Meet the Candidates to Fill Betty Patu's Seat

There are 12(!) people vying for Patu's seat.  Clearly, the remaining Board members have their work cut out for them.  Of the 12:
- 9 are women
- 3 are men
- At least eight included photos that would indicate that they are people of color.  Five appear to be African-American, one self-identified as Mexican-American, another is bi-racial.
- 7 have or had children in Seattle Public Schools
- Two have/are been teachers
- One has served on a school board before

I would urge the district to check each applicant's address and confirm that they live at the address listed on their application.
 
- Skimming their letters of application, I would say there are five who would seem to know the district fairly well, four maybes and three who do not appear to have had much contact with the district.

The ones who are in the last category - by my measure of needing to know this district fairly well in order to jump right into the work - should probably be quickly omitted by the Board.  Those would be Brittany Williams, Chukundi Salisbury and Brandon Hersey.  (Editor's note: I'm putting Mr. Salisbury in the "maybe" list as his background would be an intriguing choice for the Board.)

Update: If I were on the Board, I would have pause about candidate Sandra Bosley. While Ms. Bosley does have a deep background in SPS as a teacher and administrator, she also sued the district and lost in 2013 over a claim of discrimination against her :

Bosley alleges that, “[b]eginning in 2002 and continuing to the present, " she has "sought over one hundred two distinct employment opportunities in and out of Seattle Public Schools," but has been unsuccessful as a result of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or age and/or retaliation."

end of update

From the SPS application page:

The letter of interest and relevant experience information below was submitted by the candidate through an online form. Because we are committed to publishing a website that is accessible to all our readers including those who need ADA accommodations and language translations, we have not published PDF documents such as resumes the candidates may have submitted during the application process.

I think there are some very good candidates in this group of applications.  I'm going to do a deep dive and come up with more information as well as my top three choices.

You can learn more about the candidates on August 7, 6 - 9 p.m. at the Public Candidate District VII Forum at Rainier Beach High School school library. All candidates will have the opportunity to share why they are interested in serving on the Seattle School Board. Questions from community will depend upon the number of candidates.

For those that can’t attend in person, the forum will be filmed and distributed through channel 26 and YouTube. A Facebook Live event Opens a New Window. will run for the duration of the event. Translation supports will be provided in Spanish, Somali, Chinese, and Vietnamese as well as American Sign Language. If there are additional translation needs, please call Translation and Interpretation Services at: 206-252-0070 or languages@seattleschools.org opens an email client application opens an email client application .