Seattle Schools Community Forum

I'm behind on this one and I forgot about something happening today - it's National Library Week and today a picture is going to be taken in every Washington state library.  I hope the schools put this word out and got kids in their school library for the photo.  My apologies.

Sorry to interrupt the open thread (please do carry on!), but… TOPS Parent Wayne Duncan hadn't heard a lot from this year's school board candidates about alternative education, so he asked each of the candidates in the contested School Board races to respond to some questions via email. The questions were: What role do you see for alternative schools in the Seattle School District? How do you think alternative schools should be evaluated in the district? What goals(s) would you have for alternative schools for the next four years if you are elected/re-elected? The responses contain a fair amount of boilerplate rhetoric in my opinion, but if you haven't voted yet, or even if you have, check them out. Thanks for taking this on, Wayne.

I nearly missed voting on Initiative measure 1033 because of where it is located on the ballot. It is in the lower left corner of the first page at the bottom of the instructions. Do not presume that the whole left column is instructions - Initiative 1033 is at the bottom. Look for it. Find it. Vote NO.

This morning the Seattle Times came out with their endorsements in the School Board elections. They, predictably, endorsed Kay Smith-Blum in District 5, Wilson Chin in District 7, and Michael DeBell in District 4. My perspective on the candidates in District 7 is simple. If you like the way that Mary Bass works on the Board, vote for Betty Patu. If you like the way that Peter Maier works on the Board, vote for Wilson Chin. The Seattle Times clearly does not like the way that Mary Bass works on the Board. They have endorsed Kay Smith-Blum instead. Not liking Director Bass' style, they don't like Ms Patu's either. Regardless of their choices, the reasoning that the Times provides strikes me as weird. They like Ms Smith-Blum in large part for her refreshing energy and her track record of raising money - as if this were a charity board rather than the legislative body of a government entity. I never hear them mention it as a qualification for the state legislature, City Council...

Meet candidates for Seattle School Board, Position 7, Wilson Chin & Betty Patu. Gain clarity on their priorities in Seattle's schools. A guided discussion will take place between the candidates, followed by an opportunity for questions. Tuesday, October 13 6:00pm – 8:00pm Columbia City Cinema, 4816 Rainier Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98118 Please RSVP to aclfnw@aclfnorthwest.org or 206.625.3850. Refreshments provided.

I'm thinking of putting together a candidate scorecard of sorts. The people running for school board, particularly in District 7, have not been very clear about their positions on the issues that they will face and decide. How can we begin to make a thoughtful choice among the candidates without knowing their positions on the issues? What issues do you all think should be part of the scorecard? Here's what I have so far: Sibling preference. It is universally agreed that siblings of students enrolled at a school should have preferred access to enrollment at that school. That's not the issue. The question is: should that sibling preference come before students in the school's attendance area or after it? Currently it comes before, and the Board, in their Framework for the new Student Assignment Plan committed to maintaining that preference. The New Student Assignment Policy, however, demotes it to behind attendance area students. Curricular Alignment and Standardization....

As first reported by Phyllis Fletcher on KUOW 94.9 FM, two School Board candidates fudged on their degrees both at their websites and in the voters' guide. There was an article in the Times today that had some interesting quotes from both candidates. (Judging from the comments following the Times' article, people are not happy.) From the KUOW report: "The candidates are Betty Patu and Kay Smith-Blum. Patu claimed a bachelor's and a master's degree from Antioch University, Seattle, in the voters' pamphlet and on her Website. But she only has a bachelor's degree. Patu says when she filed for election, she thought she'd have her master's degree within 10 days. She says she had to interview people for her final paper and her interviews fell through. So she missed her June 15 graduation deadline." What Patu said to the Times: "She said she has removed the reference to the degree from her Web site until she finishes the paper. "For goo...

So it is Tuesday and the Times had promised to reveal their endorsements for School Board and I finished my candidate interviews yesterday. I had decided to sleep on my endorsements (and read that these are not Save Seattle Schools endorsements- I haven't consulted with Beth or any of the other writers here). I open the paper this morning and there the Times has pretty much laid out what I think (with one exception). (The online version has a fleshed out editorial by Lynne Varner of the Times. The Times endorses, in District 5 : Andre Helmstetter and Kay Smith-Blum (with more of a nod to Andre which is also in agreement with me). They praise Helmstetter as someone who knows firsthand the struggles of working to get a good education. I spoke with Andre for two (!) hours yesterday and it flew by. (Keep in mind, he had his two little girls with him who were polite and well-behaved the entire two hours with no whining. Not sure if my boys at those ages could have done it.) A...

The Seattle Times had an article this morning on the District 7 race. There were a couple of things that stood out. One, reporter Linda Shaw did a good job in pointing out the differences of expertise each would bring. Charlie is an investment adviser, Wilson Chin is a research scientist and Betty Patu worked in the district for 30+ years. All three received "very good" as their rating from the Muni League. Two, she points out that they all have been involved in school issues but clearly Betty and Charlie have much more far-reaching involvement. Charlie has been to meeting after meeting and knows the district. Betty, with decades of experience in multiple schools, likely knows the SE really well. (I've mentioned before but I'll say it again; I want people who know the entire district and not just a couple of schools or their region. It's a district-wide job.) That's pretty much my only rap against Wilson Chin is that I'm not sure he knows thi...

I read through the entire CPPS Q&A and found it quite telling. Here are some blanket and then specific observations. (Note: I just picked out what struck me in the candidates' answers. Please don't take length or shortness of observations to mean I support or don't support a candidate.) The length and depth of answers varies widely. Length, however, does not equal depth. Some candidates are adept at saying a lot in fewer words. Also, watch the platitudes: Betty Patu and Kay Smith-Blum use a lot of these and while they might sound good, what do they mean in the end in terms of action? SPECIFICS: Mary Bass on why her background will help her be a good Director: "I continuously offer alternative solutions and creative policies to my colleagues and District staff." This may be true but they come way too late to be any help. I'd like hear Mary tell us why this happens so often. But Mary had some fair assessments of the problems with the SAP like cr...

In the first for media endorsements (for what they're worth, meaning I'm not sure how influential these might be), the Stranger has endorsed Betty Patu and Kay Smith-Blum. Oddly, they put out their endorsements before their reasoning (to come early next week). I'll update this thread then. The Times is to announce their endorsements on Tuesday. I'm guessing they will endorse Kay Smith-Blum and Charlie Mas/Wilson Chin. Not sure if the on-line PI will be doing endorsements or when the Seattle Weekly will. Does it matter to you who the media endorse?

So I received my primary ballot and voters guide this week; how about you? The Times had an article about the District 5 School Board race. I thought it was fair. It focused mostly on what will likely become the campaign issue after the primary; running against Mary Bass's record. I did ask the candidates if they were running against Mary or because they believed they had something different to offer. It was the latter. However, come the general election, if Mary comes out of the primary (and I think she will), that other person might need to try to talk about Mary's work over the last 8 years. So here is my assessment of the District 5 race which includes interviews (still haven't gotten together with Andre but I hope to and Mary never responded to my e-mail), reading the Muni questionnaires as well as other research. (One interesting thing about the Muni questions was the fact that almost no District 5 candidate really answered the question about what characteri...

More information for your use in deciding who to vote for in the primary. Here is a link to the Seattle School Board page at the Muni League. It comes with ratings, links to candidate websites and the questionnaire that each candidate filled out. I haven't had a chance to read the questionnaires but I suspect they will be interesting reading. Mary Bass and Joanna Cullen were rated "adequate", while Andre Helmstetter was rated "good" Kay Smith-Blum, Wilson Chin, Charlie Mas and Betty Patu were rated "very good". There is only one rank higher than "very good" and that is "outstanding". No one was rated the at the bottom which is "not qualified". From the website: "Each candidate is given a rating of Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Adequate, or Not Qualified. The criteria used to reach these ratings are: Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employm...

The Municipal League issued their ratings for candidates in upcoming elections. The Municipal League conducts non-partisan ratings of political candidates across King County using a time-tested methodology that strives for objectivity. Candidate ratings are among the most important good-government services provided by the League. Ratings are based on four criteria: Involvement, Effectiveness, Character and Knowledge. The ratings provide the only independent non-partisan, non-agenda driven evaluation of candidates. This year marks the 99th round of Municipal League ratings, conducted annually since 1911. Here are the ratings: In the District 5 race: Mary Bass ADEQUATE Joanna Cullen ADEQUATE Andre Helmstetter GOOD Kay Smith-Blum VERY GOOD In the District 7 race: Wilson Chin VERY GOOD Charlie Mas VERY GOOD Betty Patu VERY GOOD Candidate questionnaires are also available from the Muni League web site.

If anyone attended either forum (Tuesday or Wednesday night), let us know your thoughts. When the link to the Seattle Channel taping is live, I'll post it.

(Update: here is the audio from the forum from KUOW 94.9 FM) I attended last night's forum sponsoring by the Seattle Council PTSA, ESP and CPPS at the Garfield Community Center. There were about 50 people in attendance. All the candidates were there as well with Charles Rollins moderating. Overall, I thought I got a pretty good feel for the candidates. I did come away with a few thoughts. not all the candidates are as good at communicating their views as they need to be very few specifics were offered (with a couple of notable exceptions) Mary Bass seems to be running more on longevity than on her record The format was a bit confusing (as were some of the questions). There were different time amounts for questions which seemed to disorient some candidates. Some questions were multi-part and made for some muddy answers. They also got asked questions about issues that have now been voted on (like the math adoption and the SAP) so while it was good to hear what they thought, ...

I encourage everyone to take an active role in one of the school board campaigns this summer. You can contribute, volunteer, display a yard sign, and talk to your friends and acquaintances about the candidates and the issues. Two years ago some of the school board campaigns raised and spent a lot of money. It felt wrong to me. I think that school board campaigns should be grassroots efforts. That said, this blog is a grassroots communication tool and I think it should be available to the campaigns. It's certainly self-serving, but I would be happy to post requests for help from candidates here. I have tried to be very even-handed about the School Board races on the blog and I intend to continue to be even-handed about them on the blog. If any of the other candidates want to use the blog to ask for volunteers I encourage them to do so. They can add a comment to this post or, if they prefer, I will faithfuly relay their requests in another post. I hope I haven't abused my privile...

From Pat Murakami, a SE education/community activist: Everyone is welcome...you don't have to live in SE Seattle to attend. Host: SE Seattle Community Groups Location: Aki Kurose Middle School 3928 South Graham Street, Seattle 98118 When: Wednesday, July 22, 6:00pm to 9:00pm Phone: 206.774.9146 Join us for the most interesting Candidates' Forum you've ever attended. Your presence sends a message to the candidates that we care about the issues of SE Seattle. Over 25 SE Seattle organizations are co-sponsoring a Candidates' Forum for City of Seattle Positions - Mayor, City Council and City Attorney races as well as School Board Positions 5 & 7. Join us at 6:00pm for a 'Meet and Greet' with the candidates or visit briefly with your fellow community members. The forum starts at 6:30pm and ends at 9pm. C.R. Douglas of Channel 21 will moderate. Channel 21 (The Seattle Channel) will be filming the forum. Attendees will participate in a mock election. Cast your ballo...

Today is the first day that candidates can file for the School Board elections in the fall. Filing closes at 4:00pm on Friday. I will update this post with the names of candidates as they file. You can check for yourself who has filed for each race on the King County Elections web page . The County's web page is updated twice daily. As of Friday, June 5: District #4: Michael DeBell (added on 6/2) District #5: Kay Smith-Blum (added on 6/2), Andre Helmstetter (added on 6/4)Joanna Cullen (added 6/5), Mary E. Bass (added 6/5) District #7: Charlie Mas (added on 6/1), Betty Patu (added on 6/1), Greg Wong (added 6/5), Wilson Chin (added 6/5), Bookda Gheisar (added 6/5)

The Alki Foundation , the political arm of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, will host the first political event of the 2009 election season. On May 7, candidates will take the field for Alki's signature lightning round, where they face a series of fast-pitch yes/no questions on how to fuel a job-growing economy. Local political strategists Cathy Allen and Randy Pepple will moderate the discussion. Participants include: Seattle City Council Position 2: Hon. Richard Conlin and David Ginsberg Seattle City Council Position 4: Sally Bagshaw and David Bloom Seattle City Council Position 6: Hon. Nick Licata, Jessie Israel and Martin Kaplan Seattle City Council Position 8: David Miller, Robert Rosencrantz, Jordan Royer and Rusty Williams Seattle Mayor: Hon. Greg Nickels, James Donaldson and Michael McGinn King County Executive: Hon. Fred Jarrett, Hon. Dow Constantine and Hon. Larry Phillips Port of Seattle Commission Position 4: Robert Holland and Thomas Albro You will note that th...