District Four Candidates for Seattle School Board

Update: 

Well, this is interesting vis a vis the recent testimony at Board meetings.  Via the Seattle Times:

UFCW 3000’s 47-member executive board unanimously endorsed the “uncommitted” vote at an emergency meeting conducted via Zoom, Joe Mizrahi, UFCW 3000’s secretary-treasurer, said in an interview.

“We stand in solidarity with our partners in Michigan who sent a clear message in their primary that Biden must do more to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the union said in a statement.

Joe Mizrahi has applied for the vacant D4 seat.

end of update

 

 I went through these four candidates because there are 15 over in D2 (according to the Times, one person dropped out of race). 

Overall, very impressive people. I'm not sure the Board could go wrong with any one of them. I feel that this Board will, of course, go for its own interests in maintaining their governance plan and wanting to have a more diverse board. I believe the former is more important to them than the latter.

In losing Rivera and Song, they lost diversity. It was odd to me that in running again, Rivera said she wanted to be more her Latina self which was sad because she had four years to be that supportive person in that community. 

But let's just review the make-up of the Board.

- 2 Black directors - one male, one female, with Hersey being the sole man on the board. Does that matter to folks? 

- 3 white women - Rankin, Briggs, Topp. 

To the best of my knowledge, none of the current Board members is fluent in a language other than English. 

It is unclear how many candidates will make the final round. I'll try to ask the Board office about that. 

Here's what I have found about the four candidates.

 

Gabriela Gonzalez - district link

I didn't find as much on Gonzalez, mainly because of a lack of a middle initial. There are a number of women named Gabriela Gonzalez out there.

She is from an immigrant family and a first-generation college graduate. I am assuming she is Hispanic and speaks Spanish.

Her strong suit is data and analytics which would be a boon to the Board. She is currently a Chief Data Officer for a "boat sharing marketplace."

In 2023, I was honored to be selected for membership in Chief, an esteemed network of senior executive women, recognizing my contributions and potential as a leader among peers.

She has a child at Queen Anne Elementary. 

Selected comments:

I strive to bring value to the school board through three fundamental approaches: carefully framing the problem statement, asking the right questions, and applying a data-driven analytical approach to clarify discussions.

Public education stands as a powerful force for transformation and upliftment. It ensures that every student, irrespective of their background or challenges—be it language barriers for English as a second language learners, attention difficulties like ADHD, home instability, or the need for advanced learning opportunities—has the chance to succeed.

She is the only candidate to mention advanced learning. 

It depends on the student population, for me financial education is crucial for high school students to prepare them for responsible money management in adulthood, while middle school students would greatly benefit from guidelines on social media use to navigate digital spaces safely, and teaching healthy eating habits to elementary students lays the foundation for a lifetime of wellness and positive food choices. 

I thought the above statement had positive ideas across the grade levels.

 

Joe Mizrahi - district link

Mizrahi is also from an immigrant family (possibly Iran).  His parents were both educators and he is married to an elementary principal in the Bellevue School District. He is a parent of three SPS students. 

He has a law degree but went in a different direction years ago. He is currently a union leader - Secretary/Treasurer - at UFCW 3000. He was also political director for the same group. UFCW 3000 represents "50,000 members working in grocery, retail, health care & other industries across WA state, NE Oregon, and northern Idaho." He is a member of the King County Labor Council. He was part of the Labor Council when they voted to remove the Seattle Police Officers Guild from the Council. That was probably a very tough time to be on the Council.

If selected, he would be the second Labor employee to be on the Board; Brandon Hersey also works for a labor group.

He wrote several op-eds during COVID times, one in the Seattle Times and one in the Real Change newsletter. 

Selected comments

As a School Board Director, I would immensely look forward to building upon these existing relationships and building new ones with parent groups, education advocates, and student organizations. To do so, I would use the same skills I have built over the last decade and a half building similar community—utilizing the two most critical components of community engagement, spending time with these groups, and listening to what matters to them.

You see some version of the above statement from all the candidates but the current Board has very limited public engagement. Would any of these candidates push for more/better engagement?

The second is recognizing that there are communities in our district that have been historically marginalized, that have not had a seat at the table, and have not been served by the education system. These are primarily the BIPOC communities, particularly our Black and Hispanic community, but also our neurodivergent, low-income and students who speak language other than English and the intersectionality within these communities.

I am glad to see that he recognizes that many students need recognition and that there is intersectionality among them.

I am a huge proponent of Outcomes Focused Governance. In my work as the co-director of a large mission driven non-profit organization, we have similar challenges to a large school district.

Initially, I was worried about the above statement. But he didn't say SFOG and I wonder if he truly knows what it is about.

Rachelle C. Olden - district link

Olden lives in Belltown and has no children. 

She has been a Peace Corps volunteer as well as having done other work for underprivileged communities aboard. She speaks fluent Spanish. 

She has work in the tech field at many companies including Microsoft and Goodle as well as at the Gates Foundation. That's a lot of power in knowing those companies. She has an MBA and was named in an
"40 under 40" article in the Puget Sound Business Journal. She has experience in product management and strategic policy.

Those items in her background would really be great for someone on the Board to have. 

She founded "AfroCamp" - "an annual summer camp experience to build community and culture for Black adults."

She's a Giants fan and lived with her grandparents during COVID times. She was part of an article in the NY Times about that experience; a very sweet story. 

One thing that is a bit troubling is that her writing sounds a lot like a speech she's giving.  It seems a bit canned. She loves the word "audacity."

Selected comments

These are her goals (they are somewhat fleshed out in her Q&A but not in specific ways).

- Equity as Our Compass
- Innovation as Fuel
- The Power of Community
- Believing in the Audacity of Our Teachers
- Stewardship and Bold Investment

Open Communication Channels: I will establish accessible platforms for regular dialogue and feedback, such as School visits, office hours, surveys, AMA’s (ask me anything on social platforms), ensuring that all voices within District 4 have a means to be heard and valued.

If she has office hours, she will join recent member Gina Topp as the only directors willing to have regular community engagement. The idea of AMAs is intriguing.

Laura Marie Rivera - district link

Rivera has sought this spot a couple of times. In the previous election, she cleared the primary and came in second to Vivian Songin the general election. I hope the Board considers that because she was actually in an election where many voters said yes to her candidacy. 

She knows most of the members of the Board from when she, Sarju, and Hersey ran and were all endorsed by the Seattle Times and the Seattle Medium in 2021.

Here's her interview with the South Seattle Emerald when she ran for the Board. 

She is working on a PhD in Education at Seattle U and has a Master's in the Science of Education. She has worked extensively with children in different areas. 

She is endorsed by all three of the LD 36 legislators - State Reps Liz Berry and Julia Reed, and Senator Noel Frame. This political knowledge would be very helpful to the Board.
 

Selected Comments

We must foster a safe and welcoming environment for each of our students to succeed. And be sure to take special care for our LGBTQIA+ and vulnerable marginalized students. Having personal experience with Special Education and accommodations- from mild to profound, I am particularly focused on meeting the learning needs of students with differing abilities and special education services.

I found this comment below a thoughtful one about working with other board directors:

When Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor visited Seattle a few years ago, I was invited to attend with a group of students from the middle school. Her story, including the importance of education and opportunity, has stayed with me. And one of the most memorable things she said was that she refused to criticize her fellow Supreme Court Justices. While acknowledging that they do not always agree, she felt it was counterproductive and uncool to publicly criticize them.

During COVID times:

During the pandemic, at my direction, our elementary school donated all of the proceeds from the Fall Fund Drive to our partner school and the SESEC. This is one of the ways I see expanding local partnerships- and will continue to build with the city, state, national levels of government.