District VII Candidate Responses (and What a Mess the Board Has Created)

Update 2: Romanita Hairston is the only candidate still in the running without answers to the questionnaire.  Not sure if she is the one who made the request for an extension but a spot-check seems to indicate she is the only one without answers.

end of update


Update: Candidate Sandra Bosley withdrew her name from contention yesterday.

end of update

SPS has put forth the answers to the Board questionnaire to the candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring to replace retiring director Betty Patu.

I have not gone thru these yet but wanted to get them up in advance of tonight's forum via the Southeast Education Coalition as well as the Board's pending forum on August 7th.

I have heard news that a candidate did not get their questionnaires in on time because he/she was out of the country and didn't have computer access but is now allowed to submit them late.  Booo to that.

 One, deadlines are deadlines.  Sorry to whoever that is that is out of the country.  Truly bad form on the part of the Board.

Two, that means the other candidates questionnaires were up and available for that candidate to read as he/she finished his/her own questionnaire.

Plus, it now makes all the other candidates have to rethink what they have probably spend hours and hours of time on.

Here's how this went down (partial from emails):


Wednesday, July 24th
Please find an important clarification below from Board President Harris regarding the candidate questionnaire. As a reminder, the questionnaire is due by email to the School Board Office, boardoffice@seattleschools.org, by Monday, July 29, 2019 at 9 a.m. 

What Harris wanted candidates to know:
One of you has requested specific advice on the outstanding questionnaire as to how to address the "choose 3 remaining questions" from the community questions portion, when many of the community questions are compound.    

We left those exact details open and thoughtful discussion was had at the work session as to some of these details, but we left it for you to choose how you wish to answer so we, as the Board and decision makers, and the community can see how you respond and determine what’s most important to you to convey to the Board members and communities.  No word lengths, etc.   We are trying in our efforts to be fair to create an even opportunity field by asking and vetting questions and doing this process as transparently as we can.  

We’ll be meeting on August 5th @ 4:30 p.m. to discuss the questions to pose for the August 7th forum. 

Tuesday, July 30th
Your questionnaire responses have now been posted to your individual candidate pages. You can access those pages here: https://www.seattleschools.org/district/school_board/director_appointment/candidates 

Tuesday, July 30th (later that day)
All candidates for the District VII Director appointment are being given additional time to amend or supplement their previously submitted questionnaires. The deadline to provide any additions or to edit your questionnaire is tomorrow—Wednesday, July 31 at 9 a.m. If you are resubmitting, please provide your new questionnaire as a word document with tracked changes if you are able. Please note that submissions that have been received to date have already posted, and we will make any adjustments as we are able.



One candidate was traveling during the questionnaire deadline period, and was unable to provide their questionnaire responses previously. Board President Harris has decided to provide all candidates the additional time to allow for complete submissions.

Wednesday, July 31st
Thank you for your patience as we have worked to ensure this appointment process is as fair and transparent as possible. One candidate remains out of the country without timely access to a computer, so the deadline to provide any additions or to edit your questionnaire has been further extended by the Board President to 5 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, August 1. This is the final deadline extension.



If you are resubmitting, please provide your new questionnaire as a word document with tracked changes if you are able. Please note that submissions that were received by Monday morning have already posted, and we will make any adjustments as we are able.
   

Comments

Anonymous said…
HaHa, looks like Harris's personal pick gets preferential treatment. This whole process of circumventing the voters stinks.

It's just another "thing" about district 7 or is it seven. Cut-er loose

Harris's leadership is highly questionable.

--Blow horn
Blow Horn, Harris? It could be any of them and much more likely to be Patu.
Anonymous said…
Harris rocks fool. If we are just assuming things I think the extension was out of an abundance of fairness.


Cattle Driver
Anonymous said…
What are you talking about?, I only see Harris's name on those emails. Patu is long gone and should not have any influence over the process but if you have evidence please post it.

Harris is in charge as president so the buck stops with her.

When you have so many applicants then you don't change the process that everyone else followed in order to accommodate someone that's out on vacation. I smell Baltimore.

--Blow horn
Anonymous said…
So we are waiting for Bosley? Student absent on picture day. Next.

SE Sea Parent
Blow Horn, if you read my post, I said it was "partial." I did not include the entire thing. No, all of this came from "School Board Office." It would be natural that Harris would be the one to speak for the Board to the candidates.

But yes, I don't get giving anyone special treatment.
Anonymous said…
I'm glad the board has to read those and we don't! They will take a while to slog through. I did read JvA's, and she seems extremely well qualified to me on all fronts--community connections, critical thinking and analysis, collaboration, willingness to buck the JSCEE powers that be when needed, familiarity with the district and schools, etc. From her 30/60/90 day plan, you can also see that she is committed to being a knowledgable and prepared board member, up to date on policies, procedures, past board issues, staffing issues, boundaries, etc.

Note to current Board - posting any responses before all were posted was a terrible idea. In the future, if you feel you need to offer extensions, hold onto all responses and post them all at once. Allowing candidates to read other's responses and then edit or draft their own is absurd for this type of exercise.

Impressed (w/ JvA, not the Bd)
Getting Tired said…
If you don't have time to answer questions, you don't have time to sit on the school board.
Anonymous said…
DeWolf would not have run if he heared there was homework... so I agree.

no caps
Anonymous said…
Why hasn't the Seattle Times released any endorsements for school board? Did they conduct interviews? They printed something about each candidate way back on June 5th, but nothing since. Is this the first time they have not produced endorsements?

Voter

Another Parent said…
We have been traveling in Europe for the last month. 4 countries. I have not once been able to access the Seattle School district website. I have not had a problem with any other website. I am suspicious that the Seattle schools website cannot be accessed internationally. If this is the case, then it would be appropriate to provide an extension.
Anonymous said…
yep. not harris' problem though. she is a straight shooter imo.

no caps
Anonymous said…
You shoot blanks No Caps but Harris is getting the job done.

Truth Truthiness
Anonymous said…
hum ... haiston seemsp perfectly suitable to take dewolf's place... pleaaaàse.

nc
Anonymous said…
When goof balls start calling male hackers "she" we have a reality problem. It's like calling the mayor "she".

Yikes
Anonymous said…
"Romanita holds two bachelors degrees from the University of Washington as well as an MBA emphasizing leadership in non-governmental organizations from Eastern University of Philadelphia. She currently serves on the board of The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, Urban Alliance and Urban Family Center. She is a child well-being fellow with the Renaissance Leadership Group. She is a member of the Opportunity Nation Leadership Council. She teaches, preaches and speaks regularly on issues related to leadership, community development, youth development, collective action, economic development, poverty, biblical justice and God's heart for the poor."

About time
Anonymous said…
you're right, this is a mess. The school board owns this process and President Harris should have been engaged enough to delay posting all responses to allow for the extension.

also--where is the candidate traveling that they didn't have access to email? The process has been emailed to each candidate. Either they travel in some pretty unusual travel destinations or they didn't bother checking email or it's an excuse.

~Seattle Mom
Voter, funny you should ask about the Times and their endorsements for Seattle School Board. I called up Kate Riley at the Times (she oversees the opinion page) and no answer. I find it very odd myself. And it's pretty damn late to do it now. I think something's up.

About Time, I pointed out these points in her resume before as well.

Anonymous said…
Romanita is a remarkable person. I'm just worried that SPS is too dysfunctional for her to deal with.

About Time
Anonymous said…
What do you think the Times might be up to? I see they have never skipped the school board primaries before.

Voter
Voter, that's a good question. It could be that they just had so much work among City Council, King County Council and Port Commissioners, they just decided to skip school board. But why not state that?

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