Times Weighs in on NE Seattle School Board Races

I’m not sure you can have a bigger contrast between the Seattle Times’ article about the Board race between Leslie Harris and Molly Mitchell versus this article about the other two races, both in the northend.  The Times is a lot more even-handed here and that’s what you should expect in this kind of article (unless one candidate is severely deficient in skills).


The Times points out that Rankin and Hampson have the support of the teachers’ union (actually the Board because the union membership didn’t vote).

The Times also accurately reports that Rankin and Hampson worked closely together on the SCPTSA.  The Times may not know but, as one reader points out, they both have kids at Eckstein.

The Times reports that Rankin is in favor of dismantling the Advanced Learning program as it currently operates but not HCC “entirely.”  Well, at this point HCC is the whole program. Spectrum was killed off and most schools have no ALO offerings.


In District 2, the Times puts it this way - Experience versus “youthful optimism.”

Here’s the meat of the Times’ discourse on the race:

Muñiz said she is the “product of all the programs Seattle Public Schools is trying to advocate for.”

“I have a really unique perspective coming from a Latinx community, coming from an LGBTQ community, an immigrant community,” she said.

That’s an interesting point from Muñiz as Director Zachary DeWolf has made that point for younger representation on the Board as well as for LGBTQ students and staff. If Muñiz wins, the Board would have three members under 35 on it.

The Times goes on:

She (Muniz) takes a firm stance against charter schools. Hampson does too. Hampson made one caveat, though, and said that in some native communities, charter schools are the only option. She said she doesn’t fault these communities for supporting such schools, she said. None of Washington’s nine charter schools exist on reservation land, but several schools enroll Native American students, according to the Washington State Charter Schools Association.

Yes, the nuanced charter school argument.  Here’s what I say - it’s fine to have a personal viewpoint on charters.  But anyone who wants to be on the Board should be against them.  Two different Board have passed resolutions against them and the district has never made any moves towards becoming an authorizer.  I would be unease with anyone who has a “I’m against charters except...” because that just leaves the door open.

I will note that after one reader reported what Rankin said at the North Beach forum about HCC, Rankin reached out to me to correct the record. Well, not in as correct the record here at the blog,no, she just wanted to let me know her stance. Which I found odd because most candidates don’t contact me just to tell me their thoughts. She said it was just an FYI email except that in her first email there was no wording to indicate that.

No, I think Rankin was hoping I’d print what she said. And she and I got into a little back and forth.  It was interesting to me because Rankin - over a series of three times to and fro - did not ever address my support and praise for Soup for Teachers.  Support and praise I carried on here for a long time.

One of last friendly exchanges we had in Jan 2018 when I wrote to her about Chandra Hampson, telling Liza how openly hostile that Chandra can be in her remarks at the Soup for Teachers Facebook page.

Thanks for reaching out. I think everyone was uncomfortable and annoyed at that whole thread, unfortunately. I was glad to hear from an educator about the real impact our system has on students, and glad that she felt comfortable sharing what she heard, as so many teachers have stopped participating, so it was too bad that it became about adult problems, yet again, and not about how we can better support students.

Chandra is a friend, so I realize I don't read her comments the same way as others do - she doesn't sugarcoat, in person or online, but I'm used to her style and don't take it personally. That said, her comments did get too personal towards people and we let her know that. Some of them I didn't see until much after they were posted, since many of her comments were nested under other comments. FB doesn't always show those at the time and then I find them later....In hindsight, the conversation should have been stopped earlier, as soon as it looked like it was just going to be another circular argument about HCC. It's generally the same few people having the same conversation over and over, each side feeling as though the other side isn't hearing them. It's just not productive or helpful.

Gee, teachers not participating at that Facebook page because they were getting smacked down? Sounds familiar.

She also said this but claimed she was not judging other people’s children - you be the judge:

Additionally, there are students who test in very early and are precocious, not gifted, and by the time they are a little older are receiving academic tutoring to keep up with the acceleration, instead of being taught at a more appropriate level.

To which I said:
Your words, Liza. And words that you have zero ability to know factually and yet you judge these children and their parents. Unless I missed some qualification in your resume?

She came back with this:

I know that there are kids at Cascadia getting tutoring because I have a lot of friends with kids there, and they see kids suffering from massive anxiety and feeling like they’re always behind. I didn’t invent that. My parents are also both psychologists, and factually, used to get requests all the time for private testing of children whose parents wanted them in HCC/APP. Psychologists currently still working have told me the same thing.

Is this all children in HCC? No, of course not. But to pretend these families don’t exist is not helpful. It’s not helping any child to have them in a program that doesn’t suit them, just as it is not helpful to have children without access to a program that is right for them.

Take that all in. Her parents are psychologists who told her that parents in SPS were asking fothem to test their children for HCC/APP? Should they be telling people that? And other psychologists also blabbed this to her? 

She then said:

Melissa, I sent you an answer to a question you asked in a public space on the Internet. That’s it. I shouldn’t have. I might have answered on the blog, but engaging there without knowing who is behind their words doesn’t feel very productive.There is no honesty when commenters are all hiding behind made up names

Oh, I see. Well, yes, not everyone at this blog identifies themselves and I can see that point. But not everyone is anonymous either. But going the other way, when the former Soup for Teachers Facebook page has people who attack others in vicious and unwarranted ways and the mods do nothing, well, I find that problematic.

She professed fear because one reader called her “a Marxist” and said she “must be stopped at all costs.”  She was fearful because apparently that was the kind of threat used against her grandmother during WWII.  Now neither the reader nor I would have known this. And when I pointed out to her -multiple times - how I get threatened on a regular basis, she didn’t address that either.

I have had multiple Board members tell me of both verbal and physical threats.  Not nice or valid at all but yes, part of the job.