October 15, 2015

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bradley Hoff, Chair
FOSTER PEPPER PLLC
Pamela Banks
URBAN LEAGUE OF METROPOLITAN
SEATTLE
Jonathan J. Bridge
BEN BRIDGE JEWELER, INC
Jane Broom
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Fay Chapman
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER
Lisa Chick
CITY YEAR, INC
Erle Cohen
SEED IP LAW GROUP
Mathew Dailey
LPL/FINANCIAL ADVOCATES
Maud Daudon
SEATTLE METROPOLITAN CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
Dan Dixon
SWEDISH MEDICAL CENTER
Roger Erskine
SEATTLE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Lynnette Frank
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER
Brett Gerry
THE BOEING COMPANY
STEVEN GOTTLIEB
GOTTLIEB GROUP COMMUNICATIONS
Ken Hamm
FIRST CHOICE HEALTH
Sheila Edwards Lange
SEATTLE CENTRAL COLLEGE
Bruce Leader
COMMUNITY PARTNER

Ms. Sherry Carr, Board President

Ms. Sharon Peaslee, Board Vice-President
Dr. Larry Nyland, Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools
2445 3rd Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134
Board President Carr, Director Peaslee and Superintendent Nyland,
We received your letter of October 7, 2015.

We are proud of our shared work over two decades. As an independent organization with
many stakeholders, we look forward to continuing and expanding our work on behalf of
students. We hope the future brings renewed opportunities to work with SPS administrators
as well. Only good can come of a strong partnership between SPS and Seattles business and
philanthropic community, one of the most vibrant and generous in the world.

The position taken in your letter is disappointing and represents a loss for the children of our
district and our city.
To address some items included in your letter:

Nate Miles
ELI LILLY & COMPANY
Chase Morgan
BRIDGE PARTNERS LLC

Sara Morris
PRESIDENT & CEO
Estela Ortega
EL CENTRO DE LA RAZA
Matthew Paddock
METZLER NORTH AMERICA
Jena Thornton
MAGNETIC ERV
Sally Yates
GROUP HEALTH COOPERATIVE
David Zapolsky
AMAZON.COM

We will re-submit to you the Seattle Teacher Residency Memorandum of Agreement,

stipulating SPS financial contribution of $230,000 in 2015-2016 and $50,000 in 20162017.
We will continue to provide fiscal accounting services to schools through the 20152016 year at the agreed upon rate of 7.5%. If the district invites us to participate in an
annual contracting process beyond the current school year, we will make a
determination as to whether we wish to do so at that time.
Endowments held by the Alliance include exclusive property provisions stipulating
funds are the exclusive property of the Alliance.

Regrettably, your letter contains numerous factual inaccuracies. Attached please find a
document addressing those inaccuracies.

The Alliance family is wholly committed to the cause of public education. We are enthusiastic
about continuing and extending our current work and remain open and willing to work with
anyone, any time including SPS leadership on efforts that benefit students in our public
schools.
Sincerely,

Sara Morris, President & CEO, Alliance for Education

The Executive Committee of the Alliance for Education

509 Olive Way, Suite 500 Seattle, WA 98101 PHONE 206.343.0449 FAX 206.343.0455 www.alliance4ed.org

AFE Comments on SPS letter dated October 7, 2015

The letter to the Alliance for Education from School Board President Sherry Carr, School Board Vice President Sharon
Peaslee, and Superintendent Nyland dated October 7, 2015 contains numerous misleading and/or inaccurate
statements. As a practice, AFE has refrained from responding to various assertions because it does nothing to serve the
interests of children. This letter merits a response; our comments are below.
SPS Statement

AFE Comment/Correction

Specific to the actions SPS intends to take:

SPS willtake formal action to legally
separate SPS from the Alliance.

SPS and the Alliance for Education are, and have always been, legally
separate entities.

[SPS will] prohibit the Alliance from being

a fiscal sponsor or grant sponsor on any
new items.
[SPS will] start discussions on how to
transfer any SPS collected endowments
back to SPS.

The donor chooses the fiscal sponsor.

Endowments held by the Alliance for Education include exclusive property
provisions stipulating funds are the exclusive property of the Alliance.

Other statements, in the order they appear:

The current leader has worked to

AFE leadership has:

affect changes in district governance,

never taken a position on governance reform (but has worked to promote

and support effective school board governance)

influence collective bargaining,

advocated (along with 35 community organizations via the Our Schools

Coalition) for contract reforms sought by Sup. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and
the School Board in 2010. District officials now credit that agreement with
major academic gains in the south end.1

force initiatives on District leadership,

partnered with the district on initiatives; it is unclear to which initiatives

the district is referring

push for termination of a former district

HR director,

communicated to Superintendent Banda that future funding from the

Philanthropic Partnership for Public Education (PPPE) a funders
collaborative convened, but not controlled by, the Alliance would be
unlikely for projects overseen by the HR director responsible for the only
grant PPPE has ever withdrawn due to failure to complete districtproposed deliverables.

and most recently go around the

Superintendent in funding initiatives.

see below re: principal leadership opportunity

Academic gains in southeast Seattle arent limited to Rainier Beach High, Seattle Times, April 17, 2015.

SPS Statement
Alliance fundraising has declined and
overhead is high.

AFE Comment/Correction
Overall funding from the Alliance to SPS has indeed declined in recent
years. The churn of four superintendents in four years has left many of the
districts largest funders wary and weary of making large investments.
In addition, the districts increasing unwillingness to partner with AFE in
the past few years has forestalled joint pursuit of significant funding for
major initiatives.
AFE engages independent auditors annually. In 2014, 21.6% of expenses
were spent on administration and fundraising. The national average for
non-profits is 20% to 28%.2

We received $921,783 from the Alliance

in 2014-2015.

Yes, those are funds administered directly to the central administration.

The Alliance supports and invests in schools in many ways. In 2014, the
Alliance expended $4.8 million. Of that, $3.8 million (79%) was expended
on programs benefitting Seattle Public Schools [see page 4 of AFE audit
completed by independent accounting firm Clark Nuber]. Audited
financials can be found on our website at
http://www.alliance4ed.org/who-we-are/annual-reports-financials/.
Since our founding, the Alliance has been proud to steward over $155
million in support of students in Seattle.

The Alliance spent $1,039,000 on

management overhead and fundraising.
SPS received the benefit of about $1
million dollars from the Alliance for those
efforts. Clearly the Alliance is benefitting
more from SPS from fundraising done in
our name.

Please see above two cells for accurate data.

During the 2013-2014 school year, the

SPS Superintendent and Deputy
Superintendent sent the CEO of the
Alliance six funding priorities in rank
order. The Alliance elected to fund, as its
first and highest priority, STR the last
program on the SPS list.

These funding requests were submitted by SPS to the Philanthropic

Partnership for Public Education (PPPE) a funders collaborative convened,
but not controlled by, the Alliance. Funding decisions are made collectively
by The Bezos Family Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Biller
Family Foundation, Boeing Co., Microsoft, Nesholm Family Foundation,
Paul G. Allen Foundation, Raikes Foundation and Seattle Foundation.
PPPE funded four of the six requests at the levels SPS requested. The
rationale for declining to fund the remaining two was transparently
communicated (PPPE memo to Superintendent Banda, Deputy
Superintendent Wright, Clover Codd, April 16, 2014).

Nonprofit Overhead Cost Project, http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/kbfiles/521/brief%205.pdf

SPS Statement

AFE Comment/Correction

The mission of the Alliance has shifted

from supporting student learning to
focusing on three things: an unsustainable
STR model; a desire to change District
leadership either through direct turnover
or governance change; and a desire to be a
more independent (critical) voice for
change in regard to District leadership.

The mission of the Alliance has remained constant: ensuring student

success in college, career and life. Guided by our strategic plan, developed
alongside district leaders in 2013, AFE executes this mission in three ways:
strategic, service and spirit work.3
AFE has not advocated for governance reform and as a 501(c)3 is
prohibited from endorsing political candidates.
The Alliance has always been independent. The term critical friend is a
common concept among educators4 and refers to developing collegial
relationships, encouraging reflective practice, and rethinking leadership. It
is a term and mode of operations embraced by Superintendent John
Stanford at AFEs inception.

This past spring, the Alliance CEO

challenged the current Superintendents
attendance at the PPPE event even though
the Superintendent was invited by the
Alliance staff.

False. The Superintendents attendance had not been confirmed, and it is

highly unusual for a Superintendent to walk into a meeting with major
funders without any advance communication or coordination with the
meeting host. When he walked in, the CEO got up, greeted him, said We
didnt know you were coming! and invited him to sit down. She then
proceeded to graciously welcome him, gave him the floor to speak, and
changed the entire agenda of the meeting on the fly.

The Alliance funded eight principals to

attend an innovative leadership [sic] out of
state this summer without the knowledge
of the superintendent or the head of
principal development.

This principal leadership opportunity was reviewed by an Executive

Director of Schools (EDS), the Principals Association of Seattle Schools
(PASS) president and a principal coach in meetings on March 2, 2015 and
April 9, 2015. The invitation letter was shared via email with the EDS and
coach on April 20 before it was sent to principals (all of whom were STR
site principals). On April 21, the EDS shared the opportunity with the
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning. The topic was also
covered at a sit-down meeting between the AFE CEO, the Assistant
Superintendent for Teaching and Learning and others on June 5, 2015. The
CEO was unaware that those SPS representatives had not updated the
Superintendent regarding the nature and substance of those
meetings/communications.
During the planning period, the opportunities provided to the Alliance CEO
to have direct dialogue with the Superintendent were:
March 18, 2015: A 1:1 meeting during which the Superintendent was
vocal in his criticism of the CEO, told her he did not want to hear what
she had to say (about anything), and dismissed her from his office.
March 27, 2015: A meeting with the AFE CEO, CFO and 3 AFE board
members, Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, SPS CFO and two
School Board members. District representatives focused the hour on
listing criticisms of AFE.
April 8, 2015: A scheduled 1:1 with the AFE CEO for 8am was cancelled
by the Superintendents assistant without explanation the night before.
June 3, 2015: A scheduled 1:1 with the AFE CEO was cancelled on May
29, 2015.
July 21, 2015: A 1:1 meeting, at which the Superintendent handed the
AFE CEO a letter, said the district did not wish to engage in a process to
improve the relationship, and ended the meeting.

AFE 2014-2018 Strategic Plan: http://www.alliance4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ALLIANCE-FOR-EDUCATIONSTRATEGIC-PLAN_2014-2018_FINAL.pdf

4
https://depts.washington.edu/ccph/pdf_files/CriticalFriends.pdf

SPS Statement
The Alliance CEO has gone to PASS in
regards to support for other funding
possibilities.

AFE Comment/Correction
The outgoing PASS co-chair approached the Alliance CEO on August 6, 2015
to initiate discussions of support for principal professional development.
Upon following up, the PASS chair subsequently informed the Alliance CEO
that he had been instructed by the Superintendent not to engage in further
discussions. The CEO ceased communications on that subject.