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When will Seattle Public Schools get its next superintendent? Not this fall

caption: The John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, Seattle Public School headquarters, on Feb. 27, 2021.
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The John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, Seattle Public School headquarters, on Feb. 27, 2021.
KUOW Photo/Ann Dornfeld

It remains unclear when Seattle Public Schools will have its next permanent leader in place.

The Seattle School Board decided this week to extend the superintendent search to allow more time for community input.

The original search timeline had called for the district's superintendent to start this fall, ahead of the new school year. Community engagement efforts to help the board decide what qualities people want in a new superintendent were supposed to be mostly wrapped up by the spring.

But the board has opted to revise the timeline by holding several additional community engagement meetings this month and extending the deadline for an online survey to Aug. 4.

In an interview Wednesday, Seattle School Board President Gina Topp said it's become clear that the community wants more time to be heard.

"I love the fact that people want to participate and want to be part of this process — that just continues to show how important education is in our city and that we really care about who's leading our public schools here," Topp said. "If we need to take some more time to make sure that we get this right and do this right, we're going to do that."

RELATED: Seattle Public Schools to hunt for new leader as Superintendent Jones steps down

All Together for Seattle Schools applauded the board's decision to extend the search. The parent and community advocacy group has been pushing for a slower search process for months, arguing the board should prioritize "quality over speed" — especially after several tumultuous years at the district, as officials grappled with ongoing financial woes and debated mass school closures.

"We think that the selection of our next superintendent is one of the most important decisions the board will make," said Erin MacDougall, co-chair of the group. "Rushing the process would be a disservice to our students, families, and educators, who we believe deserve a thoughtful, deliberate leadership selection."

RELATED: Politics and change: Why Seattle Public Schools' superintendent is stepping down

Topp could not predict a date when the board would select a superintendent. She said she believes the timeline will depend on the candidates who apply for the position and when they're available to start.

"There could be a candidate we like and they can start two weeks later. Or maybe the right candidate can't start until January or June," Topp said. "Is that acceptable, and is that what the board wants to do moving forward? I think those will have to be conversations the board has when we get to that point."

It also remains to be seen if the board will keep Acting Superintendent Fred Podesta on as an interim leader through the remainder of the search.

Podesta, usually the district's chief operations officer, was only slated to serve as acting superintendent through Sept. 3 — the date that was also supposed to be outgoing Superintendent Brent Jones' last day. Jones has been on medical leave since May, and will remain on leave for the rest of his tenure.

Topp said the board will discuss the matter during its next scheduled meeting on July 30.

"I can't speak for other board directors. I don't know where they are on the issue and want to make sure we have an opportunity to have that conversation in public," Topp said. "However, I do think Acting Superintendent Podesta is doing a good job and I would like to see him continue in that role as we look for a new leader."

Since Jones announced he was stepping down earlier this year, All Together for Seattle Schools has pushed the board to conduct a transparent, nationwide search, rather than hiring from within as the district has done in the past, including with Jones in 2022.

And the group took it a step further, advocating for the the board to select an interim superintendent from outside the district to prevent that situation from happening again.

But MacDougall said Wednesday All Together is now open to the board keeping Podesta as acting superintendent, in the interest of minimizing disruptions to students and providing the district with stability financially — as long as Podesta is not interested in the permanent job.

"We feel that a longer-term appointment of Mr. Podesta in this role could strengthen our attention to the longer-term hiring of a superintendent that will bring thoughtful and deliberate governance and accountability to the city and the school district," MacDougall said. "We are very concerned that an internal and temporary superintendent who's already inside SPS and has the aspiration of becoming the superintendent is problematic."

At the July 30 meeting, Topp said the board will also get an update from the superintendent search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, on key takeaways and themes from community engagement efforts.

Topp said the engagement meetings this month will be largely focused on gathering input from historically marginalized groups, like multilingual families.

The meetings are scheduled for:

  • 6 p.m. July 25 at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School;
  • 3 p.m. July 26 at South Shore K-8 School;
  • And a virtual session with a date and time that's yet to be decided.

Each of those meetings will provide interpretation in American Sign Language and the district's top five spoken languages: Amharic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The board will also host virtual single-language engagement sessions in Amharic at 4:30 p.m. July 22, and in Spanish at 7 p.m. July 25.

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