Please join the Bryant school funding email campaign by sending an email to the SPS School Board Directors (an email template and contact info are below).
Background
- SPS and the School Board are considering balancing the budget shortfall through cuts to school funding.
- If SPS and the School Board make further budget reductions, our school would likely continue to grow in students while staff resources are cut. This could have have significant impacts to our school including in the following ways:
- If changes to staffing formulas are made, class ratio sizes could increase.
- If administrative staff, such as the Assistant Principal, are cut or reduced in hours, operational and program resources would be impacted;
- If funding is further reduced for specialist staff (exemplified by the librarian, music, art, and PE teachers) and other critical staff, the school will have fewer teachers and staff available to serve a significant number of students.
- As families seek stable school resources and a quality, competitive education for their students, we must advocate during the School Board/SPS budget decision process happening now for no further cuts to student-facing positions, impacting critical, specialist staff and classroom ratio sizes.
Action
- Please add your voice to the message by sending an email to the SPS School Board Directors by Monday, January 23rd (or before). A suggested email template is below. Please feel free to add your student’s personal story, highlighting impacts to them from budget cuts. The email addresses to send your email to are below.
Send the email to the SPS School Board Directors at the contact information here:
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liza.rankin@seattleschools.org
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Liza Rankin, District 1
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lisa.rivera.smith@seattleschools.org
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Lisa Rivera Smith, District 2
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chandra.hampson@seattleschools.org
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Chandra N. Hampson, District 3
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vsmaritz@seattleschools.org
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Vivian Song Maritz, District 4
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mrsarju@seattleschools.org
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Michelle Sarju, District 5
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leslie.harris@seattleschools.org
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Leslie S. Harris, District 6
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brandon.hersey@seattleschools.org
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Brandon K. Hersey, District 7
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advocacy@bryantschool.org
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And CC: the Bryant PTSA Advocacy team
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Bryant School Funding Email Suggested Text
Dear SPS School Board Directors,
253 Bryant elementary parents and caregivers signed onto a Bryant PTSA letter to District 3 School Board Director Chandra Hampson in December, asking her to ensure Bryant receives full funding this year based on SPS policies and formulas for enrollment-based funding. Further, we urged her to work to ensure that the projected SPS budget shortfall is not covered by cutting critical school staff and increasing student-teacher ratio sizes.
I email today to echo this call, particularly as you develop the funding policies which will impact next year’s budget. Bryant is growing in enrollment and needs more student-facing positions along with a stable budget, not additional cuts creating further gaps in education resources and instability in school administration. Since the school continues to have significant numbers of students, cuts will only require fewer teachers and staff to serve those students.
Budget cuts are having serious impacts at the school. In the case of the library funding cuts due to outstanding funding allocations from SPS this year, student library checkouts have been reduced to half, impacting the students’ independent reading opportunities and early development of good reading habits.
[Please add a sentence or two telling the School Board your family’s story about any impact to your student from school resource cuts (e.g. any impacts to your student/s from teacher cuts, education program cuts, and/or the reduction of the Assistant Principal to half time since last year…).
I urge that, during the current budget decision process, the SPS School Board and SPS Administration make no further cuts to student-facing positions and that the critical staff positions, including the Assistant Principals, are fully funded.
Specifically, I ask for:
- No changes to staffing formulas so that class-ratio sizes increase.
- No further cuts to administrative staff, including the Assistant Principal position.
- No further funding cuts to specialist staff (exemplified by the librarian, music, art, and PE teachers) and other critical school staff.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Add your name, your child/children’s school, and your relationship to the student at Bryant
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1 https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-school-enrollment-levels-off-but-district-still-faces-budget-woes/#:~:text=Seattle%20is%20projecting%20a%20budget,%24156.8%20million%20the%20following%20year
