Seattle Public Schools Wants Parents to Subsidize Culture of Systemic Corruption and Nepotism. Internal Accountability Must Come First
Seattle Public Schools continues to reward the wrong people—entrenched family dynasties—while forcing parents to foot the bill. Accountability must come first, via an unscoped external investigation
Previous J425 reporting on the proposed $250-per-kid-per-sport fee system pitched by Seattle Public Schools accountability czar Ted Howard laid bare the systemic corruption, nepotism, fraud and graft plaguing SPS — and explained how the unaddressed rot at the foundation of SPS must be addressed before passing the bill to parents. Following J425’s reporting on the overlap between district leaders and the ongoing federal Jackson Drug Trafficking Organization indictment, it’s worth revisiting the related findings we’ve reported on to date.
We’ll use this commentary to both reiterate a call for an unscoped external investigation, and to summarize reporting on several related matters, including: our report that accountability czar Ted Howard’s brother-in-law received a six-figure golden parachute after the disastrous episode of corruption and graft at Alan Sugiyama HS; Howard’s time at Garfield, presiding over conditions that led to a $16 million sex abuse settlement with a former Garfield girls basketball player — and Howard’s promotion that followed; the ties between the Patu-Jackson family and an ongoing federal drug trafficking prosecution; Patu-Jackson clan member Saul Patu’s involvement in the Roosevelt recruiting scandal and the associated six-figure “Kennel LLC” non-profit payouts made to Patu and approved by a former Roosevelt principal; Patu-Jackson clan member Mike Bethea’s program’s involvement in the murky transfer of Tyran Stokes, and episode that has yet to fully play out at the state level.
The Pay-to-Play Memo
J425 previously reported on a January 28, 2026, memo from the Seattle Public Schools’ Office of Accountability that pitches a “pay-to-play” model to parents, proposing that families shoulder up to $2.6 million in athletic participation fees. Authored by Assistant Superintendent Theodore (Ted) Howard, the document leans heavily on the premise that athletics drive academic success, build character, and require new revenue streams for “fiscal sustainability”.
But peeling back the layers of this proposal reveals a staggering hypocrisy. The memo’s author suffers from major credibility issues, presiding over a district defined by family fiefdoms, nepotism, dishonesty, graft, and misplaced priorities. Across SPS, the wrong people get rewarded with taxpayer money while rule-abiding parents are forced to pay the tab.
For instance, recent J425 reporting has focused on the Patu-Jackson family overlap between Seattle Public Schools and the federal Jackson Drug trafficking organization indictment. But The Patu-Jackson-Bethea dynasty isn’t the only family exerting pressure inside SPS. Consider accountability czar Ted Howard and his brother-in-law Joe Powell.
The Golden Parachute for Brother-in-Law Joe Powell & The Patu-Jackson Syndicate
Theodore “Ted” Howard’s official 2023 ethics disclosure lists Joe Powell as his brother-in-law. Powell was the principal of Alan T. Sugiyama High School, where he oversaw an elite basketball program called “Great Futures Prep”.
Under Powell’s leadership, the program essentially ran a pay-for-play scam within a public school, robbing parents of up to $22,000 a year in “tuition”. To bypass out-of-district enrollment deadlines, the program fraudulently instructed families—some from as far away as New Zealand and Senegal—to enroll as homeless under the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
When the scam was exposed, Powell wasn’t punished; he was rewarded with a golden parachute of taxpayer money. SPS allowed Powell to sign a settlement agreement to resign without any policy findings against him, placing him on paid administrative leave to quietly collect his $199,000 salary and benefits for nearly eight months. The fraudulent tuition payments stolen from parents were never recovered by the district. Ted Howard was a district administrator
