Candidate Interviews - District 2
As I previously stated, I am not interviewing the incumbents and that includes the incumbent for District 2 - Lisa Rivera Smith. Rivera Smith's interview with the 36th Dems. (I'll have more to say on that interview when I do my endorsements.)
Christina Posten
My Interview
Posten is a former Whitman Middle School principal (and that was the first place she ever was a principal having previously being a teacher). I have to say that to have a candidate who is both a teacher and someone who knows the challenges in Seattle Schools makes her uniquely qualified as compared to other candidates. Doesn't necessarily mean she would do better but her learning curve would be smaller.
I asked Posten why she was running for the Board. She said she felt she had the skill set necessary and could "leverage her experience" in the district to support the district. She said she has been a coach and consultant for other districts.
She said she left her post at Whitman because she had had her first child.
She said what she brings from her experience is understanding the "intersectionality of all things," community building, knowing the district, PASS and SEA.
She mentioned that she had been a first year teacher for an honors level class, 10th grade biology, as well as teaching ELL science. She said she felt there were not enough resources to be prepared for teaching that spectrum of students. She said she saw equity issues.
Like so many other candidates, she doesn't believe the district and the Board are as transparent as they should be.
But one key issue for her is that, in her experience, the district does not partner with school buildings. She said Whitman MS has 30% of its students who were POC, she had some students who were in gangs, some in and out of juvey but not much in the way of mental health supports and mentorship. She said she felt she had to create her own interventions.
What was shocking to learn from her is that the student who allegedly committed the murder at Ingraham High School had been a student of hers who desperately need intervention help. She said she was very vigilant about checking every morning who was at school and who wasn't. She says she felt if the district had not ignored her pleas for help, she might have been better able to help that young man. Posten said she understands the need for resources at schools in other parts of the district with far more students of color but that the north end is not immune to these types of issues.
She feels there is a lack of trust between schools and parents, schools and district staff and she feels equipped to have the hard conversations that are needed or, at least, recommend to the the Superintendent what she sees through the lens of a former principal.
Like other candidates, she didn't know a lot about Student Outcome Focused Governance (SOFG) but was working to learn about it.
When her name came up here at the blog as a candidate, one reader said she had been a less-than-effective principal, with conflicts with some staff and the PTA. She seemed surprised but said that she had tried, as a first year principal, to look at the school through an equity lens and found it lacking. She suggested that perhaps that work took some at the school aback.
She said the role of a school board director was to be part of a body of individuals who work in true partnership with the superintendent to build trust, transparency and accountability.
From the interview with 36th Dems
- She has done tutoring with a housing authority and so had students who were low-income.
- She believes that one reason "why so many family member choose which school they will attend next is if they see that there will be changes in specialized programs that won't be available, they might not enroll in that school." She said she thinks the district should be asking why families leave SPS.
- She said that the district really should take the climate surveys to heart and that the district needs to have better alignment from elementary to middle to high school for families.
- On equity and inclusion, "I believe that a well-resourced school is a fully staffed school. It is secure buildings that are safe." Posten continued saying that "there needs to be support for childcare and understanding transportation needs." She believes in restorative approaches to discipline. "It is making sure that we show up in service of our students and our community and we know who they are."
In a follow-up, she was asked again about well-resourced issue and she said "School safety." She said she at advocated for four years for a chainlink fence that could mean that Whitman could be completely locked down in an emergency. She said it never got done.
She got another follow-up and mentioned the student at Ingraham and she said, "I have love for them and I have seen their struggle."
- Budget and closing schools - She believes an outside audit is needed for school spending and "how we are using levy and grant dollars. How we are spending funds on positions and people versus programming and supports for our students and our families."
- "It is very easy to name what's happening and what's not working. And it's much harder to dive in and put yourself out there to be part of the solution.
Comments
"Budget and closing schools - She believes an outside audit is needed for school spending and 'how we are using levy and grant dollars. How we are spending funds on positions and people versus programming and supports for our students and our families.'"
Posten should replace Rivera Smith. Rivera Smith has always voted with the board majority to abandon public daylighting of the funds spending, especially levy & grant dollars. Indeed, as Posten says, an outside audit is needed. It has been needed badly until the budget finally stands to be insolvent.
Obviously
Try again.
I could do a public disclosure request but that would take months (believe me, I know). As well, per the budget, they cut one staff position in that office.
I second everything she has said regarding SPS's responses to safety concerns. As a Special Education Instructional Assistant, I was present for several of these safety challenges... with the police reports to go with. At Whitman, I observed some of the most shocking and disturbing district-directed responses to student needs in my years at SPS. And over the years I have witnessed far too many.
Please elect Christina! And Blair!
Folks with significant breadth and duration of advocacy in SPS are desperately needed.
Thanks so much for sharing very important information. It is very important for the community to be aware of such things.
I encourage the public to engage themselves with expulsion policies.
I'll vote for Posten and will vote to remove Rankin.
I hope Christian will not be a pushover like Rankin.
Blue Skies
North- end schools have problems. For way too long, people have pitted north-end schools against south end schools. The incident at Whitman- a north end school- that led to Ingraham's shooting needs to be acknowledged.
PTA funding diminishes in middle school. Whitman doesn't get title 1 support for poor kids in a non- title 1 school. The current board wants to kill PTA funding- in the name of "equity". Meanwhile, WSS funding models have not been made public- even on most recent budget documents. Killing PTA funding to north end schools will only hurt struggling students in north end schools.
I hope Posten supporters write to The Stranger, show-up at legislative district meetings etc. Posten's message needs to get out.
Posten rolled over for Halfaker that is a documented fact. Posten did not push back against the POC group that accused the Whitman music program of being "racist".
Posten went on a witch hunt for the "racist" who supposedly vandalized the Whitman reader board When it was a Whitman teacher who mis spelled WINTER as WI TER. Ran out of "N"s it seems.
Posten over reacted to an incident which resulted in a school lockdown and Posten threatened us parents with police force who came to the school to pick up our student/s
All of the above can be verified because there are receipts, for example:
Christina Posten crposten@seattleschools.org via spe.schoolmessenger.com
Dec 8, 2018, 3:57 PM
to me
Hello Whitman Community,
I have been informed that our readerboard advertising our Winter concert has been edited. As I have not seen it for myself, I'd like to take an immediate opportunity to address what I am hearing. I have been told that the N in winter has been removed. As my hope is that this is a mistake and there is a letter N on the ground by the sign, my fear is that this was a prank that I will respond to as an intentional act of racism.
At Whitman Middle School we will rise above and denounce any act of hate. Regardless of the intention, an impact is felt by all. We teach our students to honor, celebrate, and love each and every member of our community and the world around them. I would appreciate an opportunity to meet with any individuals involved to begin the education and conversation about such acts.
If you have any information, please respond. I will keep your information anonymous. Our youth deserve to witness a community that puts a stop to this type of behavior.
We will have a thoughtful discussion in our advisory classes on Monday. If you are in the area and see that it has not yet been fixed, please help us out. You can stack the letters by the front office door. I apologize for my inability to clean this up myself.
Thank you for responding and speaking with your students about their value and worth and how we should treat one another.
Sincerely,
Christina Posten