The Bulletin

Great recap and new resource!!

Ridiculous IMO, however, that directors pointed out "if a [web]site was blocked by SPS it was probably blocked for a reason." Who vets this?! We use @kagi.com to avoid Google AI slop and it is blocked by SPS (or, at least, was blocked on my kid's SPS iPad last spring)

Issue 5 -- November 19, 2025 Board Meeting Recap In this issue: Beth Day and Julie Letchner recap the November 19 school board meeting, the last with the current board lineup.

NEW: @thebethocracy.bsky.social and Julie Letchner recap this week's school board meeting:

Issue 5 -- November 19, 2025 Board Meeting Recap In this issue: Beth Day and Julie Letchner recap the November 19 school board meeting, the last with the current board lineup.

First of many SPS School Board recaps to come! Publilshed on @thebulletinsea.org, a new source for SPS news. thebulletinsea.org/issue-5-nove...

Issue 4 -- It's Time for SPS To Lead on Limiting Screens in the Classroom In this issue: Emily Cherkin takes a look at SPS policies about technology use in schools, and raises key questions that SPS leaders must answer. by Emily Cherkin On November 19, 2025, staff members...

Should Seattle Public Schools allow students to use GenAI? Or adopt an “away for the day” cellphone policy? SPS parent @emilycherkin.bsky.social takes a look and asks the key questions district leaders must answer about technology in the classroom:

Issue 4 -- It's Time for SPS To Lead on Limiting Screens in the Classroom In this issue: Emily Cherkin takes a look at SPS policies about technology use in schools, and raises key questions that SPS leaders must answer. by Emily Cherkin On November 19, 2025, staff members...

NEW: @emilycherkin.bsky.social lays out the key questions families should insist Seattle Public Schools answer about AI in the classroom, cell phones, and technology more broadly.

It’s also being given to the Stakeholder Advisory Task Force. But beyond that? Unclear.

Issue 3 -- Podesta & Buttleman Speak on Enrollment & Budget Planning In this issue: * Fred Podesta on SPS Enrollment * Kurt Buttleman on SPS Budget Seattle Public Schools leadership shared sneak peeks on Monday into the 2026-27 budgeting process and various enrollm...

SPS is still considering closing schools and engaging in sweeping austerity cuts as part of its budget, despite strong community opposition. Our report:

Issue 3 -- Podesta & Buttleman Speak on Enrollment & Budget Planning In this issue: * Fred Podesta on SPS Enrollment * Kurt Buttleman on SPS Budget Seattle Public Schools leadership shared sneak peeks on Monday into the 2026-27 budgeting process and various enrollm...

NEW: Julie Letchner writes about SPS interim superintendent Fred Podesta and assistant superintendent Kurt Buttleman's public presentation earlier this week on enrollment and budget:

The real lesson these kids are learning is how to bypass restrictions and technical controls. I say this as an infosec professional and from experience as a former child.

Props to Director Briggs for being skeptical about this AI business. This is just a classic neoliberal subcontracting/marketing ploy to create dependency on AI in children - it is not education

large language models are software designed to predict what the user *wants* them to output so personalized lesson plans etc. are sort of the antithesis of what it’s designed for. over time i would expect any llm to spit out a reflection of its user, not any students. you know who can do that? teachers! the translation thing is cool but we already have that, you still don’t need an llm for that

wait this is just teaching. this was just my job as a teacher. you don’t need a computer for this.

The only people with any AI sense in the room are the teens themselves, but the adults are pooh-poohing them

And that's it! Meeting adjourned.

I can also confirm this as a parent of smart, tech-literate secondary students. (This is Jane.)

Briggs points out that she knows that students have access to CoPilot on their student-issued laptops and that it's used to write essays for them. (She has SPS students herself.) Someone else also testified that what SPS says can/cannot be done on student-issued laptops does not match reality.

Briggs says that learning about the technology is not the same as incorporating into the classroom. She's quotes Macklemore, "We're being tricked by business."

She thinks all of this is informed by tech companies who have an interest in the profits to be made here.

Director Briggs says "there's a lot of red flags for me" and that it sounds like "big tech talking points." She doesn't buy what they're selling, basically. Even OSPI, she says, has a note that on its website that their AI guidance was written by AI.

Starosky says there's a state law that says that school districts have to do "something" about AI and that's a consideration here. He acknowledges there's a lot of work to do, "specifically around teachers."

Rankin wants SPS to have a "high school for the future." OK, I'm sold!

Director Rankin wants to know how these AI policies reflect the goals and guardrails. Are they talking with students about the difference between plagiarism and original work for writing and art.

Director Rankin says this presentation is all about the what, but not the why.

Starosky says they're not looking to supplant teachers. They want to give teachers access to tools. He says that cheating didn't just start to happen when AI came about. Hmmm.

Student School Board Director Yoon also pointing out the many misuses of AI in education. (Let the students lead!)

Starosky says that teacher will be still be able to restrict or permit access to AI.

Mangelsen says that she thinks teachers' voices should be uplifted in this discussion of AI because they see what's happening.

Mangelsen also asking about how this can assist cheating. She says the main use of AI at her school is for cheating, for creating essays or cheating on tests. Someone in AP World History emailed the teacher about how many kids used their phones to scan the questions and get the answers.

GOOD. This teacher doesn’t want to use it or teach it either.

Mangelsen says they can't use AI in art class or ELA and she agrees with that. She says the point is to be creative and AI takes away the creative aspect of the work.

Now it's question time! Student Board Director Mangelsen asks how generative AI supports creativity? She's skeptical.

Starosky says that it's so people can be curious about anything. Hmmm.