Seattle School Board Race, District 7 - Rava v LaVallee

This will be a shorter post than the other races. That would be because I chose not to interview candidate Carol Rava.

I'll explain that at the end because I don't want to give short shrift to the D7 candidate that I DID interview and that would be Jen LaVallee.

Interview

I asked LaVallee about why she stepped up to run. She said she had become active in her children's schools and was very unhappy to learn about the October 1 enrollment count and how damaging it can be to schools, especially Title One schools. She said she pushed back on closures because there "was no clear communication on why" but basically the district was saying, "We know what we're doing."

She said her children were at Dunlap Elementary which is a Title One school. She also said she helped start the Billion Dollar Bake sale. 

She said when she learned Director Hersey was not running, she asked around and could not find anyone to run. Then friends told her she was already doing the work so why not run?

She said she is committed to four years on the Board, barring major illness or death in the family.

I asked her about the situation where D7 has been represented by a person of color for over 30 years and how did she plan to raise up those voices in a diverse district.

She said she wants to build on her networks and make sure "I show up where people are." She said D7 had a large Muslim community and hoped to reach out to mosques about speaking to parents at community events.

I asked her what she thought was needed for the next superintendent of Seattle Schools. She said a strong manager, someone looking at systems and the people in them "holistically" and "building back better than what we have now."

She said she is aware of former JSCEE employees who felt the headquarters is a "toxic" place. She said a new superintendent should be open to "new ways of doing things and push back on entrenchment." She's not in favor of table flipping. 

As for public engagement she said currently there are just two forms. 1)Public testimony at Board meetings which is hard on parents especially around childcare and you basically share your opinion and that's it. 2) Sending in an email or form letter with no feedback from directors. 

She said meetings need to be more accessible to community and notes that the district has done better with locations. She said maybe directors could go to a morning school drop-off and ask parents their thoughts. 

As for closing schools, she said there is a nationwide movement to "right size" schools with 400-600 in elementary. But she said SPS did not present their plan transparently and they need a Facilities Master Plan that is transparent and has detail on capital issues.  Again she said that the district needs to reach out into communities and for example have booths at community festivals.

On the budget, she said that she had been following the analysis of parent Albert Wong and feels the budget is "shrouded in mystery" with manipulation of enrollment. She feels the budget should come out much sooner and, if she felt it necessary, would vote against a budget that was not clear and transparent.

As for safety, she said it doesn't appear there is no real consensus for SROs in high schools. She said communities would want to be part of setting conditions for police in schools. As a couple of other candidates stated, they would like to see more policing out and around schools and also spoke of the need for more relationship building.

Speaking on the SOFG governance, she said she was "not a fan." She said she thought there were good intentions in it but had it has been rolled out has been detrimental. She said it had a "narrow scope of student success." She said some of the testing requires typing to do it well and she wonders how they can possibly happen at home.

She also would favor going back to two Board meetings a month. 

Her final statement

I’ve spent time in my community, not just at school.  I try to make positive impact where I can and to listen and engage deeply. 

It's a big undertaking to run for school board. I am an earnest person and not trying to be a people pleaser. 

About Carol Rava

The issue about interviewing her turns out to be that apparently she's been holding a grudge against me for writing about her when she worked for the district some 18 years ago. She said I had "a bias" against her. That is just not true. I have neither seen nor spoken to her since she left the district lo those many years ago. 

When I saw she was running, I had to jog my memory. I did look back through the blog and I don't really see why she is aggrieved. The worst thing I found that I said was that - and it was true -for some reason, her district salary was being paid by the Broad Foundation. 

Since August, I epeatedly ask her about an interview. In one of her last emails, she said that she said she would talk to me if I agreed to "the following very standard requests of press (which you are not but hopefully respect the rules of that profession):

• send me the questions in advance and stick to those
• allow me to review what you plan to publish before you publish it, and have the ability to correct any errors and approve of any quotes. 

If these work for you, I'll find 30 minutes that work for both of us."

First, it is NOT standard to give out the questions. You can certainly, as a candidate, ask what the questions are. A few candidates have in the past have asked me and I politely said no. To demand them before she will speak with me was quite surprising. 

I can say is that in the past Senator Patty Murray's office recognized me as press as did the Mayor's office. I think many electeds recognize that in today's world, there are different kinds of media.

Second, I need to allow her to review what I write and correct any "errors and approve quotes?" Nope.

I will note two things. 

One, I do wonder if she will try this with The Stranger or The Seattle Times. 

Two, apparently she wants to control her narrative as much as possible. Something to consider.