An important group of people who've been left out of discussions on the Seattle school district's financial scandal are the district employees themselves—the teachers, counselors, managers, executives, custodians, etc who make up the district core.

I asked a longterm Seattle Public Schools employee how the news of the fraud had affected the mood of district employees—are they worried, apprehensive, any interesting water cooler whispers? Looks like district employees were already in low spirits after SPS announced plans to lay off around 97 employees in light of the recent budget cuts. The recent report from the State Auditor's Office, detailing how district officials had for years neglected to curb frivolous spending on bogus contracts, which resulted in a loss of $1.8 million, just made things worse.

From the SPS employee's email:

The mood in general is quite grim and suspicious, even before the scandal. The layoffs have everyone on edge, and for many, many reasons—and not the least of these is the perceived waste and corruption at higher levels. An example: these layoffs. the second round in less than a year. "Look at the millions we've saved cutting all this labor!", they say. The truth is that we are desperately understaffed (and underpaid) as it is, and these jobs they cut still need to be done. So what happens is many of these "laid off" people are forced to come back and do their same jobs as substitutes (they reenter the "sub pool"), at a huge cut in pay and complete loss of benefits! So, in fact, that money was not saved—these people not even really laid off, just reduced to poverty wages and no health care—the money just comes out of a different pocket. It is all very sketchy...and there has never been much confidence in the superintendent. "She's just a politician", they say.

The school district: hotbed of scandal and political intrigue!

Tonight, the board will vote whether to terminate Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's contract following an independent report which said that she and the district's Chief Financial and Operations Officer Don Kennedy could have done more to prevent the fraud. Nobody in the district is willing to take blame for what happened, pointing their fingers at former employee Silas Potter, who had awarded the bogus contracts. The board will also vote to terminate Kennedy's contract. It will vote on a motion to promote Chief Academic Officer Dr. Susan Enfield to interim superintendent.

The board meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the John Stanford Center. Expect a full house. You can also watch the meeting online or on Channel 26.