Just last year, the district was considering closing several campuses including Capitol Hill’s Stevens Elementary
Shuldiner
The Seattle School Board has approved a finalist to lead the city’s public schools.
Ben Shuldiner is currently superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan. Wednesday’s board meeting authorized the beginning of contract negotiations to finalize the hire.
Leading Lansing’s public schools since 2021, Shuldiner was part of a shift in the typical search for public officials as the board conducted a confidential process hoped to attract a stronger pool of applicants.
KUOW reports there were more than 40 applicants “”whittled down to eight candidates, then to two finalists.”
Shuldiner will replace Superintendent Brent Jones who announced he was stepping down earlier this year and has been on medical leave. Jones had led the district since 2022 when he was selected as an interim to lead the district out of the pandemic.
Seattle school officials say Shuldiner’s accomplishments show “a strong record of delivering results, extensive financial and operational experience, and a commitment to lifting every student and school in our system” —
Shuldiner has served as Superintendent in Lansing since 2021. During that time, he led the district to significant gains in graduation rate (+26%), attendance rate (+15%), and a true increase in district enrollment for the first time in decades. Additionally, he increased the district’s fund balance by over $40 million, ushering in a new era of financial stability and growth in Lansing.
He’s familiar with the challenges teachers and administrators face on a daily basis. In 2003, he founded the High School for Public Service, a public school in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. He served as principal there for a decade, during which the school had a greater than 95% graduation rate.
After serving as a high school principal, Shuldiner became the Distinguished Lecturer of Education Leadership, at Hunter College, CUNY, where he led one of the largest Principal and Superintendent certification programs in the Northeast.
He was appointed to the New York City Board of Education’s Panel for Education Policy and also served as President and Executive Board Member of the New York City High School Principals Association.
He earned his MSED at Baruch College in New York and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University, with an undergraduate degree in history and science.
Additionally, he has helped support schools and education leaders in Norway and India.
Shuldiner will join the district as it moves forward with ambitious plans under the city’s newly approved $1.3 billion families and education levy.
The expanded levy Includes a planned $235 million in school safety investments described as supporting existing school health centers and “expanded safety investments in and around schools” in summaries.
In the Central District and on Capitol Hill, Shuldiner will be tasked with continuing efforts to address gun violence around Garfield High School.
The issues around the district’s 2024 reversal on plans to close campuses across the city including Stevens Elementary on Capitol HIll still linger.
Overall, state lawmakers have mostly preserved school funding for the 2025-2027 budget but worries about an overall $12 billion state shortfall remains an issue with the economic challenges facing all sectors of government also threatening education in the state.
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