Is There a Slate Running for Seattle School Board?
Update:
I am hearing that not only do Clark, Mizrahi, and Song seem to be a slate but joining them is Carol Rava, one of two candidates in D7.
Word is that the Four are showing up at events together and they appear to be the only Seattle School Board candidates invited.
More details in my next post on my visit to the Public Disclosure Commission to check donations and who is supporting whom.
end of update
Way back in 2002, there was a Seattle School Board election with the majority of seats (4) up. That majority was made up of business-types who had overseen the death of John Stanford and then, the financial scandal of his CFO who became superintendent after Stanford. That would be one Joe Olchefske.
Voters were urged to stay the course with that Board majority. Four strong but completely different women ran against them. Somehow, along the way, those four women became a slate and that slate overturned that majority. It was a pretty thrilling election and it was great to see those four women at the same place on election night.
They are: Brita Butler-Wall, Darlene Flynn, Sally Soriano, and Irene Stewart. I knew these women (and worked on two campaigns) and they did not have all the same thoughts about the district. What they did know was that change had to happen.
They did not run as a slate although it evolved to that because of the seeming determination of voters to get rid of a majority who didn't oversee the superintendent. But the people in the majority now are certainly not the same types of people who were in the majority then. I smile in thinking of the comparison.
So how do you compare situations from then to now and can you draw conclusions about the outcome?
Both Board majorities lost a superintendent.
Both had financial difficulties although today's problems dwarf that financial scandal (which was never really cleared up).
The mood of the voters does seem to lean towards change. However, the two incumbents - Sarah Clark and Joe Mizrahi - were appointed and haven't been there more than a year so I'm not sure there is a "throw the bums out" feeling about them. If Sarju or Hersey had run, I think one or both would have been defeated.
I bring this up because of this opinion piece by "two SPS dads," Ron Davis and Robert Cruickshank. Cruickshank is, among other things, an organizer with All Together for Seattle Schools. They say several interesting things.
What really caught my eye was this:
These candidates (Sarah Clark, Joe Mizrahi, and Vivian Song) are aligned and working together to fix what’s gone wrong with SPS, along with current board president Gina Topp.
What? Are they working as slate? I'll have to ask them when I do interviews with the two candidates in each race.
They also say:
They will stop a mass closure plan from returning,....
Note that word "mass." Because the district, with the Board, is going to close at least 4 schools. I'll bet anyone money on it. How am I so sure?
Because the district has poured millions into these mega-elementaries. They HAVE to fill them. So there may not be more than 10 schools closing but yes, they will close buildings in the next 2-3 years.
And this:
They also want to scrap SOFG and replace it with a more democratic governance model.
Hmmm, I'm not sure that's an entirely true statement. The Board has spent A LOT of money and time on SOFG. There may be some contract with the Council of Great City Schools about rollout of it in a given district. I wonder if it might just get tinkered with. I have heard these candidates say that they want to bring back two Board meetings a month plus a couple of committees. That would be good.
And just like The Stranger on Janis White (Song's main opponent), they say this:
Song’s main opponent, Janis White, is a a strong advocate for special education. That’s extremely important work and a strong reason to hear her out. But as with Clark and Mizrahi, Song has already shown she is a strong, effective ally on the school board. As with those other two elections, we don’t see any reason to pick someone else when we already have a proven champion in Vivian Song.
The Stranger said White nailed everything. And yet they, too, endorsed Song. I like Vivian but her naked ambition is worrying. Great if there is a new Board majority but I truly don't see her staying 4 years if something she else that she wants comes along.
Comments
Some say any political position will favor her husband’s real state developing business, And I think school board positions have no power outside the district other than relational capital so this is definitely a stepping stone. She didn’t get the city council seat but she will find something else and leave us hanging. Mark my words.
Remember DeWolf and his city council aspirations? He missed so many school board meetings during his campaign! For nothing.
Fed Up
Song did NOT break any law. She certainly did not inform the other directors or the public in what I would say is a timely fashion. There is no Board policy on notification (unless I missed it in their massive dump of rewrites of policy).
What I remain mystified about is why she (and Lisa Rivera) didn't just follow ACTUAL Board policy which states that if a director moves from their district during their term, they can retain their seat but, if they run again, must run from the new district.
~ Different View
The ideological snakes have resided in the Seattle Public Schools’ board for some time. But still, Mizrahi, Clark and Song went into bed with the King County Democratic Party and necessarily endorsed one another and sucked up endorsements from other Democratic Party members in toe. It doesn’t matter what they say, what they will do, or would have done through their teeth.
Thus, Mizrahi and Song endorsed each other, never mind that Song was on the same train as Rankin & Hersey to approve the teachers CBA plus admin CBA that would cost far beyond SPS’s (therefore, the taxpayers’) means. Is Mizrahi being politically promiscuous (or am I allowed to use the wh-word or sl-word to express the essence of this) to say the least?
The “politic” is inherently self-serving, not the students first, when it comes to Seattle Public Schools.
MPEUA (Make Public Education Ungated Again)!
I think the attempt to claim that she did something nefarious is vicious and tiresome. She (and Lisa) were trying to deal with messy personal situations. Presumably Vivian was working through where to live and how to tell her young children what was going on. It's not hard to understand why she didn't make a public statement in the middle of that sensitive process when she had no legal obligation to do so. And while going through a tough personal time, she kept up excellent advocacy on the board.
Like her positions, don't like them, vote based on that, but the whole address thing seems way overblown to me. With 20/20 hindsight, when do people of good faith think she should have explained herself in the midst of a divorce? I'd argue the time would have been at the next election, when she would have had to be clear on what her new legal residence was.
But the original fraud that afforded her a seat representing D4 was years before. People forget, but not all of us. Song rented an apartment at a rundown building where she never resided. That resulted in her taking over after Erin Dury’s appointment (BTW, good riddance).
First she said it was because “she realized her home was in D3 and the seat was not up for election but then she changed her story to marriage stuff. Hard to argue with that, unless it was fabricated.
It was fabricated.
Fed up.
Democrats this, Democrats that… they favor buddies and those with connections, and at the end of the day the truth is EDUCATION IS NOT A PRIORITY.
Thank you for calling things by their name and reminding us all that Song in all her wisdom and Harvard Business pretty credentials, voted YES on the CBA, effectively gutting this district in a way it will take years or maybe binding conditions to get out of this hole.
We are used to being so dismissed and ignored that any school board member responding to our questions gets instant praise like District Watcher’s.
Candidates will run on promises and platitudes people want to hear “no school closures!” “Say no to SFOG!” “We love our teachers!” “ No to cops, yes to mental health supports!”
But then they will realize that some of this things are necessary or inevitable and they will turn around and show their weakness with “abstain” votes. No yay or nay. Abstain.
MPEUA, you nailed it. Clark is also an opportunist. Sounds good on paper: Woman of color, foster care/adopted, AP student that made it against all odds. Now we get to watch her play chameleon - did people really think the Times Op Ed was written by her? Read it again.
I will stop here before people figure out who I am and I pay the consequences for being
Honest In Seattle
You make like her. She may be smart. But she also made several mistakes, and got caught. She was called out by the district, and SPS legal is aware. She simply didn't do the right thing by the district, her constituents, or students. Felony or not. It has been reported by both the Times and the Stranger. Sorry if we do not accept her squishy answers that read like an attorney drafted them in advance.
All Song has to do is issue a public statement and clear the air. She is educated and has agency, and this is not an tee hee oopsie moment. She has agency, which means she is choosing not to respond. This is also a mistake. Her political intuition is poor. Remember how she resign because this issue was a (her words) "distraction"? That excuse does not hold up now, does it?
The contortions to defend Song are eerily culty and familiar. The clever and craven ambition is on full display. She may very well win, and if so, that says more about our community than people now realize.
---behind the curtain
You don’t know what you are talking about. VS wasn’t living in a run down apartment- quite the contrary.
As well, there is nothing wrong with moving and deciding to run for office. It happens all the time. There is both fraudulent, here.
It is safe to say that you don’t have confidential information between VS and district- and other attorneys. It is time for you to just give it up.
@Fedup
The Vivian Song apartment issue can be described in a few sentences for interested voters. I've never seen so much kicking up of criticism about a single person/issue on social media, eg Facebook groups.
It WOULD be nice to see this candidate pledge to stay for an entire term on the school board though!
Election season weary SPS parent