Dear colleagues,

Almost two weeks ago, we heard from over 60 district staff, students, parents and community members about the safety of our schools at a Board of Education listening session held at Washington Technology Magnet School. A lot of raw emotion, fear, sadness and anger were on display in the Great Hall that night. As I and many others have said before, our kids, our staff and our community are going through a lot, and have been going through a lot even before the pandemic exacerbated everything.

Whether you are on your school’s mental health team, safety team, security team, support team, administration or play another important role in the district, I want to thank you for the systems of support you have created and consistently demonstrate in your daily work. It does not go unnoticed and is vital to fostering safe and effective schools and communities.

I also know that we can and we must do more to improve safety in SPPS. Exactly what "doing more" looks like is up to all of us. This includes not only our staff, but families, community members, partner organizations, and our students themselves. We did not hear a lot of consensus or easy solutions at the listening session, nor did we hear from nearly enough people to begin to understand what our SPPS community wants and needs to feel safe at school.

Throughout this month, we will be holding additional listening and engagement opportunities to ensure we are hearing as many voices as possible on the important topic of school safety. 

Safety engagement efforts to date and coming up in March include:

• Board of Education meetings (public comment and the special meeting at Washington)
• Staff safety survey (results summary will be shared with all staff later this week); student and family surveys are in the works
• Meetings at each high school with students and Board members by area
• Meeting with principals and Board members
• All PAC meeting with all eight Parent Advisory Councils on March 22
• Community conversation and dinner hosted by Marnita’s Table on March 30 (more information about this special event is coming soon)

All of the past and upcoming opportunities are listed on our website, which is being updated as plans are made. Survey results and other analysis will be added to this page as they are completed.

This input will be used to determine what changes need to be made in the best interest of the safety of our students, staff, families, and everyone who is invested in our schools. I will continue to stress the importance of all of us working together, and putting our students at the center of every decision we make. We are all here for them, and it is up to us to keep them safe. I thank you all for your passion, compassion and collaboration as we move forward in this important work together.

In Partnership,

Joe Gothard, Superintendent