Seattle School Board Races Update
Readers, some of you may have seen my name listed at King County Elections to run for Rick Burke's seat in District 2. I did that for strategic reasons, namely, I didn't want someone to sneak on the ballot at the last minute with no challenger. There are two candidates now for that position and so, true to form, I'm not running. (Everybody at JSCEE can exhale now.)
Note to those who are not as in-the-know about campaigning. You file to run with King County Elections but you are not truly running until you register with the Public Disclosure Commission. (Yes, I know legally when you file, you are a candidate but to get and spend money, you need the PDC registration.)
The only three names I see so far at the PDC are Leis, Blumhagen and Muniz. I'm sure the others will get around to it soon.
Update:
I neglected to attribute the statement below to the head of Ethnics Studies at SPS who is running for Highline School Board. I assumed no one would want to look that unprepared but apparently not.
End of update
It does make me smile at the number of people who think running for school board is just filing, getting a couple of helpers and off you go. In 2019, that's some unsophisticated thinking. I saw this statement at one Facebook page from who is running for a school board position (not Seattle):
I was told I need a "team" of people to help me run. I thought it was as easy as filing and banking on my good looks and massive brains.
Here's who's running (at least as of 1:30 pm - people can withdraw until 4:30 pm):
Seattle School District 1, Director District 1
Comments: Rankin and Blumhagen are the most knowledgeable people about the district on that list running. Christophersen has run before and anyone who witnessed him at debates knows it's a big, big no for him.
Seattle School District 1, Director District 2
Comments: Rivera Smith is a long-time PTA president (at Hamilton and now at Lincoln); I have never heard of Wilson who appears to have gone thru the Chamber of Commerce leadership process and favors charter schools. Given the latter, it's Rivera Smith for me.
Seattle School District 1, Director District 3
Comments: Leis is an parent and writes the Community Forum for HCC blog, Hampson is a SPS parent and the Seattle Council PTSA president (almost a year) and Muniz hasn't been on my radar but her Twitter account says: Latinx, daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. Sister, auntie, friend. Seattle organizer.
Seattle School District 1, Director District 6
Comments: Harris is, of course, the President of the School Board and Molly E. Mitchell, also someone I have not heard of before, appears to be the Director of Student Support Programs at Seattle Central College. I can't verify Liston's background; when her listed website goes live, we should learn more.
Reader Night Owl says this:
Both Eric Blumhagen and Lisa Rivera Smith are doing very well, having gotten the 46th Dems endorsement and the King County Young Dems endorsement. I have also heard that they both got the recommendation from the 36th Dems e-board.
Chandra Hampson and Rebeca Muniz both got the 46th Dems endorsement.
Any other news or thoughts?
Note to those who are not as in-the-know about campaigning. You file to run with King County Elections but you are not truly running until you register with the Public Disclosure Commission. (Yes, I know legally when you file, you are a candidate but to get and spend money, you need the PDC registration.)
The only three names I see so far at the PDC are Leis, Blumhagen and Muniz. I'm sure the others will get around to it soon.
Update:
I neglected to attribute the statement below to the head of Ethnics Studies at SPS who is running for Highline School Board. I assumed no one would want to look that unprepared but apparently not.
End of update
It does make me smile at the number of people who think running for school board is just filing, getting a couple of helpers and off you go. In 2019, that's some unsophisticated thinking. I saw this statement at one Facebook page from who is running for a school board position (not Seattle):
I was told I need a "team" of people to help me run. I thought it was as easy as filing and banking on my good looks and massive brains.
Here's who's running (at least as of 1:30 pm - people can withdraw until 4:30 pm):
Seattle School District 1, Director District 1
Comments: Rankin and Blumhagen are the most knowledgeable people about the district on that list running. Christophersen has run before and anyone who witnessed him at debates knows it's a big, big no for him.
Seattle School District 1, Director District 2
- Lisa Rivera Smith
Rebecca Wilson
Update: Rebecca Wilson has also droppped out, leaving Lisa Rivera Smith as the only candidate for District 2.
End of update
Seattle School District 1, Director District 3
Comments: Leis is an parent and writes the Community Forum for HCC blog, Hampson is a SPS parent and the Seattle Council PTSA president (almost a year) and Muniz hasn't been on my radar but her Twitter account says: Latinx, daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. Sister, auntie, friend. Seattle organizer.
Seattle School District 1, Director District 6
Comments: Harris is, of course, the President of the School Board and Molly E. Mitchell, also someone I have not heard of before, appears to be the Director of Student Support Programs at Seattle Central College. I can't verify Liston's background; when her listed website goes live, we should learn more.
Reader Night Owl says this:
Both Eric Blumhagen and Lisa Rivera Smith are doing very well, having gotten the 46th Dems endorsement and the King County Young Dems endorsement. I have also heard that they both got the recommendation from the 36th Dems e-board.
Chandra Hampson and Rebeca Muniz both got the 46th Dems endorsement.
Any other news or thoughts?
Comments
You've certainly been effective gathering information, advocating, and managing this blog over the years, but with your All Good Things Must Change post the other day I actually thought you might be considering a run for district 2. Think what could be accomplished with the likely lineup. I may just be dreaming, but it's a good dream.
Facts matter
Future Board
-Let’s Talk
Westbrook seems to be able to dish it out but could never take the heat. She has maligned people for 10 years with this blog and just when it seems she was going to put some skin in the game she admits to some sort of political manipulation and chickens out.
Typical games
Maybe the board should have paid more attention to the districts finances instead of congratulatory salutations to each other from the dais?
Sam
Sam, really? It's the board's fault for the financial crisis? Do keep up; it's the Legislature and some poor spending decisions by Nyland and his staff.
The boards only responsibility is to provided oversight and approve the budget.
Wow we are lucky you checked out!
Sam
Wait..what.
You mean his wife has been posting on this blog the whole time he has been on the board?
Wow this whole story gets seedier by the minute.
Typical games
There's no way she was going to subject herself to actual accountability.
Bolingbroke
District 2 seems to be in good hands with Lisa Rivera Smith, who is liked and supported by a lot of good people. So that leaves the other three districts where there are some pretty clear choices and contrasts. Should be an interesting election.
Monmouth
JSCEE, teachers, community members, politicians post here all the time mostly under pseudonyms. To single out Rick Burke's wife and Burke himself it's obvious you have an ax to grind and no one's fooled.
Anyone who's attended a Board or community meeting, read board materials or watched the videos knows the Board face an incredible onslaught of diverse and at times divisive opinions and work incredibly hard in an unpaid position in addition to their day jobs.
Burke has always approached decision making thoughtfully and intelligently with due diligence. I will really miss having someone of his caliber on the Board.
If you have such a poor opinion of Burke, it's not him, it's you.
Rorschach Blot
I myself would rather see a board member ask the hard questions while doing the “oversight” of policy and the weighing of recommendations from committees & district administrators (in addition to the “approving the budget” work, of course) - than for me to witness (or tolerate) the appearance of “rubber stamping” among the school board members. While no one board member possesses the power to really do anything on his/her own authority, I believe that someone like Melissa could provide some fuel and insight on certain issues to balance out the board so that it can strive to be an effective group for all of us. Just my opinion, folks.
Let’s talk
The other races do look interesting and I look forward to hearing from the candidates.
Lisa Rivera Smith is a great candidate - progressive, definitely not ed reform, anti-charter, experience mobilizing parents for a common cause, knows the district well, is a woman of color, focused on the whole child, has good ideas about how to deliver racial equity in schools. She'll do a great job on the board.
What I find most interesting is that the charter school supporter, Rebecca Wilson, quit the race. The charter/ed reform crew must have known it was hopeless.
Pere
-HS Parent
Writeaway
--PEEPE
Writeaway
P
Hopefully DeWolf will resign. The students deserve better.
The district gets $1,000,000,000 per year and apparently can't function within it means.
Teachers let go.
Librarians let go.
Bus service in shambles.
School buildings in disrepair.
Spending money they don't have on the flashy curriculum.
So what actions did the current school board take to advert these crisis?
5 of the 7 board members are hitting the road (smart) and 2 have the audacity not to resign.
I can't wait for the debates! I can't wait to drill Harris into the stage with questions, just as Marty said , "what goes around comes around!"
Not only was Harris on the rubber stamp board to bankruptcy she's the president!
Priceless
Fiscal/Legal
HR
Parent Complaints
Curriculum Issues
SPS Service Failures
Her Re-Election Campaign will be:
"Transparent, but Not-Accountable"
Voting No
Watch a few SPS School Board Meetings on YouTube.
Form your own opinions.
Voting No
She is snarky at some point in every meeting. My favorite snarky moment is when she starts to lean over to the point where she is almost lying down on the dais.
I'm not saying it's bad, but it does happen.
It's all theater folks.
--Rubberstamp Board
--Rubberstamp Board
Every single current board member is a registered Democrat.
Makes you think, right
--Rubberstamp Board
BeKind
Board members can be any party they want; it's a non-partisan office.
Ah the title of this blog is not "Melissa's blog" it's "Seattle Schools Community Forum " so I'm I not a member of the community? Can't I have an opinion ? If you don't want community comments then simply turn of comments, right?
My understanding that there are several contributors to this board and that Melissa did not create the this blog, right? Yes she seems to now be the only one posting and deleting comments, but if I really would follow your advice which it's possible I will then I will move on. Hey maybe I should create my own blog and go head to head that might be fun.
--Rubberstamp Board
Yes, please please please. Please go and start your own blog. That would be a much better use of your and our time. You could even put ads on it and earn some money. Please please please go do that now.
Blogs Away
Y'know, until you brought up race, it wasn't an issue here on this thread.
Serious question: If I complain about Maria Goodloe Johnson's [RIP] tenure here in SPS, if I remind people of her improprieties, the shady underlings she brought to SPS, her destructive comments and lies (she lied directly to my face), and her eventual shamed exit from SPS, am I a racist just because she was black? Or might it just be that she was ill-equipped to be the leader of Seattle Public Schools?
If I claim that Obama was the best president we've had in the past few decades (at least), am I racist for supporting him just because he's black? Or might it be that he simply did a great job?
Sometimes comments are what they are without reading race into them.
- biracial.
Night Owl
Our current board has rubber stamped this district into financial ruin, shall we count the ways?
--Rubberstamp Board
Again, it's the Legislature. And the district itself. The Board certainly has a role to play but to assign it sole blame is wrong.
For one thing the board approves the budget and should have known of the approaching budget shortcomings and taken action. The so called "reserves" were eaten-up by a wage increase that the district could not afford yet still the board approved the raises.
Second the board should have implemented a spending freeze years ago when it was known that political games were afoot and the outcome would mean a loss of funding.
Throwing the district into chaos for political posturing was reckless.
--Rubberstamp Board
Some people just don't get it because they appear to be less-than-mature and believe name-calling works. It generally doesn't and certainly not in running for office. I'd find it hard to believe anyone would want a school board director who sits on a dais and calls people names.
We'll end this discussion here for now.