Seattle Schools Community Forum

I would like to say this is a parody of sorts but no, it's Director Peaslee's recommendations for School Board. Now the first thing you'll note is that she gives recommendations for all the races (even though not all are on the primary ballot anyway) except for her own district.  Weird, no? Then there's this: The most important trait needed to ensure an effective School Board is collegial respect. 

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):

This fall the citizens of Seattle will be voting for mayor.  As of now, I believe there are seven candidates.  I have interviewed one of them - Peter Steinbrueck - and have Kate Martin on tap.  I will reach out to Mayor McGinn but from working with him over the last several years, I have a good idea of his views.  One of the candidates is Councilman Tim Burgess.  The Councilman has been deeply involved in Seattle public education and was a big supporter of the Families & Education levy.  He also has shown a propensity for behind-the-scenes con-fabs with high-level SPS leaders and it is unclear to me whether he ever shared any of this information with other councilmembers.  (We have public disclosure e-mails to thank for this info.)  Now I see that Councilman Burgess is being thrown a fundraiser this week by the following people: Michael and Marie DeBell, Sherry Carr, Clover Codd, Bree Dusseault , Chris Eide, David Elliot, Christina Gonzal...