One Seattle School Board Candidate Withdraws

 Update: two more candidates have now withdrawn from School Board races.

From district 4, Suzanne L. Sutton has withdrawn, leaving Marty McLaren, Leslie Harris and Nick Esparza

From district  2, Deborah Leblang has withdrawn, leaving Rick Burke and Laura Obara Gramer.

end of update

The King County Elections webpage reflects that Julie McCleery has withdrawn from the district 2 race, leaving Rick Burke, Laura Obara Gramer and Deborah Leblang still in it.

Presumed candidates have until the end of today to withdraw. 


Comments

Greenwoody said…
I'm guessing McCleery realized that Seattle voters don't want their public schools run by an ed reformer who sends their kids to private school? Or maybe she just realized that Rick Burke is an unstoppable force of awesome.
Anonymous said…
Yup, if you want better math for middle and high school students, Rick is going to be awesome.
S parent
Anonymous said…
"Or maybe she just realized that Rick Burke is an unstoppable force of awesome."

Rick Burke is hardly a one issue candidate. He has been involved with the SPS for years, has served on committees, and attended board meetings. He is a successful engineering and business professional. He served on the State Board of Education's Math Advisory Panel. All three of his children attended only Seattle Public Schools.

It would be difficult to run against Rick and expect to win unless outspending him by a substantial amount.

-- Dan Dempsey
Anonymous said…
In District 6, the longtime perennial candidate and bomb thrower Nick Esparza remains in the race, and he has done us all a favor by doing so, because having a primary allows us more of an opportunity to introduce Leslie Harris to voters who might not know her.

Leslie and I both supported Marty McLaren in 2011 and are glad to have done so. We like her and respect her, and are grateful that she ran, and that she got us a decent math curriculum over the objections of the entrenched SPS bureaucracy.

But Leslie will take representation to a new level. Her legal background, combined (we hope) with Jill Geary's, will keep the Board from being snowed and cowed into submission by the Ron Englishes of the world, or whoever succeeds English.

Fresh from 12 years of PTSA activity (her daughter is graduating from Chief Sealth) and years of attendance at Board meetings, Director meetups, committee work, and countless other school-related activity, Leslie is as knowledgeable and invested a challenger as we could hope for. To call her a "force" is an understatement.

Whoever hasn't met Leslie should do so at the first opportunity. You will find that I'm not just blowing smoke.

-- Ivan Weiss
Ragweed said…
In fairness McCleery and others might have decided they really didn't want a 30 hour a week unpaid job after all. School board is a tough gig that way, and the fact it is unpaid weeds out a lot of very good and bad potential candidates.

Alternatively, the lack of Ed reform candidates may be either a sign that they are focusing on mayoral control, or figuring they will let the North end capacity fiasco and CC testing anger settle down. If the north end goes ballistic over high-school capacity, it could be a smart plan to try to come in as the white horse of competent management in 2019.
Ragweed said…
On another note, it looks like District 2 will be a choice between good and better, which is a nice choice for a change.
Watching said…
Leslie Harris's web page shows that she has racked-up a considerable amount of endorsements from highly respected individuals. Harris is an active member of her community and has gained the respect of many.

I note that Leslie Harris works in the legal field and she has the support of former Supreme Court Justices.

Very impressive.
Seattle mom said…
Nick Esparza the Bomb Thrower what facts do you have on this
Seattle Mom, the evidence would be that listening to any of his testimony at Board meetings, his last run for School Board and his comments here.

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