A Message from Ben Shuldiner

Dear Seattle Public Schools Community,

Happy Easter Sunday! For those celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful day with family, commemorating this holy day of the Christian faith. Happy Passover! For those celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful day with family, commemorating these holy days of the Jewish faith.

For those who are not celebrating, one can still use today to be thoughtful and reflective. Today can be seen as an occasion of joy, hope, and triumph over evil. In this time of strife and uncertainty, in this era of fear and frustration, a day of hope and joy can be good for us all.

Regardless of your belief system, I hope that all of us today can take time to contemplate and be happy. We can be with family, exult in our togetherness, see ways to work together and be joyful, and above all, find ways to love.

Many people in our community are suffering, and many people are without the full support they need. And I hope we, as a community, can come together in new and powerful ways to show that love and support.

I cannot think of a better focus of that work than schools. We reach almost everyone in the city. Someone in Seattle Public Schools knows almost every single person in the entire Seattle community. So, what can we do?

Maybe we can create tutoring and mentoring programs at all our schools. Maybe we can expand food and clothes drives year-round, not just during holidays. Maybe we can set up a special physical mailbox at each school, or email address, or phone number, where people can ask for help without shame.

Maybe we can all work to increase attendance, helping make it easier for students to come to school. Maybe people who have time, money, or things can donate or volunteer with us. And of course, maybe the school district could make it easier to donate time or money.

As a district, I believe we can move forward quickly. But this will take ownership by us all. Easter and Passover are times of rebirth, of spring, of freedom. We must begin anew and rethink our district to better serve our students and families. What do we have to do differently so we can change our trajectory? What must we do to bring our families back to the fold.

Let our schools be the center of our community. I am not sure that districts are built for this, but with all that is going on in the world right now, I feel like perhaps we can try. Thinking of today as a day of love and hope, I would like to believe we can, as a community, work together to support us all; where we see the success of our schools as the success of us all.

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

Ben