BREAKING NEWS: Seattle School Board Poised to Fire (Broad-trained) Supt. Goodloe-Johnson and CFO Don Kennedy

Without cause.

Here is their statement, just released tonight.

Okay, so the board is wimping out a bit (many have argued that there is a case to be made for firing with cause), but if they go through with this, it will be a step in the right direction for our beleaguered school district. We badly need new leadership and a new culture of honesty and accountability emanating from the John Stanford central office — with a focus on the kids.

But it sounds like our Broad Superintendent’s Academy graduate will cost us another $264,000 (in severance).

The board is proposing to name current CAO Susan Enfield as the interim superintendent. This would be an easy solution for them for the moment. But, Dr. Enfield still is rather new to the district (hired in July 2009) so she’s still getting acquainted with our schools and  programs — one of the problems with Goodloe-Johnson.  (Enfield came to SPS from Vancouver WA and Portland, OR.) And she is getting mixed reviews from the SPS community. She also was hired by Goodloe-Johnson, so appointing her doesn’t really amount to cleaning house.

But it does buy all of us time to come up with a better choice for a more permanent and successful superintendent for our district.

Tomorrow’s school board meeting promises to be a potentially lively affair. The public is welcome. Public commentary begins at 6 p.m. The board vote on the proposals will take place sometime after that.

(Tonight I had the chance to chat with Frank Shiers and Josh Kerns on KIRO’s (97.3 FM) John Curley Show about the whole affair.)

–Sue p.

She's history. Jan. 2009 -- The first protest rally of Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson's ed reform policies. Her "Capacity Management Plan" closed or merged five schools to allegedly save $3.5 million a year. Eight months later, she announced the district would need to re-open five schools at a cost of $48 million.

Days of Reckoning for Seattle Public Schools; PLUS Wendy Kopp of TFA, Inc. Comes to Town on Weds. 3/2

While the Seattle School Board meets in private today to determine the fate of Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson, the local media and blogosphere continue to speculate over what the board will decide, the political risks to the four board members who are up for reelection this year (Peter Maier, Steve Sundquist, Harium Martin-Morris and Sherry Carr) if they fail to dismiss the superintendent, or if they buy her out, who should replace the superintendent in either an interim or permanent position, and what changes to the central office and culture of the school district parents and SPS teachers and principals would like to see in a post-Goodloe-Johnson era.

Phyllis Fletcher of KUOW (94.9 FM) has been on the story for the past few days. Today, for the first time that I can recall, KUOW openly acknowledged Goodloe-Johnson’s backing from billionaire ed reformers, the Broad and Gates Foundations, and local business interests, and how those interests are at odds with those of the parents and community who have been on the receiving end of  Goodloe-Johnson’s reform agenda and reject it.

As always, there’s a great discussion going on about all of this and more at the Seattle Public Schools Community Blog.

Tomorrow (Weds., March 2)  the school board will hold its bimonthly public meeting. It’s expected to be a full house at the John Stanford Center district headquarters, which has been in the center of the storm this past week. None of us  expect the superintendent to be in attendance, however. She is reportedly tending to her sick mother out of state.  And she hasn’t been known to brave public dissent.

Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the Urban League, one of the local organizations that reaped the most money from former SPS employee Silas Potter’s fraudulent scheme, will hold a press conference, ostensibly in response to the state audit and legal findings that implicate it.

Last but not least, tomorrow also, Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, Inc. will be in town to promote her new book, One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way, and TFA, Inc’s 20 year anniversary. She will be speaking at MOHAI at 6:30 p.m. Free.

That conflicts with the school board meeting which runs from 6-9 p.m and could be historic. Which event will local parent activists choose? The school board meeting or the Kopp talk? I’m guessing the reformites will hang with Wendy and the rest of us will be closely watching our school board members, hopefully in action rather than inaction.

– Sue p.