By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The superintendent of Seattle Public Schools usually chooses one school for a spotlight visit on the first day of the school year. This morning, the “back-to-school press conference” was held at the new Alki Elementary, and it had extra interest because the school year’s start was in doubt until late last night, when the district reached a tentative agreement with its educators’ union.

Alki Elementary principal Mason Skeffington was the first spotlight speaker. He said their first-day enrollment is 416 students and thanked voters “for making this beautiful school a reality for us.” (The district’s BEX levy program covered its ~$67 million cost.)

Superintendent Ben Shuldiner followed. “We did it – we got to open up school!” He thanked familiesfor their “grace” in dealing with late word on the deal. He noted it’s his seventh month on the job, and he says it’s clear that Seattle “care(s) about public education … This year’s going to be a refresh on many things,” including curriculum, teaching methodology, and more – “systems and structures we have to change.”

First question was, what was the major sticking point that dragged out the talks? It’s a “hundreds of pages long” contract, he noted, saying there was just “a lot we had to get through.” The union/district relationship is also getting a reset as of this deal, he noted. Where does he see areas in which that reset will happen? “(We are) really starting to trust each other,” he replied, after years of “strikes and last-minute changes and school closure (proposals).”

How much will the contract cost? They’ll release numbers later, he replied, but “the cost … allows us now to tackle the really systemic budget issues.” How soon is later? After ratification. What compromises did the district make? He wouldn’t get into details on that either, but stressed that the areas of agreement included salary and special education.

How will the district fund the changes? Not filling some open positions, is one thing he mentioned, And he said that there’s not much difference from the budget the board recently passed. The district will still have about $27 million on hand by year’s end (a cushion he had described as “scary”).

Are school closures/consolidations still “on the table” eventually? Yes, “all options” are. And no, opening a new school like Alki is not “ironic,” he said – for one, the funding comes from different sources. He called the new Alki Elementary “a lighthouse for the community.”

Then he was asked for details on the special education agreement, and he said what he’d said a few days ago, wanting to look at special education as “a service, not a place.” He said they’ll be working on it “over a few years” …”with actual outcomes.” He hopes to eventually have a briefing just about that issue. “This district has to (think about it differently).” There is a “pilot program” built into the new contract, he confirmed.

In response to another question, he confirmed that the final agreed-to salary increase is a “little” above the 8.8 percent over three years that he had said earlier the district had offered.

He also was asked about his “super-long email” earlier in the week. He said he thought it “set a wonderful tone for us to move forward.”

We asked non-contract-related questions: What changes in teaching/learning this year? He said the (corrected) K-5 “Emerge! curriculum” is the biggest, but also, changes in how technology an screen time are used, and there’ll be some announcements in the next few weeks.

Any federal funding changes of concern ahead? They’ve been keeping watch on Title 1. “Right now, we feel good” that no further changes are imminent. He also talked about the state budget having fallen in the percentage devoted to education – it used to be over 50 percent, he said, and now it’s “in the low 40s.” So he hopes for legislators and voters’ support to “make sure that education goes back above 50 percent of the state budget?” He also lamented the “cap” on “money the good people of Seattle want to give us.”

The briefing wrapped up after half an hour.

12:46 PM: Here’s our video: