The Stranger Endorses Song Maritz and Sarju for Seattle School Board

 Today, The Stranger released its picks for races in the upcoming primary election. For Seattle School Board, they picked Vivian Song Maritz for D4 and Michelle Sarju for D5. I concur with both picks and I endorse Song Maritz. 

For Song Maritz, they like her finance background, her child of immigrants/first generation to go to college background and that having an Asian on the Board would bring more diversity.

The Stranger feels like Michelle Sarju has many talents and a firm knowledge of her region to bring to the Board. There’s also a funny story about one of her competitors who did show up for the interview. 

To note, there was a candidate forum for the D5 race this week put on by the League of Women Voters King County and Horizon House, a retirement apartment building for seniors. I’ll have a separate post on that.

In case you were wondering about the demographics of the Board and the district:

Board

2 Native Americans (Hampson and DeWolf, if elected Sarju, who is African American, would replace DeWolf)

1 Black (Brandon Hersey who is running almost unopposed for the seat he now holds as an interim)

1 Hispanic (Lisa Rivera Smith)

3 White (Leslie Harris, Liza Rankin and Erin Dury)

District (I rounded up)

Whites 46%

Hispanic 13%

Asian 13%

Black 15%

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Island - .40%

Native Americans - .42%

Comments

Anonymous said…
In addition to having someone with a background in finance, it would be nice to have someone that actually *shows up* to exercise the basic function of the board: approving a budget. Dury was notably absent for the budget vote.

Poor Attendance
7/14/21, 6:12 PM
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