See who’s in the running for Seattle school superintendent, and how you can grade them

The Seattle School Board has announced its three finalists for superintendent, and wants you to be part of the process of figuring out who gets the job.

From left, in district-provided photos, are former Montana state Superintendent of Public Instruction (now a consultant) Denise Juneau, Harrison School District 2 Superintendent Dr. Andre D. Spencer of Colorado, and Ann Arbor (Michigan) Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift. Short bios for all three are here.

On April 4th, the school board expects to vote to start negotiating with its preferred candidate. But before they decide who that will be, here’s how they invite you to weigh in:

*This Thursday (March 29th), 5-8:15 pm, the three finalists will “present and answer questions … sequentially,” as explained here, in a public forum at district HQ (3rd/Lander in SODO). If you can’t be there in person, you can watch on cable channel 26 or via a district-website livestream.

*You’re then asked to use these short survey forms to send in your evaluations of the three:
–This one for Denise Juneau
–This one for Dr. Andre D. Spencer
–This one for Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift

Here’s more background on the search for a successor to Dr. Larry Nyland, who has been superintendent since 2014, when José Banda left after 2 years.

Tedb310 March 27, 2018 (8:25 am)

The forum will be at the Stanford Center two hours before the Mariner’s season opener at Safeco Field. Who planned this?

Nwmama March 27, 2018 (10:16 am)

Ted- they are offering live streaming on their site and on channel 26. Seems like a great option and I’m for once impressed with their planning and community involvement on this important issue!

Admiral mom March 27, 2018 (12:11 pm)

I have a haircut scheduled on Thursday and cannot attend. Ugh

Awkward March 27, 2018 (12:35 pm)

Maybe they could resched the forum to a no haircut time…?
- WSB March 27, 2018 (1:12 pm)
  
  We won’t be going as there’s a conflicting on-peninsula community meeting (though we DO plan on being at tomorrow’s BEX “work session”) but the video should be archived for watching afterward … we’ll be sure to link to it/embed it. – TR

Rick March 27, 2018 (2:57 pm)

Maybe they could schedule it for after 2 AM as the bars are closed and nobody will be busy with other things their daily life requires and claim that nobody showed up so that’s approval and justification. That’s how we do things in this city. It’s not the votes that matter, just who counts them. Or manipulates them. And I just love the snide,smirky comments from the self centered,self righteous,sanctimonious section.

1994 March 28, 2018 (8:47 pm)

Possibly all 3 candidates plan to go watch the game?

Why isn’t there a candidate from WA state? SPS is paying thousands of dollars for hiring….

WSB March 28, 2018 (9:35 pm)

Dr. Nyland was from another WA district. Looking back a decade-plus, it looks like every other time, there’s a local/state tie – before him, there were three out-of-state finalists in the process that resulted in the hiring of José Banda; interim superintendent Susan Enfield preceded him and was an internal promotion; before that, Maria Goodloe-Johnson was from South Carolina; before her, Raj Manhas was local …

scubafrog March 29, 2018 (8:14 pm)

Sometimes the best candidates come from out of state. Although our last police chief sure was an out of state bummer… But she was an exception to the rule. These people have proven track records — decades working with kids.

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