Seattle Schools Community Forum

A local organization, School Board Leaders for the Future , is offering training for potential school board candidates, and it sure does sound good.

On the heels of the depressing news that the Washington State Legislature is mostly white, middle-aged and male, I urge women and any women in a minority group to consider running for office (or supporting a friend who may want to run). I have helped walk candidates through running for School Board (with help from great former directors and others) because it's important to know what you are getting into with a race AND what that work is like if you win. But I am certainly no expert but there are ones coming to town.  The National Political Caucus of Washington is having a campaign training for women on Saturday, March 8th from 8 am to 5 pm at the Tukwila Community Center.  The cost is between $40-60 depending on if you are a member or non-member.  From their webpage: Sessions include: Are you Ready to Run? Developing and delivering your message Finding and raising the money Targeting and talking to voters Campaign Nuts & Bolts: getting started, deadlin...

Remember the uprising in Egypt (that really started in Tunisia) called the Arab Spring? We have just such a movement happening - Education Spring - that is traveling across America and nobody is waiting for Spring.  Exhibit A: the uprising against testing in Buffalo, New York (and I believe the courageous action by the Garfield High staff has triggered this "we can change this" attitude that is spreading).  From the Buffalo News: Reform of high-stakes testing for schoolchildren, a groundswell movement of lawn signs and small-scale protests, became an earthquake Wednesday evening.  The Summit for Smarter Schools, organized by a group called the Partnership for Smarter Schools and hosted by State Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo; Assemblyman Sean Ryan, D-B...

Because you are making some School Board candidates upset (and possibly hurting their feelings.) This is my smile of the day because in the last couple of weeks I have heard from three candidates saying they have been "mischaracterized"  or "assumptions made" by this blog and by you, our readers.  I can only say to all the candidates - welcome to politics.   Of course, people have opinions even before we have written a thing.  You may know candidates via some other media source or by reputation. That our readers want to know more detail about what exactly the candidates have done - in their professional lives, in their education backgrounds, etc. - wouldn't seem to be cause for alarm by candidates.  If so, I'll be interested to see their reactions when they get to the debates.  (It's fine if they want to answer any specific question with vagueness but it's likely to be noticed and noted.) What's interesting is that when they say we, th...

Odd as it seems, most school board candidates have little or no direct knowledge of the District prior to their election. Most of them never went to Board meetings before filing for their candidacy. Most do not follow the board of the district closely. They are unfamiliar with the schools, the programs, the departments in the central administration, the current issues, and the history of how we arrived at our current status. Consequently, they spend their first couple of years just learning who people are and how things work. During this period, when they don't know much of anything about the district, they are not only ineffective, they actually cause damage.

The 34th District Democrats (West Seattle, Vashon, Burien) held their endorsement meeting last night and I was there. It was very revealing.

A bit of a stir at the Roosevelt High graduation on Wednesday night when author David Guterson apparently gave a somewhat downbeat speech , talking about death repeatedly.  He got heckled by a few parents and students.  Story at the Times.  (Link to speech via The Stranger Slog.) (I read the speech and while I might not like some references, to me, it would be one of the more interesting and blunt commencement speeches.  I think it better to be challenging (if you can't be funny) than boring. I like this part: From these philosophical and political roots, the primacy of the individual has grown and spread to subsume nearly everything, and that, in the end, has not brought us happiness, because the you that matters so much every second of every day is in fact mortal and even ephemeral, and you know this, and isn’t it sad, even tragic, to know that in the end all of your hopes, dreams, and aspirations don’t amount to much, that they take you nowhere, and t...