Quick! Offer him a 50% pay raise!

School Superintendent in Seattle is an undoable job. They'll never get another one who wants the job for more than a month. Because parents are the worst.

No, it is not an "undoable" job. It's not parents - it's many factors but parents are the least of the issue.

I hope we get someone local like Norm Rice.

A Seattle School Superintendent is fleeing after a short term at the job?!? Zut alors! Who could have seen this coming?!?

It's a small surprise that he found a window for moving on BEFORE being forced to resign in disgrace like most of the half-dozen superintendents that we've burned through in recent memory. But honestly it's more surprising that the school board can still find any patsies to take this horrendous job. Seattle's school system is FUCKED UP.

Dear dear gurldoggie, Ansel is well aware that the school system is FUCKED UP. We have this forum he has provided to fix the situation. With his important input/dialogue throughout the thread we can witness how well he partners with us.

sgt doom, you've built up such a great reputation, I only read your comments unless you provide over five weblinks.

@1 beat me to it.

We totally need to double his salary. Not retaining the superintendent while retaining the City Light dude is like keeping Russell Wilson but dumping Richard Sherman.

Fnarf essentially nailed it, (once again). you're titular head of a position with all-powerful warring camps all pulling in different directions. if you're very cunning, (Banda was never), you can band together two or three of these warring camps and make things appear to work for a while. parents, teachers unions, sneaky, and/or deluded, charter school forces (who are mostly just anti-union), rich subdistricts, minority reps, pro-privitization anti-taxation forces; and the worst of all: the school board. who are poorly paid (essentially not paid at all) and for the most part clueless klutzes. "won't someone think of the children??" it's an ugly position to be in.

This is very much a doable job. It just requires rejecting the Gates Foundation ideology and instead focusing on building a stable administrative system that is responsive to and works with parents and teachers to get the best for their kids. We've had 10 years of superintendents who were happy to make war on parents and teachers in service of this or that wild idea, and it has been damaging. But we can see districts around the state, including large ones, where stability is possible.

Dr. Susan Enfield seemed like a good choice, but for some reason she ran like hell for the Highline School District and a big drop in pay. Good looking, smart, well liked, how she didn't get the job is beyond me.

We'll never get another great one like John Stanford, he set the bar that nobody seems to be either capable or willing to do.

he considers his greatest accomplishments "to be the 2013 capital and operations levies, worth a combined $1.3 million," and the district's strategic plan.

You're kidding, right? He managed to get a couple of levies passed the Seattle voters? You mean the same Seattle voters who have voted for virtually every school levy placed before them for decades? A child could have guided these levies through.

If that is his greatest accomplishment, he has a pretty hollow resume.

Mr. Banda has been un-remarkable and un-uninspiring. He scrambled principals, added to the executive ranks, and broke every promise he ever made.

Banda did nothing except shuffle up the administration. He did listen more to all the competing interests, though.

That said, SPS needs to hire someone willing to commit to a longer term of service, preferably someone who is local, has taught, and has been in the district for a while and knows what is actually going on. Running SPS is a tough job, but I know there are people in the district that want to do it and know what needs doing, but they never even LOOK at people who are already in the trenches doing the work.

Here's what the next Supe should do to fix Seattle's problems: cut district managerial positions down by 1/2. We have a glut of expensive managers and 'teaching coaches' that are absolutely unneeded while schools cannot hire the teachers they need to do the job of educating kids in reasonable class sizes. Put that money into the schools themselves. We'd be well on our way to a better system right there.

@15 whoa. That's like going from 9% of the budget to 4.5%. Are you suggesting that someone like the third-tier district lawyer might have to go without their substitute executive secretary for more than a sick day? Whoever will serve as their coffee-bitch, then?! HOW will they have the energy to countersue average citizens who dare sue the district for complete botch-ups like the small business incentives scandal?? (or.... The milk vendor mess-up? The illegally-sold MLK building blunder? The Principal King /Lowell abuse/molestation cover up? The MAP testing /licensing/librarian labor hours moneypit? The needed-school-properties-sold-to-become-condos fiascos (that one's at least a trilogy, now)? The inequitable school PTA cash influx for Immersion teachers? Etc Etc )

In seriousness, unless there's a major executioner-style housecleaning, the Admin building is just on Self-Perpetuate Mode now: everyone there is agreeing to -if not instigating- anything that's make-work, and/or adding support staff to make their hours easier. It's like there's nothing but grifting being taught at the old JohnStanfordCenter.

Until SPS stops prioritizing the practice of legally defensible school policy, and stops "policing itself", and starts putting evidence-based education to work for the kids, no positive change will take root. SPS live beyond their means. It's time to take mommy's credit card away. Look up Freedom Schools: Seattle parents have gone "on strike" before, and perhaps should again.