Seattle Schools Community Forum

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.

The Stranger - in their madcap manner - have endorsed Leslie Harris for Position 6 (over incumbent Marty McLaren) and Jill Geary for Position 3 (over Lauren McGuire). 

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...

Update : from Director McLaren's blog under Priorities (when she ran for office) bold hers: Seattle central administration has turned a blind eye towards the communities which fund its existence and the families it should be serving.  Community engagement should be the foundation of district decision-making, not an afterthought.  I invite members of the community to brainstorm with me and form a constructive venue for two-way  dialogue. Help me reshape the district! Together, we can bring the wisdom and guidance of the community back into the Seattle Public Schools. Guess she forgot about this goal.   You might keep this in mind should McLaren run again because it is quite confusing when candidates say one thing to get elected and another when in office. End of update  She  makes the mistake of believing it's all about the Superintendent when it's all about the dysfunction at the district.  She also completely ignores the student data breach...

Recently I learned that Director Marty McLaren had written an op-ed for the Seattle Times about the good things and hard work happening in Seattle Schools. According to McLaren, the Times encouraged her to edit her op-ed and resubmit it (which she did) but then the Times declined to print it. They then published the editorial about SPS and its leadership (and egging on the Mayor and the City Council to try to take control of the Board). I find this quite troubling because frankly, it seems like the Times is hell-bent on doing everything they can to undermine the Board to the point of undermining the entire district.  It is hard to get the message out about the myriad of good things in this district if media only wants to write about the problems and/or bang out the same tired stories about the Board and district leadership. But the Times' loss is our gain.   Here's what Director McLaren has to say. Seattle Public Schools are Thriving August 29, 2014  This week...

Via her blog , Director McLaren has this statement: I am writing to let you know that, due to a health issue, I will be less available than usual for the next several weeks. I will be monitoring email periodically. Please bear with me if I do not respond in a timely fashion. We wish Director McLaren all the best during this time.

Here's a brilliant story from the West Seattle Blog about Director McLaren's community meeting in West Seattle.