance and schooling for SPS. Our community is rife with organizations and experts capable of leading such a process. We are long overdue shedding early-20th-century governance structures for the demands of 21st-century schooling.
Stephen Rowley, Ph.D., Bainbridge Island (former SPS teacher)
