Past president Jon Bridge introduced Ben Shuldiner who joined the Seattle School District as its Superintendent in February. Ben previously served as the Superintendent of Lansing School District since 2021. He is a past lecturer at Hunter College, City University in NYC and was a member of the New York City Board of Education.

Superintendent Shuldiner gave a very candid presentation and assessment: a district that is one of the top ranking urban school districts that ranks high for students in the 3rd Grade but then drops by 8th Grade and also a district that has a $72 million deficit that could be insolvent in under a year. He announced that they have already cut $50 million from the district’s budget.

Some statistics he shared:

· Seattle is ranked #8 among the largest school districts in the West for English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency but 24th for students on free/reduced lunch and Black, Hispanic and Asian students have lower performing scores; “we are not serving certain students,” he said.

· This overall good ranking drops by the time these students reach 8th grade; and similar results are seen for Math proficiency from 3rd to 8th Grade

· There is not a single item that will fix this but it is clear what is needed: a high quality teacher in every classroom, mentoring and tutoring

· He announced that their goal is to be in the Top 5 in all categories in five years

· Their graduation rate of 86% looks good on the surface but the real goal needs to be to have students prepared for higher learning; 94 percent is the goal with a focus on “graduation plus,” where students take and pass AP classes for example

· 15,000 students go to private schools in Seattle and another 5,000 go to schools outside the district; and by 8th grade, the district loses 10 percent of their students as families leave for another school after 5th grade; “we want to be the choice of families who are not currently choosing the Seattle School District.”

He concluded with an upbeat message: “we have one of the greatest school systems in the country that we should be proud of; some of our schools are incredible. We need to create schools that parents want to send their children to; high schools are popular; middle school is the issue; and we need financial stability. If we reach the goal of being in the Top 5, we will have the best school system in America.”

President John opened the meeting at the Motif Hotel on a beautiful summer day after club members wrote encouraging notes for students at the Rotary Boys and Girls Club as their new school year starts.

Trish Bostrom led us in “Zip a Dee Doo Dah” on a “zip a dee doo dah kind of day” she said.

Vicky Oxley introduced our new member, Suzana Sakay, who is the new CEO of the Washington Athletic Club. Suzana grew up in the Balkans, fled as a refugee to Montenegro when she was 14, became a NATO interpreter and eventually moved to Seattle and joined the WAC in 2011. Suzana’s husband and daughter attended our lunch meeting to see her introduction.

Past club president Sten Crissey made an appeal for club members to donate blood via Bloodworks Northwest. He mentioned that “it is the easiest thing we can do to save a life” and that this is a real emergency for our region’s blood supply.

-Thanks for another great report, Dann, and glad you found your seat Wednesday!