A Message from Ben Shuldiner

Dear Seattle Public Schools Community,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. This edition will be a bit longer than usual because it will be my last one for a few weeks.

As we head into summer break, I want to begin with gratitude.

Thank you to our amazing educators, who support our students academically, socially, and emotionally every day. Thank you to our wonderful families for believing in Seattle Public Schools; not only by entrusting us with your children each day, but also by volunteering, tutoring, mentoring, helping with homework, and getting your scholars out of bed each morning.

Thank you to our incredible community for showing up for our schools in countless ways. And, of course, thank you to our students, who come to school ready to work hard, support one another, and learn.

It is only because of all of these remarkable people that our district can be exceptional.

I would like to highlight some of the wonderful things we have accomplished over the last five months.

We created a districtwide cell phone policy. I know some of you believe it is too lenient, while others think it is too restrictive. But it is a start, and it has already improved our schools.

We formally announced our intention to build a field for Lincoln High School. I know some of you would have preferred a different location, and many community members are concerned about the impact on the surrounding flora. But again, it is a start. It creates a path toward giving our students and the broader community greater access to high-quality athletic facilities.

We expanded school choice, allowing more students and families to attend the schools they want when physical space is available, rather than having the district limit movement for other reasons. As a result, hundreds more students have been able to enroll in their preferred school for next year. I also recognize this has meant some educators have had to move between schools because staffing must follow students, but it is a start.

We increased the number of students who can take advanced math over the summer, helping more students stay on track to take calculus in high school. I know some families wanted even broader access, but it is a start.

We restructured Highly Capable services to make this wonderful program accessible to more families. I also know many families continue to have concerns about how we structure advanced learning, but it is a start.

We created new Executive Director positions aligned by grade level to better support our students, educators, and schools. I know there is still much more work to do organizationally, but it is a start.

And in some ways the most important thing we have done together over these last five months is breathe a new sense of hope and positivity into the school system. This alone won't lead toward higher student achievement, but it is a start.

There is an old aphorism, often attributed to Voltaire: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I am partial to a similar line from King Lear: “Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.”

As we continue moving forward, centering student achievement in every decision we make, we will have to make choices that are not perfect, but we believe are good. Once we make those decisions, we should evaluate their impact, learn from them, and improve.

Over the coming months and years, we will have to make some very difficult decisions. I hope they will be good decisions rooted in reality, even if they are not perfect ones.

And the reality is that we are structurally insolvent. Based on our current systems and fiscal rules, we spend more than we are given, and almost every additional student we enroll deepens that structural deficit. I want to be clear: we go into a deeper deficit for almost every student who attends our schools. We simply cannot grow our way out of this problem.

Rather than aligning our spending with the resources we actually have, many of our formulas and systems continue to generate costs regardless of how we are funded.

This is not sustainable. This will have to change. There will have to be trade-offs. We can’t continue to live above our means.

At the same time, I believe we can emerge from this budget crisis even stronger if we are willing to confront today’s realities and make decisions based on facts rather than hope or wishful thinking.

We have made great strides over these past five months, and I know we will accomplish even more in the months ahead.

Thank you all for believing in SPS. With your help and hard work, SPS truly will be the best urban public school district in the country.

Ben

This message is translated into the district's top five languages:

Amharic | Simplified Chinese | Somali | Spanish | Vietnamese

Students kicked off the Education Quest internship this week through the Seattle Skills Center. Through Education Quest, high school students are placed at elementary summer learning sites where they help create a safe, welcoming environment, supporting academics, encouraging play, and building connections with younger students. Interns will be stationed at Kimball, Highland Park, James Baldwin, Olympic Hills, and John Hay elementaries.

Big congratulations to Ingraham High School’s Sasha Charles-Antoine, who's been invited to join the Seattle Sounders FC Academy for the 2026–27 season, an incredible opportunity to develop as both a student and athlete at one of the top youth soccer programs in the country.

You can watch commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2026 held at McCaw Hall on the SPSTV YouTube channel. Relive all the speeches, tributes, and performances that made this graduation season special.

Construction is now underway for the modernization and addition project at Aki Kurose Middle School. The project will take two years and is expected to open in September 2028 with capacity for up to 1,000 students in grades 6-8.

Next year, school starts BEFORE Labor Day. The first day of school for 1st through 12th graders will be September 2nd. Kindergarteners and preschoolers will begin on September 8th. Parents, be sure to check your emails in late August for back-to-school messages.