SEATTLE — As tragedy hangs over the district, it’s a difficult first day for new Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner.
He was sworn into the job at a ceremony at Mercer International Middle School on Monday morning.
First and foremost, Shuldiner acknowledged the two teenagers shot and killed at a Rainier Beach bus stop on Friday afternoon.
They are both believed to be SPS students.
“Last night I drove around where the shooting happened, parked the car, walked around in the rain, I could only think of the tragedy in our community,” Shuldiner said.
He said safety must be their top priority.
“Things like single points of entry, things like cameras, things like fences, even metal detectors,” Shuldiner said.
He said even the controversial solutions are on the table.
“The more that we do what our families want, which is to create safer buildings, it’s going to be super popular when kids and faculty feel safer,” he said.
Shuldiner said the SPS budget has serious issues that need to be addressed as well. Last year, the district shared that they are facing a $104 million dollar budget gap.
“What I think you will see is reorganizing of a district so that departments are now working together and see efficiencies will percolate,” he added.
Finally, Shuldiner tells us he wants to make sure attendance and graduation rates are increasing.
“We have to make sure the instruction is of high quality, and they feel engaged,” Shuldiner said.
He tells us he will be in the schools, hearing from students and staff through the end of the school year, saying trial and error will quickly show what works.
“These are the things we have to try,” Shuldiner said. “If they work, great; if they don’t, we will try something else, but what you don’t want is decision paralysis.”