Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 11, November 2003

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School Board:

Challengers battle three North End incumbents

By JAMES BUSH

Change is in the air for the Seattle School Board.

While incumbent-bashing in the Seattle City Council races got more media attention, Barbara Schlag Peterson, whose District 1 includes Seattle's far-north neighborhoods, was the only one of three School Board incumbents to negotiate the Sept. 16 primary with a lead. She led Sally Soriano by a 10-point margin 44.5 percent to 34.5 percent.

In District 2 (North Central Seattle), Darlene Flynn led incumbent Steve Brown by a 49 percent to 27 percent margin.

In District 3 (Northeast Seattle/Capitol Hill), Brita Butler-Wall finished with 54 percent to Nancy Waldman's 39.5 percent in District 3.

With an open seat race in West Seattle between Irene Stewart and Betty Hoagland to replace retiring Board member Barbara Schaad-Lamphere, a trio of incumbent losses in the North End could mean four new members on the seven-seat School Board.

The resulting change in direction could be a virtual U-turn. Challengers Butler-Wall, Flynn and Soriano all praised District 5 (Central Area) Board member Mary Bass, who could go from the board maverick to the leader of a new majority.

Butler-Wall praised the monthly open community meetings Bass holds at her own expense as a model for how to reestablish communication with an unhappy public.

"I think the School Board has demonstrated that they have no concept of being the elected representatives of the public, with the exception of Mary Bass," Butler-Wall says.

It's been a long year for the Seattle School Board. Last year's financial crisis (a $34 million financial hole) led to the resignation of School District Superintendent Joseph Olchefske. The board's attempt to replace Olchefske foundered when all four finalists withdrew after facing public criticism of their qualifications and the selection process. And the superintendent search ended on a puzzling note when the School Board gave the job to Raj Manhas, the interim superintendent, but only granted him a one-year contract.

Brown defends the elevation of Manhas as a compromise which gives the new superintendent the authority he needs to lead, but doesn't tie the hands of future boards. With the district facing a capital levy and labor negotiations in the coming months, "in my opinion, it's important to have a superintendent without the 'interim' label," says Brown.

Waldman agrees, saying, "this buys us a year."

Butler-Wall sees the decision as a cop-out. "I think once again the School Board is taking the easy way out," she says. "This is the second superintendent the board has appointed with no public process, and the third superintendent without a background in education."

The matchups are interesting across the board.

In District 1, incumbent Peterson is a former math teacher who once as a site council chair and twice as a PTSA president of her children's schools. Challenger Soriano has taught in the community education department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and worked as a lobbyist on fair-trade issues.

Peterson cites many district successes during her first term. When she was elected, she says, "people were fighting over the same few high schools to get in."

Now most Seattle high schools are considered desirable, notably Nathan Hale (now the top choice of district students) and Ingraham, whose International Baccalaureate program has led the school's revitalization, Peterson says. The board has worked hard to establish learning standards for students in each grade level and professional practice standards for teachers and principals.

"If you look outside of Seattle, I think the Seattle School District has been gaining stature for its efforts at innovation and raising student achievement," Peterson says.

Soriano faults Peterson and other board members for failing to maintain ties with the public and for lax oversight of the superintendent. "I think this board is very disconnected from the public and from the classroom," she says.

Soriano calls for the district to bring all elementary schools up to the same high standards and to end inequities in the educational system. She touts her ties to state and federal legislators earned as a public interest lobbyist as a key addition to the board's clout in working for education funding.

In District 2, incumbent Brown is an attorney-turned-educator who runs a mock trial program in area schools (he hasn't worked in Seattle Schools since taking office four years ago to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest). Challenger Flynn is a former aide to City Council member Jim Street who works for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

Brown argues that the board deserves credit for cleaning up the financial crisis: the district ended the fiscal year in the black and was able to maintain its high bond rating.

He says the last four years have seen great strides in personalizing education for students by creating smaller units in high schools and middle schools and pushing leadership decisions down to the individual school level. The district's middle schools have shown particular improvement during this period, he says.

Brown states that the district has set the elimination of the achievement gap between white and minority student as its top priority and has implemented programs, such as the Literacy Initiative, to start the process.

Flynn, who has put the achievement gap issue at the forefront of her campaign, says action must be taken now to address disproportionality in the schools.

"Every day, those kids are slipping through our fingers," Flynn says. The board needs to keep the district's financial house in order and to create effective policies in order to give the achievement gap the attention it deserves, she says. "I do not have confidence that this board can lead this district where it needs to go."

Board President Waldman is a former high school teacher, lawyer, and mediator, who was appointed to the board to a partial term, then was elected in 1999. Butler-Wall is a 30-year educator and noted educational activist, especially on the issue of commercialism in schools.

Waldman says that she has played a part in many major accomplishments since her appointment to replace departing board member Linda Harris.

Waldman and former colleague Scott Barnhart worked to amend the student assignment plan to let students pick their preferred schools in order. The uproar over assignments lessened, "and it also lets the district see which schools people really want, so we can replicate them," she says.

The district has also implemented programs to address the issue of disproportionality in student discipline and to begin programs to allow an exchange of ideas about race and culture in school communities.

Waldman says she also helped to get the board back to the policy level and away from micro-management.

Butler-Wall has been one of the board's most energetic observers and critics over the past four years. She pushed to eliminate commercialism from schools, testified against allowing military recruiters into schools, and questioned the district's shift to non-union bus drivers. She worked to eliminate Channel One, a program which provided video equipment to air daily current events programs which included advertising, from district classrooms.

New leadership is needed to reestablish an ongoing dialogue with parents and community members, Butler-Wall says. While she acknowledges that positive strides have been taken in recent years, she complains that the pace is too slow.

"I think there are a lot of great things in Seattle public schools," Butler-Wall says, "but I don't think the School Board is one of them."