Seattle Public Schools looking for a new superintendent, again

Seattle Public Schools will be launching another superintendent search. Dr. Brent Jones announced this morning that he is leaving in early September. His announcement says highlights of his tenure include that “recent research has found that we have achieved accelerated academic recovery from pandemic declines at a significantly faster rate than Washington state as a whole or compared to similar districts in the state”; not mentioned, a key lowlight – last year’s scrapped school-closure plan.

Dr. Jones has been running the district for almost four years, since starting work as interim superintendent in 2021. At the time, he was only expected to fill that role for 14 months, but he became “permanent” superintendent instead. His announcement today says that “Further details on the superintendent search process will be announced in the coming weeks.” The announcement follows the Seattle Schools Community Forum website reporting Sunday that Dr. Jones might be leaving as his wife had accepted an out-of-state job.

PensionQuestion March 17, 2025 (2:20 pm)

Any word on why his last day is the first day of next school year? I know many SPS pensions (or is it WA?) are paid as a percent of your income for the last four years of service…..does one day in next school year either increase or make him pension-eligible? Seems like a gross loophole if that’s the reasoning.

Huh March 17, 2025 (9:00 pm)

Why are you worried about someone else’s retirement / pension? Odd take from this article
- Neighbor March 18, 2025 (12:25 am)
  
  Huh – Probably because we are paying that pension and the school district never seems to have enough money.
- Alki resident March 18, 2025 (8:31 am)
  
  Probably because the pension is a reward/benefit for sticking with the job for X years, and not actually doing that is kind of scummy, especially given how poorly they’ve performed at the job. If the reward is for “finishing the race” and they just kind of slap the finish line and not really cross it, did they finish the race?

Pinto March 17, 2025 (4:06 pm)

It will be four years in May so Dr. Jones will conveniently be eligible for the highest pension possible in Seattle public schools. But I imagine there’s a lot more to it than that. All of SPS’s inclusion work could go out the window otherwise federal funding for title schools could be cut with the current administration. I just hope one of these outgoing superintendents will tell us how it really is at SPS. Susan Enfield seemed to be the best when she was interim superintendent so they offered her the job permanently – and she didn’t want it, which says a heck of a lot about SPS. For whatever reason, she took a pay cut and took the job as superintendent of highline schools rather than trying to clean up the massive dumpster fire that is Seattle Public schools.

Melissa Westbrook March 17, 2025 (6:53 pm)

Susan Enfield left because she didn’t want to go through the vetting process. She thought it unfair and so she left. She did want the job.
- David Robertson March 19, 2025 (8:40 am)
  
  Your statement is false on its face. The vetting process was over, and she was offered the job and refused it. There was never any hint that she had any objection to the “vetting process”.Why do you insist on an alternative perception of reality?

Beach Teach March 17, 2025 (7:30 pm)

Good Riddance… He has been absolutely worthless.

Finally! March 17, 2025 (8:28 pm)

Finally some good news! Hoping they hire someone who actually knows how to get the job done. What a joke.

RSO March 18, 2025 (8:32 am)

Seems like an especially bad last day of work, given that the teachers’ union and district will likely still be negotiating the new collective bargaining agreement. Their current one is ending August 31st. Hopefully they can reach an agreement before then, but if the last two negotiations are any indication, I doubt it.