Seattle Schools Community Forum

Hey, the Alliance for Education had their Roaring Twenties fundraiser: What a wonderful night we shared on Saturday and what a powerful statement of support to the more than 52,000 students in Seattle.  You contributed over $400,000 to support students in our public schools - wow!  This is by degrees a significant increase over the past few years and yet another compelling testatment(sic) to the generosity and commitment to high quality public education that exists in our community.  Thank you! Well, it's great that they are still saying they want to give to Seattle Schools but I wonder how?  (Oh wait, the first face I see on their photo roundup of the event is...Don Nielson.  Never mind.) Really good piece from Seattle Education by parent Carolyn Leith on the possible raise for Superintendent Nyland. As we at this blog have all seen, from the past two school board elections, counting your chickens before you count all the votes is a bad idea....

District 6 Last night, the King County Labor Council voted to rescind their dual endorsement for Marty McLaren and Leslie Harris to a sole endorsement for Harris .  It appears that Jonathan Knapp played a hand in getting the dual endorsement back in May but McLaren's apparent lack of support for teachers during the strike changed minds. Letter from King County Labor Council to Marty McLaren. As well, Teamsters Joint Council 28 recently endorsed Harris.

It happens every single time there are school board races - that it is VITAL to vote and get the right people on the Board. I will admit that last time, in trying to find good candidates for a couple of races, I certainly got fooled.  I really thought that Sharon Peaslee and Marty McLaren were change agents.  They did present themselves that way even as I realized they really didn't know the district well. My vetting of them found two fired-up women ready to come in and ask hard questions.  Well, that really didn't happen (or it was piecemeal and uneven). I read everything I could find online and attended five candidates forums.   Here are my picks for School Board, some with comments and some I just decided that I will let the candidates' words speak for themselves.

Upcoming forums/meetings for School Board candidates (or including them): UPDATE: Saturday, October 10th - Candidate Roundtable presented by the Vietnamese-American Community.  Includes City Council and ballot initiatives as well as school board candidates.  It's at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St. from 11 am-1 pm.  Wednesday, September 30th - Rick Burke is meeting at the Capitol Hill library from 6-7:30 pm for drop-in time for voters to meet with him.  (Note: free parking underground at this library.) Tuesday, October 6th Sponsored by the Eastlake Community Center from 7-9:15 pm at Pocock Rowing Center, 3320 Fuhrman Ave E. (This one includes City Council and ballot measures as well.) Thursday, October 8th Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and SCPTSA from 7-8:30 pm at Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Avenue. Tuesday, October 20th Sponsored by CPPS and SE Seattle Education Coalition from 6:30-8:30 pm, location TBA ...

 Update: the LWV forum is to be in conjunction with the Seattle Council PTSA. end of update I have been diligently keeping my ear to the ground for School Board debates but the City Council races have been able to suck most of the attention of many groups.  But naturally, the solid citizens of League of Women Voters are having a forum. It's Thursday, October 8th from 7-8:30 pm at the First Baptist Church at 1111 Harvard Avenue (Capitol Hill).   According to my information, all the School Board candidates have sent in their RSVP except for District 1, Scott Pinkham and Michael Christophersen. In other news:

A little corner of hell froze over at about 5 pm today as the Seattle Times endorsed challenger, Leslie Harris, over incumbent, Marty McLaren saying: Voters should chose (sic) Leslie Harris for Seattle School Board District 6 They go on to say - in the first sentence - "Voters should oust incumbent Marty McLaren from Seattle School Board District 6 and bring in longtime parent advocate Leslie Harris." They use words like "detail-oriented" and "analytical" and "transparency" to describe Harris. They described McLaren as "complacent" and complained that she could not give a "substantive example" of her consensus building at their editorial board meeting. They mention the third candidate in the race, Nick Esparza, as well. Swinging back the other way, they chose the candidate other than Jill Geary in the District 3 race.  I put it that way because the Times didn't even have the grace to name Geary as her oppon...

District 1   Scott Pinkham ; so far, no campaign website or campaign Facebook page Michael Christophersen ; so far, no campaign website or campaign Facebook page To note, I spoke with the PDC because, in reviewing the school board races, I see that neither Pinkham nor Christophersen has registered with them.  According to PDC rules, once you do one of several things - including announce your candidacy - you have to register with the PDC.  They said letters are going out this week to candidates in all races where the candidate has announced but not registered with the PDC.  The PDC is not an enforcement agency but said that if there is no reply to the letter, then a hearing is scheduled in late July and if no reply there, those names are turned over to the county auditor.  They don't know if candidates who don't register with the PDC would be kicked off the ballot but they would be subject to fines.

The LA Times is reporting that spending for school board races in LA almost $4.6M.  LA is the second-largest district in the country.  Guess who's pouring the most money?  Charter school groups and then, the teachers union.  (LA has the highest charter school enrollment in the nation.) And, there's a new PAC in the mix and who are its top three donors?  A Wal-Mart heir, former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg and LA rich guy Eli Broad.  I do not expect to see that kind of firepower here mainly because we have no real ed reformers running.  (But I think the ed reformers and their elected officials proxies are going to continue to try to get what they want via the Legislature.) Thinking testing is out of hand here in the U.S.?  This was reported back in 2014 but worth mentioning here.

Updated :  I left off one person and somehow, someone got in late (because I checked at 5:05 pm and this person was not there - odd). end of update As usual, a flurry of last minute filings for Seattle School Board for the four positions up for election. This thread is just an overview.  I'll write up something separate on my thoughts on these candidates as well as how the first candidate forum on Thursday night at the 46th Democrats went. First, a few observations: Clearly, something has hit a boiling point in Seattle Schools where we have multiple candidates who have experience in Special Education issues.  We have two candidates with a legal background and two candidates with an engineering background. I think we may have only one minority candidate. One huge mystery - where are the ed reform candidates?  Only Lauren McGuire who has worked with a group to reform school boards seems in that camp.  (I did overhear a couple of people at last nigh...

I had planned to wait until the filing period ended but there are some interesting developments in the various school board races.

I appreciate all the encouragement and offers of help to run for the Seattle School Board but I have concluded that it's just not the right time in my life to do so.   It's bittersweet to say no because I believe that I know this district and I care deeply about public education.  I would have worked my hardest to get elected and, if elected, would have become part of a team - the School Board - to create better academic outcomes for all students in public education.  My husband always wanted me to run.  But he was my biggest supporter, my sounding board and a shoulder to lean on and it's just too soon to do this without him.   Naturally, I will try to interview all the candidates, do my research and come up with my best recommendations.  I will try to announce all candidate forums so you can find at least one chance to meet and hear the candidates for School Board speak.  (Please let me know about any in your neighborhood - I don't want to ...

Happy May Day (and workers of the world, unite).  From The Art of Simple , some good parenting ideas on " 5 ways we can give our kids more freedom."   It's about finding that sweet spot between allowing your kid to explore the world and keeping said kid safe in that world. Sad/funny video of Arne Duncan trying to explain programs that serve students with dyslexia .  From Diane Ravitch: Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) asks a simple question: What specific programs do we have in place for helping students with dyslexia? And it just goes south from there. The answer, pretty clearly, is “none.” But Duncan is bound determined not to go there, so he tries, “Well, students with dyslexia have special needs, and we have a special needs fund, so they fall under that–“ Thanks for clearing that up, Sec'y Duncan.  Speaking of dsylexia, there's an interesting article in the Times about dsylexia versus dysgraphia based on an article in the journal, NeuroIm...

Well, a lot of convergence on School Board races yesterday and it probably leaves just one incumbent standing for reelection - Marty McLaren.   I can direct potential candidates in District 1 (Sharon Peaslee) to people who know campaigns/School Board work for anyone who might be considering a run at the position.  Contact me at sss.westbrook@gmail.com. I saw Director Carr's farewell e-mail.  She lists accomplishments over her eight years on the Board "working together as a Seattle Public Schools governance team" and I was astonished to see "began foundational work for a universal preschool partnership with the City of Seattle" on the list.  Did you hear that the NSA doesn't want to go in the backdoor for your data ?  Nope, they want the key to the front door....from Google (and others).  From Extreme Tech : Instead of handing the NSA a unilateral window into encrypted communications taking place at Google or Apple, Rogers suggested a f...

Update: it appears that only Marty McLaren is poised to run again for her Board seat. I'm not surprised that Martin-Morris and Carr are stepping down at the end of eight years. This does change things considerably and frankly, probably makes it easier for anyone who wants to run.  The incumbents were not a sure thing (and I believe Director McLaren has an uphill battle ahead of her). If you know of anyone thinking of running from District 1, Sharon Peaslee's seat, (like from the Nathan Hale community where parents are fairly active), please contact me at sss.westbrook@gmail.com.  I know people who would be glad to just walk someone thru the election process and Board work process so any potential candidate could gauge what that would be like.  end of update Starting to see some action now on School Board races.  To recap/update (final filing isn't until early May but these are candidates registered at the PDC):  Update:  So the Times had the ann...

Update: make that three.  Leslie Harris , SPS parent and paralegal, is running in District VI which is Marty McLaren's seat. Also to note, the actual filing date is not until May but these people are indicating, by registering at the PDC, that they are setting up campaigns. End of update. One person running is incumbent Sharon Peaslee from District I. The other is semi-retired lawyer Jill Geary running in District III which is Harium Martin-Morris' district.   She's friends with former mayor, Mike McGinn, and has worked on Sped issues.  She has a child at Laurelhurst and has been active on their PTA Board.  She also has a child at Ingraham and one at Hamilton.  (She also has one child in private school and one in college.)  District III is also my district.  No contributions to either campaign as of yet. 

Well, this is interesting (and could have ramifications for the School Board races). As you may have heard, Sally Clark had decided not to run again for City Council.  But now she has taken a job at UW - some kind of city relations thing - and she's leaving her Council position on April 12. The City Council will be appointing her successor (just as the School Board does if someone leaves early) by April 27th.  They say they want a "placeholder." From Publicola (they have a complete calendar of events for this process):