I want to continue to develop innovative ideas on building use around the city – but primarily in the central core and south end. The challenges facing the central and southeast areas are more prevalent than in the north end of our city: alternative to school closure process, creative use of under enrolled schools, and the over-referral of male student in Special Ed program.

I believe there were more reasonable steps that should have been taken before jumping directly into school closures. Three key areas should be looked at if one must close a school: redirecting unprogrammed dollars, increasing revenues, identifying where students currently reside. First, I would have held the system static and determined where children were concentrated -- in proximity to which schools. Then those schools could have been built up to reflect the needs of the surrounding residents. This process would have assured that: students would walk to school, families would participate more easily with other school families and neighbors, teachers, staff and budgeting would be stabilized, and transportation costs would decrease. Through this process buildings would have been “naturally closed" as schools would have "real under enrollment” not the current “artificial” enrollment. The District could then partner with non-profits or other entities that are looking for space to lease for youth training and employment programs, as well as violence prevention centers. Closed buildings leave holes in neighborhoods. The outcome is youth have nowhere to go for positive, productive activity or to connect and engage with supportive adults.

Southeast Seattle contains the lion share of unfilled seats. For some reason, which I have always failed to understand, Southeast was over-built for the number of children in that area. Thousands of extra seats were created but there are not nor have there ever been enough children to fill these seats. This is due in part to policy choices of the School Board and operational direction from the Superintendent over many years. So now, to fill these seats, the Central Area is being depleted to fill the woefully under-enrolled South end schools, thus, leaving a huge barren swath (no schools) in the middle of the Central Area.

I want to keep these issue very much in the forefront as the Board makes decisions. My second priority for District 5 is Special Education. Assessing and evaluating the over-referral of male students into Special Ed will also get at many of the issues I have mentioned above. Here too we have the beginnings of depleting students of self-esteem and a road of inadequate or low expectations. By placing students who are not diagnosed with a developmental, physical, or neurological disability, we enable poor performance, poor attitudes, and poor social behavior. Once the over-referral has been addressed, dollars can then flow to those students with clearly defined and diagnosed needs.

Many young male students are referred to Special Ed which also drives more money into the school, however, unless the funding is closely tracked, it may not get used as directed -- to assist that particular student – and end up as part of that schools general fund. As a Board member I will continue to advocate for all students.

As I have stated over and over in this questionnaire, we need a culture change in the way we run our school district, starting with communication and ending with serving the client, the students. My campaign is one that has taken hundreds of conversations I and many of my supporters have had with students, teachers, principals and community members, along with numerous experiences I have had navigating the system for 16 years with 3 sons to create a set of BOLD moves to transform our educational process in Seattle. We need to continue to listen to all stakeholders and create avenues for this constantly, but it is TIME to take action. This is why I am running for school board and why numerous former board members and teachers and principals have endorsed my candidacy.

I am a change agent, who listens first, and then takes action, and brings the community along with me down the road of implementation. We may make some mistakes, but if you expect the community to stay with you for the ride, then you can constantly reassess the pitfalls or bugs in the system and continually evolve to the best practices. For both MY neighborhood district and the entire district we must:

* Fund early learning to level the playing field at Kindergarten

* Have rigorous academics in place for ALL children at EVERY grade level and give them the support they need to meet our high expectations

* Create Vocational strands and Entrepreneurial competitions along with Citizenship curriculum that includes diversity training and community service to show students what they can be and create responsible citizens to strengthen our communities

* Build visual arts, drama, music and physical education BACK into our daily curriculum at EVERY grade level for EVERY child

* Teach Spanish or Chinese (with a grammar regimen) to EVERY child from Kindergarten on so our children can compete in a global marketplace

Besides creating all of the above strategies for the children of Position 5, I am the ONLY candidate talking about the need for a school in downtown Seattle. Capacity within the Central Area as it is currently drawn will be a crisis issue within the next 5 years because of the birth rate and population growth. One of the main reasons I am running is because of my frustration with the poor decision making process used by the current administration in the last round of closures. If we establish an IB school in downtown, we can campaign on it as a city. Additionally, we need to expand our offerings and capacity at the Center School for a continuum for these K-8 students. And finally, we need not think the last closure decisions were made in stone. We can reassess those decisions to create a more thoughtful plan that TRULY serves every child living in the Central Area.

My district needs what ALL children need: A fully funded, quality education. The achievement gap is NOT a 4th graders’ failing test score, it is a city failing to educate its children for the 21st century!

Addressing achievement gap issues, disproportionality in academic achievement and disciplinary actions. Examining issues of equitable staffing and opportunities.

To address some of these issues – disaggregating data gives us clues to root cause. Improve staffing professionalism through funding and union dialogue. Working closely with the district to ensure strong leadership in the schools. Strong leadership is one of the key indicators of a successful school.

Priority issues: Equal distribution of resources for ALL students District-wide (classroom sizes, supplies, programs).
Solutions offered: Sustain partnerships with corporations/organizations that can be used as a resource to supplement supplies. Create camaraderie among my school board colleagues, staff, parents and community as we persistently advocate for the needs of our children. Advocating for change and encouraging them to think outside the box. I am a firm believer of “if there is a will, there is a way”.

Priority issues: Safety of our children
Solutions offered: Ensure safety polices are uniformed at each school

Priority issues: Funding of education
Solutions offered: Find creative ways to fund and sustain current programs without solely dependent on state, city funding, or corporations with special interests

Priority issues: College preparatory classes in middle and high school
Solution offered: Partner with neighboring colleges for ideas on rigorous curriculum for collegiate classes and create a feeder program for students. Funding Career Specialists to act as liaison between schools and colleges would be useful for monitoring student progress and successful transition of students

My primary responsibility and mandate is to serve all the children and all the citizens of Seattle. I view my District as an area for greater knowledge of the individual schools, strong relationships and constituent service. I do not attempt to make policy or decisions just to benefit my District. That said, there are issues of obvious importance to District Four. Overcrowding would probably come to mind first, both in Queen Anne, Magnolia and now in Ballard. Insuring facility capacity in areas of enrollment growth is critical to making the new SAP successful and improves the fiscal health of the District. Insuring assignment continuity at Ballard HS while addressing the loss of Queen Anne HS and the lack of assignment to a nearby HS for QA and Magnolia families is a particularly hot issue in my District. I do not rule out the possibility of a fifth north end HS as part of a medium term solution to this problem, but that depends on enrollment patterns. I sense strong support in District Four for increasing graduation standards and rigor as represented by the SBE Core 24 proposal. District Four schools have been on the leading edge of SPS’s resource conservation programs as early adopters, innovators and advocates for a Green School District. I have worked on all of these policies and issues over the last four years and will continue to do so should I be re-elected. The solutions I have offered are embedded in the policies I have helped to write and the votes I have taken. I stand on my record.