SPEAKER_12

Directors, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_09

I don't have a switch, so I'm assuming there's a soundboard somewhere.

I'm told that this microphone is working for the stream.

It is not really here.

I don't want to yell for people listening, but can you all hear me well enough?

SPEAKER_11

So if I do this, is it no longer going to the feed?

Okay.

SPEAKER_09

For you all, this is a prop.

For the people online, this is what they're hearing me through.

Okay, so good evening.

We will be beginning the forum very shortly as SPS TV is now taking us live.

I will confirm that we have board directors with us, Director Briggs, Director Hersey, Vice President Sardieu, and I am President Rankin.

Oh, Director Topp, I'm sorry, I can't count.

It is now 6.07 p.m.

and this meeting is called to order.

Welcome to the board special meeting for the school board district two and four candidate forum.

This forum is being live streamed by SPS TV and is being recorded.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

And we are very excited to be here in the District 2 and 4 community for today's forum.

I want to extend a huge thank you to Principal Eichner and the Lincoln High School community for hosting us tonight.

You can clap.

Tonight's forum is being held in collaboration with our school board student members.

Student members plan tonight's forum alongside board directors.

The event will be moderated by students, Lincoln High School senior and school board student member, Ayush Muthaswamy, right here.

And Ballard High School senior and president of the BSU and Multicultural Student Union, Semai Hagos.

Thank you both so much for being here this evening.

I'll turn it over to student moderators in a moment, but first I want to share appreciation on behalf of the board to our student members, Ayush, Lola Vandernute, and Luna Cromborone for your efforts and support of tonight's forum and your wisdom and insights all year long as you've joined us on the board.

Thank you.

The school board has two vacancies, one for District 2 and the other for District 4. Tonight, we'll hear from four finalists for each position.

For District 2, we have Sarah Clark, Danielle Gall, Sean Sullivan, and Carol Thompson.

And in District 4, we have Gabriela Gonzalez, Joe Mizrahi, Rachel Olden and Laura Marie Rivera.

Thank you so much to all of the candidates for spending your evening with us and more importantly for stepping forward and being willing to fill these critical roles.

We are really excited to have such strong candidates express interest in serving on the board.

So the directors of the Seattle School Board are here tonight as this is a meeting of the school board technically.

On April 3rd, we will vote on appointments to each seat during our regular school board meeting.

We will swear in our new directors during an oath of office ceremony the following day on April 4th.

In addition to tonight's forum, the board had an opportunity to hear from the candidates through video statements, which are posted on the school board website.

And through candidates' written application materials also posted.

Finally, thank you to students and families from districts two and four and across the district who are joining us this evening, either in the room or online.

And I will now turn things over to our moderator, Ayush Muthuswamy.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, President Rankin.

I once again want to welcome everyone to tonight's forum.

My name is Ayush Muthuswamy.

I'm a senior here at Lincoln High School and a school board student member for the 23...

I'm a school board student member for the 23-24 school year.

I'm joined tonight by...

Can you hear me?

Stand up.

SPEAKER_07

I think that's what it is.

They're saying that it's...

SPEAKER_06

Did you guys' mics work?

SPEAKER_07

So we just shout?

Apparently not.

SPEAKER_99

Okay.

SPEAKER_12

So we're going to keep these mics on the table.

We'll have some handheld mics that you will have on the table.

You might have to kind of shift it back and forth.

SPEAKER_06

I think it would not cause an echo on the stream.

I think it would, right?

SPEAKER_08

You need a mic?

SPEAKER_09

So as we said before, this microphone goes to the live feed, but the folks in the room are having a hard time hearing.

So we are in the process of getting a handheld mic coming to us, as we don't necessarily expect everyone to have an opera projection for no miking up here.

So thank you for bearing with us.

And that's what's happening.

Hey, that's a promising sound.

All right, team.

So to confirm, the past mics are going to help you be heard in the room.

These mics still need to be at your table, but they are controlled by SPS-TV, so you don't need to worry about touching them, doing anything, they will make sure that the person who has the room mic, that their mic is on.

So all you all have to worry about is passing the mic to the next person to speak.

Do I have that right?

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Let's go.

SPEAKER_06

All right, let's start over.

I, once again, want to welcome everyone to tonight's forum.

My name is Ayush Muthuswamy.

I'm a senior here at Lincoln High School and a school board student member for the 23-24 school year.

I'm joined tonight by Semai Agos, who I'll pass it to in a moment.

And I also want to take a second here to shout out my fellow school board members, Lola Vandernute, who's right there, and Luna Cron-Baron, and President Rankin and Director Hersey for their collaboration in planning this forum.

Semai, over to you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Ayush, and thank you, everyone, for being here.

I'm Sema Hamlas, a senior at Ballard High School, and I'm the president of the Black Student Union and the Multicultural Student Union.

Additionally, I'm also the second vice of the Washington State NWACP Youth Council.

Back to you, Ayush.

SPEAKER_06

So tonight's forum will begin with each candidate providing a two-minute opening statement.

We will then move into questions, with each candidate receiving a turn to respond.

Candidates have been seated based on a random drawing, and the order in which candidates speak will rotate each time a question is asked, with us alternating an order between District 2 and District 4 groups of candidates.

Once we conclude with the questions, each candidate will be given one minute to provide a closing statement, the order of which was also selected by a random drawing.

Time will be signaled by a countdown timer on the stage right there.

The timer will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining and red when your time is up.

Please conclude your remarks promptly when your time is exhausted for fairness.

Once the timer has buzzed, we will call on the next candidate to respond or offer their statement.

SPEAKER_03

Tonight's list of questions will cover the following topics generally the role of the board and your role on it budget and community engagement, there will be five questions that you will have 90 seconds to respond to and five questions in a lightning round where you will be asked to respond in one word.

Your responses for the longer questions are limited to 90 seconds, but you do not need to use all of your time if you prefer to answer more briefly.

As Ayush mentioned, we will rotate which district answers first and the order of the candidates for each question.

Ayush and I will alternate asking questions and calling on candidates.

There will be a 10-minute break after the third question.

Thank you so much to the community members who are attending this forum and to the candidates for participating.

We wish you all the best of luck.

SPEAKER_06

Beginning opening statements, candidates you have again two minutes to respond.

Beginning with District 2, we'll start with Candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

Hello.

First, I wanted to thank our existing board members, our fellow candidates, our student moderators, and the sound crew, and the attendees for your commitment to the kids.

All of you here everybody watching online, you all are showing that you can stand up and you want to make this a better place and you're all heroes.

So thank you for being here.

My name is Carol Thompson.

I want to join the board for a simple reason.

It's really just make sure the kids have an excellent education with academic rigor.

But there are challenges ahead and we need many perspectives and professional skill sets to solve the economic puzzle for the state of the school budget and to improve outcomes for our kids.

The current board has a lot of diverse backgrounds.

They have arts, they have legal, education, social work.

I'm a scientist by training and a career program manager with strategic planning, budget, and operations experience, as well as a current data and tech manager.

I have been organizing youth sports for our local families and learned to be in touch with their needs and concerns, and I'm ready to bring these skill sets to the board.

But they say half the battle is just showing up.

Everyone here tonight wants to be part of the solution.

Every candidate is here because they care.

In so many situations, you know it, whether you're volunteering, you're on an unpaid board, or even in a professional setting, it's always, it takes the people who are willing to step up to get the job done.

And I think everybody here is motivated to do that.

So happy to see everyone here.

The other half of the battle is to be open-minded and to work together.

Board members, staff, families, and teachers.

Group think is not going to get us out of the box.

We need diverse ideas.

And we can and we should debate how we implement those ideas, but acknowledge that many ideas and many contributions are needed to make a difference.

So tonight, I'm happy to answer these moderated questions, but I'm also really eager to hear what my fellow candidates have to say.

And everybody is working together.

SPEAKER_10

Well good evening everyone.

I'm really excited and grateful and a little nervous to be here tonight.

My name is Sarah Clark and I'm running for the District 2 Open Director seat.

Before I get started here, I also would like to take a moment to thank the board, for selecting me tonight to be a finalist and for coming out to Lincoln High School on a school night.

All of my family and friends for coming out to support me and most importantly, our students who are here tonight and our families, teachers, school staff, administrators, all of you, thank you very much.

In my work, I have a master's degree in education policy from the University of Washington, and in my work in public policy and advocacy, I encourage stakeholders all the time to show up in person and use their voices to advocate for their priorities.

Lately, it's felt like civic engagement is down, and so I just applaud all of you for taking the time to be here tonight.

So why am I here tonight?

Really to offer my service to my community because I believe every student in our district or in our state deserves access to quality education and preparation for life beyond K through 12. I've spent two-thirds of my life in the Seattle area only moving away for about 10 years after graduating from Garfield High School in 2003. While it was far from perfect, I believe the education I received is one of the reasons why I was able to face and overcome so many challenges and adversities.

As I was preparing tonight, I remembered that I actually developed my passion for systems change work as a young person in Seattle Public Schools, writing letter campaigns in my social services classes at Washington Middle School and sharing with the mayor's office ideas on how to help our homeless neighbors.

After spending the last decade working in collaboration with lawmakers and many different constituent groups, I feel prepared and equipped to take on the challenges of being a school district director.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Hi, my name is Danielle Gall, and I'm a candidate for District 2. Thanks so much for being here tonight, and thanks to my kids for being here especially.

So I would like to be on the school board because I believe that our students are more than just numbers.

They are pretty much what motivates me entirely.

When I was a teacher in preschool, in private school, in middle school, and of course in Texas, I learned some things, which were that students kind of need the same thing everywhere, which is full bellies, physical and psychological safety, caring adults, and investments in their future.

And right now, we're not investing in our students' futures.

52 I'm sorry yeah 52.4 percent of the state budget used to go to public education and that's down to 43.1 percent now and we need to do something to change that.

I think President Rankin actually said it best we're using 2009 map for 2024 problems and so when we talk about equity, inclusion, safety and academic rigor, they're all just buzzwords if we're not following it up with authentic action.

And that authentic action has to start in Olympia.

And it has to happen with us.

And we're lucky here in Seattle.

We have 6,468 dedicated professionals who are with our students every day.

And those people are the ones that are making it possible for our students to be successful.

So I would like to thank you all for coming here.

I would also like to ask that you support not just me, but support these initiatives as we are trying to act for our students.

So thanks again.

My name is Danielle, and I'm eager to serve for District 2.

SPEAKER_01

Hi, my name is Sean Sullivan and I first want to also say that I'm just really grateful to be here.

I appreciate very much all of the effort that the board and the district has put into this process.

To the other candidates, I'm really happy to see that there's a great group of people here and that no matter who's chosen, we're going to end up with great people to serve on this board.

I'm volunteering to try and run for this position because I care a lot about the public school system in Seattle.

I have two children who are second graders.

They're twins at West Woodland Elementary.

And I've seen firsthand both how great and how difficult it can be.

I've volunteered in the classroom.

I've coached little league teams.

I've met lots of people around the community.

And there are common struggles that everybody's sort of trying to work through in the district.

I think these are problems that are rooted in the budgetary issues.

I think we're gonna hear a lot about that topic tonight.

And so I think if we can address that first, that'll unlock our ability to solve lots of other problems that the district faces.

Things like equity, keeping programs open, offering services to people who need it.

And so I think I bring a lot of qualities that would be beneficial on the board for doing that.

I'm an entrepreneur.

I'm in the tech space.

I know a lot about that sort of area.

I think I bring some great leadership qualities, qualities in execution, organization, planning, helping organize larger efforts.

I know a decent amount about something that's going to be an upcoming a challenge for the district, which is artificial intelligence and what is that going to mean to teachers, to students, to families.

It can be good, it can be bad.

It depends what we do with it.

And so overall, I believe the public school system can be a force for good for the community, for Seattle as a whole.

And I would be thrilled to be able to support that idea as a board member.

SPEAKER_04

Good evening.

I recently spoke to a middle school-age boy.

whose eyes were filled with wonder and possibility.

We talked of his dreams of learning and exploring, but we also talked about his realities and his fears.

And he said something that shook me to my core.

He said, adults say that I'm the future, but most times I don't feel like I have a future ahead of me.

Our students only get one shot at a K-12 education, and it's on us, the adults, to make sure that we get it right.

Because that boy could be any one of the countless students in our city, students who deserve nothing less than the very best education and future we have to offer to them.

I'm Rachelle Olden, a candidate for your District 4 Director seat.

I'm here tonight because I believe in the power that education has to change lives, break barriers, and to build brighter futures.

But let's be real, education isn't just about classes and curriculum.

It's about equity.

It's about policy.

It's about budget shortfalls.

It's about tough decisions.

And it's also about recognizing that the student zip code and the student circumstances that they're born into, that doesn't determine how far they go or where they go.

Education is not an either or proposition.

It's a both end proposition.

It is with both leadership and our state legislators responsibilities that we get the work done.

It will take both budget increases and innovative reform.

It will be both collective commitment from our educators and personal commitment from our families.

We have a part to play.

I'm a proud public I'm a proud product of public education, a former District of Columbia administrator.

But these experiences are just a few of the experiences that I think helped me help our system, help our students.

So tonight, as we gather to discuss the future of the board, let's remember the stories of students like Caleb, the ones who dream big, who work hard and deserve every chance to succeed.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

First of all, I want to echo the thanks expressed by my fellow candidates for hosting this forum tonight.

It's really a fun opportunity.

My name is Joe Mizrahi.

I'm a first-generation American from a refugee family, a biracial person.

I have three kids in the Seattle School District right now.

All three of them will be attending Lincoln High School someday, so I'm very excited to be at the forum here.

Go Lynx.

I want to talk a little bit about my background.

So I grew up in a district that was highly tracked, highly inequitable, did not have one teacher or really any fellow students who had my background.

And growing up with that experience, I saw the worst that a public school could be.

I also had two parents that taught in that district, they were both special education teachers, so I had the support and help to navigate that system.

But I can, I think now about how many folks must have slipped through the cracks who did not have that same advantage that I had.

With that experience, I devoted my life to fighting for equity.

I went to law school to study workers' rights and moved up here in 2007. And since then, I've worked for United Food and Commercial Workers.

We represent about 50,000 workers across the state of Washington, mostly low-wage workers.

And about 10,000 of those are right here in the city of Seattle.

I talk to workers every single day, and I know how important it is for them to have a school system that works for them.

At its best, a school system is a tool.

The best tool we have to dismantle systems of oppression, but at its worst, it can often reinforce those same systems of oppression.

So I know that those workers, and all those workers that I talk to and the ones that I don't talk to because they don't have a union, they deserve a system that works for them.

That's what I'm here to do.

I've been endorsed by Ramayya Zahalai, Rob Dombowski, and Teresa Mosqueda on the King County Council.

But I'm most excited, I like those endorsements, but I'm most excited to be talking to the community, talking to students, and talking to the people here.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02

All right, good evening, everyone.

Just like everybody said here, I want to extend my gratitude for giving me the chance to be here with you today.

My name is Gabriela Gonzalez, but please feel free to just call me Gabby, especially if you can't do the R.

That's a little bit hard.

It is a privilege to be here with students, families, school staff, board of directors, and community groups who share such passion and care so much for the success of Seattle schools.

My aim today is to give you a better understanding of who I am beyond what's on paper.

Someone who shares the same commitment and passion as you.

Okay.

Since starting this process, I have actually been working to better understand the intricacies of policy.

I don't come from a policy background, so I want to learn more about it.

The concept and execution of targeted universalism.

It took me a while to pronounce that word.

The board's directives and the strategic plan.

It has been both informative and actually enlightening and has challenged me to think of how can we actually achieve these objectives together.

And also thinking about gender and race inequities, it reminded me of my participation with En-ROADS when I was in Texas.

En-ROADS is a group that actually provided internships into corporate America for students who would not otherwise receive them.

I've also been building connections with an incredible group of women leaders through CHIEF.

So CHIEF is a national network of executive leader women that are helping with gender inequality.

So learning from these amazing individuals, it inspired me to be further involved.

And so when I learned about the open board seats, actually that was a perfect match, a chance for me to be more involved and make significant impact to the community, hence why I'm here.

So for my video statement, if you guys haven't seen it, the reason I'm pursuing this personally is because for me, public education was transformative.

I will tell you later more about my experience.

And second, I want to give back to my community.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and so regardless of the final outcome, thank you for your support.

SPEAKER_07

Hi, my name is Laura Marie Rivera, and I brought notes.

I'm a mom, educator, nonprofit professional, writer, and former union member.

I've applied to be a school board director because I believe each child deserves a quality public education, and we owe this to our society as a whole.

In 2021, I ran for this seat, earned the endorsement of the Seattle Times, Seattle Medium, and the Teamsters, and received over 70,000 votes.

Even before the district had adopted student outcomes focused government, the Seattle Times called me the practical student focused candidate that would bring needed perspective to the board.

I'm endorsed by Girmay Zahalai and Toshiko Hasegawa, all three LD36 legislators, additional elected officials, community leaders, union members, parents, teachers, and D4 residents.

Public education has factored prominently throughout my life.

I would not be the person I am today without those opportunities.

I grew up in California, the fourth of five children.

My dad did the budget for Sacramento County, and my mom was an emergency room nurse, working nights and weekends so that she could also be there for the important things in our life.

During my school years, I was exposed to the arts, which became my first career, and also where I began as an assistant teacher.

As an educator, I've taught in public schools, private schools, universities, dance classes and art museums, and even parks and on Zoom.

I hold a bachelor's from UCLA, go Bruins, a master's in non-profit management and education from Bank Street College in New York City, and I'm currently working on my doctorate of education at Seattle University.

I think it would be very valuable to bring a doctoral degree rooted in social justice over to the director side of the table at our board meetings.

As a parent, I've served in our schools since 2008. I started as a classroom volunteer and on the fundraising team, and I've continued in PTA roles, executive committees, event coordination, district-wide competitions, advocacy with the board in Olympia, and of course, running for office.

I am the only candidate that has been consistently involved with the district and education, and I know SPS, and I'm ready to partner with our board.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, moving on to the questions.

Remember candidates, you will have 90 seconds to answer each question and I will call on the candidates to answer.

So this is question one.

What motivates you to serve on the school board and what specific initiatives or improvements do you hope to achieve?

Candidate Ms. Rahi, you may go first.

SPEAKER_00

The three things that motivate me, as I mentioned, my lived experience, the community members that I talk to every day, and my kids.

I want my kids to grow up in a district that is rooted in equity.

Specifically, what I'd like to improve, I mean, I think we've all been talking about it, but the opportunity gap and how we address that and how we stay rooted in our student outcome goals.

I didn't mention that my wife is a principal at a Title I elementary school in the Bellevue School District.

That's an inclusion school as well.

So I have two parents who were special education teachers.

My wife, the conversations that we have around the dinner table are about education issues.

And one thing that I've I've learned through all those conversations is that the way that our public school systems have been designed historically is to orbit around white, monolingual, neurotypical students.

And I think that it takes real intentionality to disrupt the way that a system is designed.

And I think that's even more difficult when you have a budget crisis.

So when you have to make those tough budget decisions, how do you stay rooted in the work that you're doing to fundamentally disrupt the way that the system is intended to be?

So I think that my experience on boards, my experience as a leader of a 50,000 worker organization, as an elected official within that organization, helps me bring a lot of my own experience to that role and to those tough decisions.

Who am I passing it to?

SPEAKER_02

All right, thank you.

All right, so what motivates me to serve on the school board?

So there's been a lot of talk about students who are further away from education justice.

And when I went to school, I actually experienced that myself.

So when I went to high school, we used to have drive-by shooting drills.

We used to witness the impact of teenage pregnancy, gang violence.

And what impacted me the most was that of our 140 students, high school seniors that could graduate, only 40 of us were able to successfully graduate because we didn't pass the other 100 or more, didn't pass the assessments test.

So that really has colored my experiences in terms of how lucky I am in terms of the opportunity that education has given me.

I don't think I would be here today if it wasn't for the support of the school and everybody around me.

So what motivates me is that I want to help in solving some of those problems as well.

Again, luckily, it looks like the support seat opened up, and so then I thought, okay, why not give this a shot?

Of course, I do intend to be involved more with Seattle Schools.

My daughter just started kindergarten this year, so I'm a first-time Seattle School parent.

In terms of specific improvements, what I really hope that we can improve on is the image of Seattle Schools.

When I started my process of enrolling my daughter, some of my colleagues were very heavily influencing me to either move out of the district or enroll her in private school, and that was not an option for me.

Because if all students who have the supports move out, then it makes it more difficult.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07

So there are many reasons I am motivated to serve on this board, and three of my four reasons are here tonight.

Hi, Charlie.

And mainly, I want to create a safe and welcoming environment for all of our Seattle Public Schools students.

And since I don't see it mentioned elsewhere in our topics for this evening, I want to talk about disabilities.

SPS has more students identified with disabilities than we receive funding for and are able to accommodate.

So just let that sink in.

But then recognize that there are a whole lot of other students in our schools that have learning disabilities that have not even been identified.

Oftentimes these students are designated as stupid or lazy or not trying.

But the truth is that they are trying.

Their brain simply doesn't work the same way as a typical student.

And sometimes that means that 100 of them cannot graduate because they have not been able to access their education.

Invisible disabilities are very real and just because we've avoided helping students receive a diagnosis and proper supports does not mean that their disability will go away.

If you look at anti-discrimination statement for SPS, disabilities are way down the list after appearance and I can tell you as a parent of students with disabilities and as a differently abled learner myself, it really does feel like we come last.

Unfortunately, SPS is still creating and following discriminatory practices.

Just yesterday, the governor signed the Nothing About Us Without Us bill into law.

I will bring that lived experience to the table and help make more equitable decisions and policies for all of our students.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

My motivation to serve is threefold.

One, I'm tired.

I am tired of hearing about the opportunity gap and I'm tired of hearing about the lack of equity in our school systems.

And because I'm tired, I I have to do something about it.

I think that each of us have a responsibility to play a role, and this is me trying to do my part because I am a first-hand product of public schools.

I have experience.

I've been on the other side of the gap.

I have friends, I have family, and I have sisters who are also experiencing the opportunity gap, and I'm tired.

Another part is there's a responsibility.

To whom much is given, much is owed and expected.

I've had the opportunity to pursue an MBA.

I've had the opportunity to work both in the non-profit as well as in the for-profit private sector.

And so I want to take those opportunities, those lessons, and bring them back to the board and use them in our school system so that we treat our school system not just education, it's a great thing to do, but no, how do we do it right?

How do we do it with accountability?

How do we do it with data and measurements that actually work?

And then the last piece is hope.

I really do believe that our students can be whatever they want to be.

They can do whatever they want to do.

And I want to make sure that I am working alongside the board, alongside legislators to bring that hope to reality.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will move to Candidate Clark.

SPEAKER_10

All right, I have to take a look at the question again because it's been a moment.

But I, you know, I think there are three primary things that motivate me to serve on the board.

The first is, well, two of them are in the room tonight, my two nieces, Zuzu and Javi, love you guys.

You know, 20 years ago when I graduated from the Seattle Public School District, I, you know, I had a mixed experience.

While I received a quality education, I was separated from most of my peers of color because I was in a program that they didn't have access to.

And fast forward 20 years, I think we're, We haven't made much progress since then and so I would like to be a part of the solution so that my nieces can grow up in schools where they aren't isolated and they feel a sense of belonging and worthiness within their classrooms and in their communities.

The second reason is because of my faith and my spirituality.

I'm a practicing Buddhist and we have a movement through peace, through fostering youth and mentoring youth and helping them find their way.

They're the next generation.

They're our hope for the future.

I didn't get to my initiatives and improvements, but I will squeeze them in somewhere else.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you for the question.

I actually am super motivated because I really do feel like I've been called to service.

There is so many times in my life that I've moved into more and more service-oriented roles, but specifically in this one, I think the place that my superpower lies is in listening.

And right now, we have this opportunity to listen to students, to listen to our community, and to take the time to do that.

And I have that opportunity.

I would like to close the loop between what we hear from the district, when we have complaints coming out, and I would like to figure out a way for us to actually close the loop and respond to those things.

And the way we can do that is by going out into the community, making sure that we're actually soliciting feedback, and then advocating on behalf of the community as we've gathered that.

SPEAKER_03

Candidate Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01

motivations for why I want to join the school board.

First, I mentioned I have two children myself who are in Seattle Public Schools.

They're at home tonight, they had piano lessons.

But that touches on something else, which is there's a lot of threats facing the district right now.

Programs like extracurriculars, music programs, all kinds of sports teams and stuff.

Those are under threat because of the budget problems that the district faces.

And there's some tough choices coming if we don't get a final, like some sort of solution to that problem where we can find a way to pay for the things that we want.

It's a pretty simple equation at the end of the day.

Other reasons though I'm motivated to serve on the board, I mean, I'm a white, straight, cishet male.

I've had basically every privilege that you could ask for, and I didn't earn any of it.

And I feel a responsibility to pay that back and to solve those problems and to make up for the disadvantages that other people have been born into through no fault of their own.

In terms of specific policies, as I mentioned, I think it all starts with the budget.

But I think if we can find a good solution to that, it unlocks the ability to do lots of other exciting things.

Creating new programs to help underprivileged students, historically marginalized communities, achieve academically, tutoring programs, mentorship programs, keeping extracurriculars going, avoiding school closures.

There's a lot we can do if we can solve the budget problem.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

We live in a beautiful city.

It's growing.

We see all the people moving in.

There's a lot of affluence.

We see that we're voted one of the most educated, ranked one of the most educated cities in the country.

And the unique thing about Seattle is all these people moving in and the great boom we've got.

Most of these people live in the city.

So all of this should be bringing to the city an opportunity.

It shouldn't be that it is something separate from the schools.

This should really be bringing opportunities to the schools.

So I'm motivated.

I grew up poor.

I grew up.

In good schools, though, where I felt seen, I felt taken care of, our high school is a blue-ribbon school, and I had a lot of opportunities.

People jumped up and made sure I was registered for PSATS or whatever it was before I even knew I was supposed to and made sure that it got paid for, right?

Here, what I'd like to see is that we take advantage of the situation Seattle's in.

We see this as a growth opportunity.

So first, we have to work towards a sustainable budget.

Some items are in our control.

There are a lot that aren't, but there's work to do there.

Two, we need to pull up performance overall.

There's a lot of great kids here.

There's a lot of great teachers.

We know we can do better.

We should learn from our successes.

We have some principals out there who are working with their schools to put into place systems where they're pulling up their test scores.

We should learn from that.

And third, we really need to work on bolstering our math, STEM programs, et cetera, so that our kids are competitive for their future.

SPEAKER_06

We'll now move to question number two.

It's a two-part question.

How do you define effective governance in the context of a school board?

What skills to support effective governance do you feel you bring to the board?

We'll start with District 2 and Candidate Gall.

SPEAKER_05

Effective governance is actually one of those tricky things because a school board isn't the same as someone who can actually do the operational part.

of fixing problems.

And so the only way to actually do it is through policy and through process improvements.

So when a student is walking into the school every day, how is it that we can actually affect that on a daily basis?

And you can do it by having curriculum that's powerful.

You can do it by setting guardrails and following up with those guardrails.

You can also do it by setting clear boundaries with those guardrails.

So student-focused governance really does actually sort of address this already and I feel like as someone who's studied student-focused governance and who has been part of boards before, I understand where those lines are and I think that that's one of the powerful parts that and actually challenging parts of being a board member is that you have to know what you can do and what you cannot do in the room.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

We'll move to Candidate Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks.

So effective governance is something that's different from management.

It's not that you're the boss of the superintendent or the principals or the teachers and you can go tell them to do certain things.

You have to create structures and incentives and policies that help sort of steer the ship in the right direction.

And so there's a few steps to that.

Effective governance starts with setting good, clear goals, worthy goals that will accomplish important missions for the community.

Once you have good goals, you follow that up by defining strategies to help pursue those goals in different groups of people.

Different groups are going to have different needs, and they're going to they're going to require different resources to make progress towards those goals.

Then you define metrics that help assess the attainment of those goals and are we making progress or not.

Those metrics might vary by group, different groups might make different progress at different rates.

But you use those metrics to see how you're doing and to adjust policies as needed.

Maybe you need to add more resources in one place or something like that because some group's not making the progress we want to see.

And so governance is basically facilitating that process and holding the people who are responsible for driving towards those goals accountable.

And so the skills that I have, I mean, I've served on other boards in a corporate setting before, and this is also this kind of approach, this metrics-driven approach is very common in the software industry where I have experience.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Next is candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

So yes, everything's well said from Sean and Danielle.

The thing is about setting goals and policies.

We have to figure out what is that right North Star that we want to take the school district to.

And we can say, OK, well, we set this North Star.

District, you better get it done.

You're accountable.

Well, you've got to set the right goals and be thinking about what's the realistic way to get there.

really ambitious goals without having an idea of how you're going to get there.

So I really think, you know, I've got, had a lot of experience in my program and project management type career of doing some of those five and ten year plans for organizations, for programs, and figure out what are the outcomes we're really looking for, right?

And then what's that, how do we partner with the district to figure out is there an operational plan, an implementation plan that helps us get there and making sure that our coverage, our planning for these goals is not such that we set ourselves up for failure because they're too ambitious and we don't have a path forward.

I think a lot of it is really digging into staying focused.

What is it we're trying to achieve?

It's a complicated puzzle.

You know, having one major goal might not help us solve the economic puzzle, right?

There's a lot of things at play.

There's a lot of nuance.

Can we settle around a couple major items and work together on that?

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

We're going to move to District 4 and Candidate Gonzalez.

Oh, I made a mess up.

SPEAKER_10

Kennedy Park, sorry.

This has been a great discussion so far.

Effective governance, I think that's the, if only we could figure out the exact formula to that so that we could get everything right.

As a values-based leader, my mind kind of went towards collective leadership and collaboration.

Ensuring that we're working together towards the same well-defined goals.

I think data and metrics are important, but there's also gaps there.

And so if that is a tactic taken, I believe that we need to ensure the methodology.

doesn't have intense bias.

I also think that balancing the needs of the diverse stakeholders within a school district, our students, teachers, parents, staff, within the limitations of the current budget is a part of effective governance, while also being nimble enough to pivot and respond to emerging needs and keeping an eye on long-term outcomes.

And lastly, I think really being able to look at the mirror and be honest with ourselves.

Where are we failing?

What can we do better?

And, and I believe that I will bring all of these qualities to the board.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Now we'll actually move to District 4 and Candidate Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

So the finding effective governance for me, as has been mentioned, is something that's a little bit challenging, right?

You can lean in one way too much or the other way, and then you're basically going to sacrifice something in lieu of something else.

So to kind of clarify for me, this is a balance of the what and the how.

And what I mean by that is that if we just focus on the what, right, just getting tasks delivered, just data, and not considering the experience of the students, the families, and the community, we're going to hurt ourselves, right?

We're going to sacrifice that experience.

And the how, of course, if you focus too much on the how, like policies, procedures, processes, you get stuck in this analysis paralysis, and then you lose sight of the what.

So, as has been said, right, it's kind of balancing what are the goals and objectives that you want to go towards.

And in terms of the role of the school board, in terms of having effective governance for school district, I see it as providing guidance, framing the challenges of the complex problems and identifying where you need to focus.

And that seems like a silly statement, but the hardest thing sometimes is figuring out what is the question we need to ask ourselves right now and where should we be focusing on.

In terms of what skills I have to support effective governance, I think the thing that I bring here is that, similar to other candidates here, I've worked in various leadership positions, but what I've learned through my experience, kind of the hard way, is that it's not just about collaboration, right?

You always have to balance collaboration, accountability, short-term versus long-term, and having that balance is what's important.

SPEAKER_07

So this school board has already a well-defined set of goals and a process laid out for governance that I think will make an effective path forward.

And as someone that made my way through school feeling less than, I continue to feel self-conscious of my reading and my writing, but I try to never let that hold me back.

I'd like to share a piece from my application because it captures my thoughts, and I'm also proud that it is borderline poetic.

The Seattle School Board is a bit of an enigma.

It is everything and nothing, depending on who you ask.

It is an unpaid position that oversees a billion dollar budget.

It is a role that voters often overlook, yet is expected to campaign citywide.

It is the link between the district and the public, but it can be misunderstood from both sides.

It is frequently the subject of community parent criticism, and also where they turn for help.

I've been warned by many people, friends, colleagues, elected officials, even board members, that it is a difficult and sometimes thankless job.

I believe that is true, but the school board, it's a challenging place, but our students are relying on us to get this right and make sure that they have access to the best possible public education.

I bring the skills of an educator and I bring the flexibility of a dancer that I developed in the course of Broadway musicals.

I won't look good until we all look good.

I will bring the utmost respect for our directors, and I will bring the collaborative mindset that we will need to move forward together.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Next is Candidate Bolden.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

Governance starts with why.

Why are we here?

We're here because we're representatives.

We're here because we're advocates.

And we're here because we're a voice for students, for the families, and for the community.

And if we can start with that why, then it will help us understand how do we set our mission, and how do we set our vision?

And then how do we bring people on board?

Because that's another part of governance.

It's not just a setting a mission and the goals.

But it's nothing if we don't have people on board with us.

if people aren't also excited about helping us reach those goals.

Next, it's about setting policies and procedures that people understand.

They understand what's happening in their schools and why it's happening.

And so we've got to educate and inform people.

And then fiscal management is really important, right?

I think we have to help people understand what is the budget?

Where's the money coming from?

What are we doing with the money?

I looked at our budget, and it's long.

And if I was a parent or a student, I'd have a little bit of trouble reading it.

So we have to make our information digestible.

And what I think the skills that I bring is, one, I'm going to bring the facilitation process to make sure I'm helping all of us in this space understand what it is we're getting into and why we're getting into it.

Two, I'm bringing my marketing chops to make sure that everybody is on board and they know exactly what we're doing and why we're doing it.

And then three, I'm going to challenge the status quo.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

And finally, we have candidate Mizrahi.

SPEAKER_00

You know, in my job, I've helped folks run for hospital board, port commission, school boards even.

And being on a volunteer board is actually a very weird position.

And I've seen folks make the mistake in both directions.

I've seen people who come onto a board and they just want to change everything.

They think that they know everything and they don't respect the other board members, they don't respect the staff that actually are the full-time people working in these jobs and understand a lot about what makes it work.

I've also seen people go the opposite direction and treat it like too much of a volunteer job and not devote the time and energy and the critical thinking required to do the job well.

So I really think there are two basic components to effective governance.

The first is to keep focused on the goals, to ask the right questions to the staff.

We're actually lucky, all of us, that we're coming onto a board that has very clear student outcome goals and guardrails.

They're well written out, they are measurable, they are accountable, and it's really our job to ask questions of the district staff when they come in to make sure that they are adhering to those goals that have already been laid out.

The second is to be a liaison to the community, to explain what the guardrails are, what the goals are, why we are adhering to them, and then to listen to feedback and bring that back to the board.

Those are the two things that we have to do as a board, and those are the two things that I think I can bring.

I serve as a trustee on the King County Labor Council board.

That is a huge board that has a huge budget.

I'm also a co-chair of the Sound Health and Wellness Trust, which has 40,000 lives, and on a pension trust that that has assets in excess of $6 billion, so I've done this in many spaces already.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

Moving on to question three.

SPS is facing a huge budget shortfall.

As a school board member, what guidance would you give the superintendent on priorities in pursuit of a balanced budget?

All right, and first up, Candidate Rivera.

SPEAKER_07

So in my experience in life and in the nonprofit world, I have a degree in nonprofit management, and I do know my way around a budget.

And going back historically as a kid, my father did the budget for Sacramento County, and I remember the piles and piles of documents that he would come home with, and mostly that we were not allowed to touch them or move them.

And as a grownup, I can see that those piles were actually a moral document.

That's what we know a budget is.

And the SPS budget is a beast of a document.

And we need to look at what we're spending, where we're spending it, and how it affects those student-focused outcomes.

And I've gone through our proposed budget, and I even sat down with my very own MBA, Fortune 500 Finance Director.

But it's really more of the working sessions where all of these things start to make sense.

And as we've been listening to our very dedicated and capable crew of SPS staff that is building that budget and working through it, we can see where some of the cuts, the proposed cuts, and where we're going to be doubling down.

And in conversation with our state legislators, they've added funding to supplement the budget for operating and capital costs, but it won't close the full gap.

And they are on track to eliminate the special education cap, but we are far from there.

and they want to see a plan from us that has clear and concrete asks for the 2025 legislative session, and we need to show that SPS is taking the steps to improve our fiscal position.

There's more from the state treasurer, but we'll save it for another time.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

Up next is Canada Olden.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

So superintendent, this is the question we've all been waiting for.

My suggestion is investing in our educators.

I think we talk a lot about our students, but we have to make sure that we have best in class educators and our educators are ready and up to do the task.

And it's a hard task in front of them.

So we need to prepare them and we need to develop them.

I'm definitely going to prioritize that.

I also want to prioritize the teaching activities, making sure that we are investing in teaching activities that are going to have the highest return on investment.

And so I want to make sure that we're evaluating those teaching activities and saying, is our money going to the right places?

ensure that when we're setting these priorities that we're listening.

Don't listen just to us.

I'm not in school anymore, right?

And so I want you to listen to the students.

I want to listen to the educators and I want to listen to the parents to make sure that we're all making an informed decision with them involved.

And then lastly, it's about exposure.

I want us to invest.

We talk a lot about the achievement gap, but I want us to think about the exposure gap.

Our students aren't exposed to the plethora of of opportunities that are out there, whether it's in STEM education, whether it's in the arts.

And so how do we expose them so that we can open up their minds and open up their dreams?

Because that will spark them wanting to learn.

That will spark them wanting to come to school.

And so if we can look at those activities and those priorities, I think that that is going to be a really strong starting place for us.

So good luck.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will now move on to candidate Ms. Rahi.

SPEAKER_00

So as I just mentioned, I sit on this $6 billion pension trust.

And a few years ago, that pension trust was in the red zone and declining.

So this is the retirement that people who have worked a whole career in the grocery industry depend on.

And we had to decide what cuts to make.

And the way that we went about that was rooting our cuts in our values.

And we talked about what are our values as a pension?

And the decision that we made was that our values as a pension were to make sure that people had a secure and safe pension when they reach a retirement age.

So we took that value, and we all agreed to it, and we said, OK, we can make these cuts on some of the early retirement benefits that people have.

And they will still have a strong retirement when they reach retirement age.

Those are very hard decisions, and we didn't delegate that.

I had to sit down with people and look them in the eye and talk about why they were going to have to delay their retirement plans.

But because we did it rooted in the values that we had set for ourselves, those decisions weren't easy, but they were easier.

And the conversations weren't easy, but they were easier because we could talk about the values that they were rooted in.

So the advice that I would give is to say, look, I'm going to sound a little bit like a broken record, but we have very well set out goals and very well set out guardrails.

If we look at those guardrails as we make those tough decisions, I think the question is, is this decision within those guardrails?

Are we making these decisions or, you know, compared to the alternative, what is closer to our goals?

What helps us achieve this vision?

And I think as long as we're doing that, those decisions, like I said, they don't become easier, but they become easier to communicate and easier to make.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

Let's pass it on to Candidate Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02

Great, thank you.

Wow, budget.

It's one of the things I could talk for hours about.

But I did want to thank Candidate Rivera for indicating that there's already some progress being made right at a higher level in terms of things that are legislative.

So I kind of want to break this down into two pieces for me.

So if you look at a budget, it's basically two components.

Your top line, which is revenue, and your bottom line, which is expenses.

And as we mentioned in other board meetings, the biggest expense is teaching or staffing, employee cost.

And as Kennedy Mizrahi had mentioned, when you're looking at making cuts, there's always going to be a lot of emotion because someone that you know is probably going to be impacted by that cut.

All right, so that's a big problem, right, and a complex problem.

So how do you address this?

So there's a couple ways or a couple recommendations I would make to the superintendent in terms of how do we go to a balanced budget.

So there's going to be some short-term pain.

And as mentioned, when you have to make those hard decisions, it is best to involve those individuals that are going to be impacted.

by that short-term pain.

But a lot of people are okay with short-term pain as long as we know there's a long-term solution or longer-term solution that's going to take us away from that short-term pain.

When I was in business and when I first started my career, someone told me there's the circle of life and the spiral of death.

And what that meant is that when things are improving, there's more revenue, you get to expend more.

And spiral of death is when revenue goes down, you have to cut more, you have to cut more.

So where I'm going with that visual is that I think one of the things that we need to do and one of the things that I hope if I were to be elected or selected is increase enrollment.

By increasing enrollment, you increase revenue.

And so then from a longer-term perspective, you can get away from the stop process of cutting.

Again, short-term pain and long-term gain.

But in the short-term process, we do want to involve those that are impacted.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will move back to District 2, Candidate Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

So the first thing before I offered advice to the superintendent, what I'd want to do is actually just talk to him and get his thoughts about kind of where we're at.

I'd assume that most of the thoughts that are in my head are things that have already gone through his, and I would want to learn that.

But assuming, you know, just the thoughts that I have now are relevant.

You can balance a budget by raising revenues or cutting costs.

And I think we know the kinds of cost-cutting discussions that are in play here.

To make those cost cuts, we would want to involve the community, gather feedback, and try to make the least painful cuts as possible.

But I think the more important solution is to try and pursue raising revenues.

It's kind of obvious, of course, but I think the best way to do that is to mobilize public opinion behind this problem.

I think the Seattle School Board takes a lot of the heat for decisions that are made in Olympia.

And I think we need to work with the community and get all of that energy funneled towards the legislators in Olympia and demand that they meet the constitutional requirement to fund education adequately.

That involves things like PR campaigns and holding legislators accountable.

There's kind of two places to hold Olympia accountable.

There's the ballot box and there's the courtroom.

And the district has previously used the courtroom option, so I would have that on the table.

I think the board owes it to the community to stand up for them and to try and go get the funding that they're constitutionally entitled to.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will now hear from Candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

I feel like everybody seems to know who's next but me.

I'm like, it's a surprise every time.

So in terms of priorities for the budget, I want us to think about how we approach it.

We shouldn't be in a crisis mode.

We have to think of it as it's, this is a short term.

Hopefully, we got to figure out our way through it.

Think of it as a short-term crisis, but we should have a growth mindset.

We can't be cutting things so badly that we hobble the school district and chase away more families.

We have to be thinking about how we grow.

We have to do it in a smart way.

That would mean we have to prioritize the core mission of academics and make sure what we're doing is having really good, will have really good outcomes there, that we support the academics.

But there are also a lot of other gems out there in our schools.

And we have to understand with input from the families and the students what those gems are that really need to be preserved.

And we can't preserve every gem across the board.

But we do need to make sure it's spread out across the area.

So everyone has a gem, hopefully.

Because we need to make sure that we can consolidate some of those budgets here and there, but we need to be thinking about growth.

Because that's the only way this is going to be a sustainable district and to prevent us from cratering.

So lots of work to do on the legislative front.

That's an ongoing problem, you know, a lot of past history.

Yay, there's more funding, but it's not enough funding.

Lots of work to do there, but the main thing I would say is let's treat it as a growth mindset.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's hear from Candidate Clark.

SPEAKER_10

Well, as a board member, I would give a couple pieces of guidance And I think starting with, you know, really grounding ourselves in the reality that this is a regional problem and actually a nationwide problem.

Involvement rates have dropped post-pandemic and in some ways we are in uncharted territory and in some ways we are not.

And I think that the benefit of that is that there are a lot of people actively looking for solutions and thinking of ideas.

And so I would advise you to talk to your peers and really build a coalition of support across the state, starting at the top with the superintendents and really discussing challenges, but also brainstorming ideas.

and seeking creative input from unusual sources.

Another thing that I would recommend is prioritizing students' needs.

I've heard a lot about students' desire for more mental health support in schools.

So much so, in fact, that the Seattle City Council appropriated an additional $20 million in support, which is another thing I'd like to work on planning for that money.

But I think you can't go wrong when you seek diverse input and put students' needs first.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will hear from Candidate Gahl.

SPEAKER_05

So people have already sort of gotten into the weeds on this, so I won't reiterate it, but I will say that I would always like students to come over spaces.

I think that we already know that's coming and I'd like to encourage you to actually utilize your board members because we're all used to having people care loudly at us and so with that in mind I think that we can also be the folks that are advocating for the district educating people out in our communities and making sure that they're understanding why are we doing what we're doing.

You mentioned at a meeting that we should show our work and I think we have an opportunity to do that.

We can show our work as board members so that we can go out into the community and that they can understand it better from us.

So really it's about advocating, putting students first and making sure that we're supporting you as much as you are supporting our students.

SPEAKER_03

All right.

Thank you.

We are now going to pause briefly for a 10-minute break.

To the candidates and audience members, we'll resume the next question promptly after the break.

So please return by 725. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Question number four.

Question number four is, how would you use student feedback in your decision-making process?

And we'll start with candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Yes, students, they're our main customer, right?

They're the ones who we're trying to help prepare them for the future.

They're the ones who can tell us how they feel like it's going.

And they're the ones that we want to be able to see that we serve them well.

So on the students that We need to be able to collect that feedback.

And like if you think about any customer focused thing, just to kind of put it into a metaphor, if you were building a product, right?

What did your customers want?

And then use that to say, these are part of our requirements.

We know that we have core missions to fulfill, but this can add to some of our requirements for a district.

What's important?

What are some of these priorities?

How they get served out is something that is a, there's a lot of work that the district does to figure out how they serve out some of those requirements.

So I think, you know, the recent board had a big session talking about public engagement.

right?

Stakeholder engagement.

What does it mean?

How do you do it?

And the students definitely have to be part of that plan.

I think we really need to be responsive to the students.

I know there's a lot of things that we're hearing concerns about, right?

Safety and security, mental health and wellness.

So these are all things that these help you know these are where some of the issues are and highlight some of the priorities for us.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

We'll now hear from Kennedy Clark.

SPEAKER_10

As my fellow candidates so aptly said, the students are, I would consider them in advocacy speak, our main constituent.

And they have a unique role in that, that they are actively being affected by the systems and structures that are currently operating.

And they will be in the system over a period of time and so they have the opportunity to actually experience changes and give feedback as we're rolling things out and testing new programming.

So I think it's, you know, important what I've learned about, I guess, soliciting feedback or input from other from other stakeholders is that one, you need to do it in a way that is authentic and mindful of their roles and what they would like to see.

You need to do it in a way that gives them ownership and voice in the process.

And also to do that follow-up, seeking the follow-up and the feedback and seeking to refine and better create better policies that meet the needs of the current students that are actually in the system.

So I think it's important.

I would use student feedback in an authentic and transparent way with integrity and accountability.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Next is Kenneth Gold.

SPEAKER_05

I think the most important part about actually using student feedback is getting it first and I have already tried really hard to reach out to every student union in Ballard High School and I'm really determined to continue to do so.

I'm going to call and I'm going to email until I hear back because I think one of the things that we forget is that young people are incredibly busy, they're incredibly just I guess overstretched in so many ways.

And so I think making sure that we come to the students so that they can provide the feedback is the first step.

And then after that, I think providing scaffolded opportunities for integration into board and decision making is the other part.

And I think that having student board members is the first step in that.

And I think just taking that to the next level and providing more of those opportunities as we continue is where we can go.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks, so students represent a critical source of information that we can't get from other places.

So they're the primary beneficiaries of the public education system and they're going to have extremely relevant perspective that should be factored into decision making processes.

The key is to hear that information, as Candidate Gall said, to hear it directly.

And so I would go and find students, create outreach opportunities for them to come and provide their feedback.

I would actively seek it out, including getting it from students who might be less inclined to speak up.

I think that it's great that there are student board members that participate.

Not every student is the type of person that's going to be comfortable or seek out that type of opportunity.

And I think it's important to get broad feedback from the entire student body.

The kinds of things I would wanna know, what's working, what isn't working.

If there's hard decisions we have to make, what would the impact of this decision be on you and your experience in school?

What can we do to lessen the disruption caused by difficult decisions?

What are the things SPS could be doing but isn't?

An example of that, I think, for most of us of a certain age, we didn't grow up with social media.

This is a new force in the social and emotional well-being of our children, and it spills over into school.

I'd wanna talk about safety.

Seattle's not immune from the kinds of violence that are plaguing schools across the country.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

We'll now move to District 4, Candidate Bolden.

SPEAKER_04

So I want to lead with WWSD.

What would students do?

And that is the question I want to always think about, is what are students going to do?

And I also look at students as they're the client.

If I'm the consultant, I don't know what's happening in schools every day.

And so I am here to just glean from their experiences.

So let's spend time with them.

Let's shadow the students.

Let's go into the schools.

Let's see what it's like to eat lunch with them.

Let's see what it's like to show up late, what it's like to show up later when the bell rings or when they don't have a piano lesson and they've got to like try to get home.

to helping a little sister or someone else.

I think we have to spend time with our students.

And so how I want to use their feedback and their experiences, I want to use it to help to help determine how we make decisions and the decisions that we make.

And so I think that that is going to be very core.

Also, we've got to use technology with our students.

If we want them to be technologically advanced, we also must be advanced in that as well.

And so let's look at the creative ways to use AI and social media to talk to them, to hear from them, and to also share information with them.

And lastly, I think it is important.

for us to continue to educate our students about what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.

This is no longer an age of because we said so.

No, this is a moment because this is why.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, I think the students are the people who we're here to serve.

That's the fundamental core aspect of the work.

If we're not centering student voices, then what are we doing?

In my day job, I talk to workers every day.

That's the analog there is that the members are the ones who I'm there to serve.

And I will say that getting out and talking to workers, if I am making a tough decision, or even if I've just been staring at a spreadsheet for too long, That's the thing that reinvigorates me.

That's the most exciting part of the job.

And getting student feedback, talking to students is probably the most exciting part about this job.

I've done a lot of jobs in my current role, but my favorite job title was always organizer.

And I think there are just three components to getting good feedback and from having good conversations with people.

Those are what voices are you centering and making sure that you're centering voices that might not have easy access to the systems or have not traditionally been centered.

And then time and listening.

It's not any rocket science.

If you spend time with people and if you actually listen to the things that they care about, you will learn so much.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, if you could wave a magic wand at your work, what's one thing that you would change?

Or just, what do you love about your job?

And just sitting back and listening and asking follow-up questions.

And I think the same can be true for students.

If you walk into a school and ask any student what issues they care about, what are their top concerns, what would they change at their school, that is going to get great results.

I want to make sure that I'm hearing not just from those who come to meetings, but also the folks who don't even know that there is a school board.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Next is Candidate Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

So when this question was posed, the first thing I thought about is a recent book that I've been reading, which is called Move Fast and Fix Things.

a little bit of a spin of move fast and break things from Facebook.

So for those of you who are in social media, you probably heard Zuckerberg say that.

So move fast and fix things, leading change, requires having the group that's the most impacted be involved and be part of participation, active participation.

In this case, that impacted group are the students.

And what I mean by this is that it's not just about getting their student feedback, but as another candidate had mentioned, is making sure that we build an environment where they have the confidence and the safety to be authentic, to bring questions that they wouldn't normally bring.

The other thing that I think that was mentioned is making sure we reach out to those students that are not actively participating.

Completely agree using different medium, different technologies should be able to help with that.

But again, if we create a safe environment and we say your ideas are actively being heard, your concerns are actually being heard.

What you'll notice is they start having a network effect.

What that means is that as one group of students participates, then another group of students participates.

And before you know, you've actually reached those that are marginalized.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Next is Candidate Rivera.

SPEAKER_07

Thanks.

So, of course, students are the reason that we all are here.

and their feedback is so very valuable.

The students know exactly how things are going in the classroom, and there's just so much that we can learn from them.

They know when there are 51 students in their math class, and it is very difficult to learn.

They know when they do not feel safe, and as adults, we really need to step up on that priority.

They know when the classes they need are no longer offered.

And they know that sometimes the staff does not have the time or capacity to write that letter of recommendation that they're going to need for college.

And these are all actual examples, by the way.

But at the same time, students may not always be able to see the entire picture.

And so it's kind of like that old adage about business school and management practices, viewing from the balcony versus viewing from the dance floor.

And we as board, staff, need to understand exactly how to move effortlessly between the two.

And remember to be constantly evolving, listening, learning, growing.

And I forgot the other thing I was going to say.

And I also forgot which page I wrote it on.

Oh, it's so clever.

It's we need to remember to always be centering the needs of students.

And they are literally the future of our society.

And each and every one of them is going to be going out into the communities where we live.

And they are going to be our neighbors.

grocery store clerks, nurses, doctors, curing cancer, and everything above.

Thank you.

Who's next?

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

This is question five.

What would your approach be to incorporating community perspective into decision making, particularly perspective from historically marginalized communities?

We will start with district four, candidate Mizrahi.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, I mean, I think similar to what we just talked about in the previous question, I don't think that you can wait for students or community or parents or educators to come to you to share their perspective.

We have to be out in the community.

We have to be asking the right questions.

We have to be constantly questioning ourselves, what voices are we centering?

Who's in the room?

I think that when I walk into a workplace, I talk to people who are active stewards in their union, and they've been involved for 10 years, and they come to every meeting that we have.

And I talk to people who are like, wait, what's a union?

I'm in a union.

Who the heck are you?

And you have to have those conversations and you have to meet people at all levels.

And I think it's the same in the school board role.

You have to be out in the community talking to folks where they are.

You have to be asking not just what they want, but also where should I meet you?

What time should I be here?

What's the best community event for me to come to?

And then you have to be incorporating that in the work that you do.

I also think that there's a strong role for the board to be, to play in doing these meetings together, so we're not doing it in a silo, and we're actually having this conversation with each other and in each other's districts.

I think that our biggest role is to pass the mic.

That's what my wife always says in her principal work, is that you're passing the mic to those around you.

You do as little talking as possible, and you pass the mic, and you listen to what folks have to say.

So I'll pass the mic.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

Let's hear from candidate Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02

So what would be the approach to incorporate community perspective into decision making?

So I think there's kind of a couple pieces to this.

One, there's a lot that can be done to gather more community perspective, especially for marginalized communities.

The one thing I would say to those communities is that geography is not destiny.

And as soon as that message comes across, right, where you live does not necessarily mean that that is going to dictate what your destiny is going to be.

In addition to that, I think the biggest thing is to build trust.

And the way you build trust, as I mentioned, is listening to people, getting their feedback, And it may be that you don't actually incorporate the feedback that you receive because there's going to be a lot of feedback, a lot of different voices, a lot of different opinions.

I think the challenge here is how do you distill the information that you're receiving so that it can be incorporated into decision making?

And I think part of that process is kind of understanding and having empathy to what you're hearing and what's being told, how much of that is situational and how much of that is actually actionable.

All right.

I think that's all I have here.

Oh, I guess one final thing here that I wrote is that we, I would be guided by this mantra, which is I'd rather have imperfect action versus having perfect thought.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

Candidate Olden, or Candidate Rivera, my apologies.

SPEAKER_07

So I will say that SPS and the current board have a plan for streamlining community input and access, and hopefully all of that will be creating a more equitable and accessible solution for all.

They want to move away from what Director Hersey calls the library or coffee shop engagement, and I definitely support that plan.

And I would also like to keep my personal inbox open.

I know that there are a lot of people that do not necessarily feel comfortable or welcome in the formal settings.

And I know that for me, it took a long time to figure out what the public comment situation is, how you go to a board meeting, how you sign up for that board meeting, and what to say and how to be most effective in that space.

And I just want to remind everyone in here and at home that you are welcome in these spaces.

And even when the directors may not agree with you or like what you have to hear, they are listening.

And so I just want to remind everyone of that because we really are all advocates for our children.

And the next great idea can come from anywhere.

So I really appreciate the plan to rotate those meetings throughout the district to rotate who is in attendance for those meetings.

And at the same time, I am always accessible and you can come find me on social media or in my neighborhood and I will be happy to chat.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Candidate Olden.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

The key word in this question is historically marginalized communities.

What that means is the most vulnerable.

And the most, the people who identify as black or identify as Hispanic plus.

And the major sentiment that they're feeling is one, they don't feel heard.

They don't feel heard, they don't feel that their voices are valued.

And they're asking themselves why.

And so I do think that as a board, we can think about how do we incentivize them bringing their voices?

right, them actually taking up the mic.

How can we make it accessible for them, right?

I've been to board meetings, many of us have been, and they're awesome, but they can also be really intimidating for some people.

So how do we make participating far more accessible for people from all different lived experiences?

And then two, how do we show them that we care, right?

So yes, us showing up says, wow, they're doing this work and it's volunteer, but no, how do we actually show them that their voices matter and that we actually care?

And I think that that is going to be at the core of our work.

and at the core of the approach of making sure that they're involved with us.

And then I love the idea of basically making the board a bit of a street team.

Let's go to them every now and again, right?

Let's go to their communities where they're not driving downtown or, that's not necessarily downtown, but they're not driving over to us.

But we're going to them and we're sitting where they sit, right?

What happens when we're not in a formal space?

So let's just think creatively and out the box.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Moving on to District 2, Candidate Clark.

SPEAKER_10

Well, I would think I would take a couple different approaches.

First, I also support the district's plan to rotate meetings throughout the district, throughout the community.

I think it's important for all, you know, for people to have the opportunity to come and engage when they can.

I also know that, you know, some of the perspectives that we are seeking the most, hearing from historically marginalized communities, they're not easy to find.

They, you know, there are, yes, people don't feel heard, and they often don't have time to engage.

They could be working multiple jobs, have health issues and other limitations, and so, I think, you know, really meeting people where they're at, thinking about the timing of meetings or the timing of opportunities that we're offering throughout the day, weekdays and on the weekends.

It's really important to consider.

And also bringing opportunities to the people.

And so I, you know, I would plan to hold you know, office hours or different types of listening sessions within every school in my district, for example, but also go out into the community, into other districts to hear perspectives that I'm not getting in District 2. And as I think we all know, when we do what's best for marginalized communities and meet their needs, everyone else benefits automatically.

So I think a strategy that centers them when it comes to community engagement would be the most beneficial.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Candidate Gahl.

SPEAKER_05

I think this question really gets down to how do we serve folks that are different than us and make sure that we're listening well.

And I used to do home visits, and I worked around the state as someone who worked with the Red Cross and also in community from ArtsEd Washington.

And the things that I learned there were that, first of all, you have to go to people's turf.

and you have to meet them on their terms.

You have to show up even if it's not something that's a formal event.

I think that it's super important to show up to concerts and to the Addams Family musical and to events at schools.

And then I think it's also important once you're there to listen, learn, empathize, and support.

One of the best ways I've found to be able to do those with folks especially who don't speak English as their first language is to utilize AI in particular.

So getting a whisper and putting it through your chat GPT and then having it speak in Somali because then you're actually connecting with people who wouldn't otherwise be able to.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, thank you.

Let's hear from candidate Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01

So this, like the last question about students, is getting towards the idea of how do we connect to the community and find out what they think and what their needs are and if they're being served well.

And so it shares some traits.

These are, you know, if we talk about particularly historically marginalized communities, reaching out to them, these are people who, groups of people that we need to have strategies for how we're going to go out, we're going to find them, we're going to meet them, we're going to get feedback from them, ask them questions, listen to their stories.

Some of these groups of people can be hard to reach.

For some people, meeting on a Wednesday night is gonna be, there's never gonna be a time they could ever come to a board meeting.

We still need to get their feedback.

Perhaps there are groups of people we need to get feedback from who don't speak English in the home.

We need to have a strategy for how we're gonna get feedback from people who might not be comfortable speaking English to the board.

And so, similarly, it's about finding what are the needs of these people and how do we incorporate everyone's feedback into our planning process, into the goals that we're setting, what is the buy-in process for the community to get everybody engaged and on the same page about where the district is heading and how it's gonna get there.

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's hear from Candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

So some context here is that, I think as someone else said earlier, the larger community elects us.

The larger community is electing us based on our values, what they want to see in us.

Our students are our customers and our families are our stakeholders.

And we really need to hear what they have to say to us.

We need, they're counting on us to deliver success to them and to care for their families.

We hear from small subsets of people.

We hear the loudest voices.

There is a lot of great organizing that shows up to board meetings or does letter writing campaigns, but that's not everybody.

We need multiple ways to engage, to find the other people, not just the public engagement sessions.

Different people interact well in different ways, so we need to explore those options.

We also need to identify important stakeholders.

There are people who are being left behind.

We know that the historically marginalized communities need to be heard and that they can be hard to reach sometimes, but we need to consider there are newly marginalized communities that are occurring, whether because of faith, or race or current events.

And a community that we need to look at is the people who are leaving Seattle Public Schools.

I looked at the stats.

I think Asians are a growing demographic in the city and they are the largest population to leave.

25% of them have left over the last couple of years.

That's the biggest group leaving.

And we need to understand why they are leaving and why they don't feel supported as well.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, and thank you to everyone for your answers tonight.

We're now going to move into a lightning round with hopefully some more fun questions.

Please answer each question with one word.

Let's start with the first question.

The board is a team, and this question is about your role in the team.

You and your fellow school board directors are stranded on a deserted island.

What role do you see yourself playing?

One word answers.

We'll start with director, sorry, candidate Gul.

SPEAKER_10

A workhorse.

The comic.

SPEAKER_07

Solutionizer.

Working hard and getting things done because Director Rankin said it could be a short sentence.

SPEAKER_04

I heard short sentence.

Entertainment.

SPEAKER_00

The negotiator.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, question seven.

Describe your own experience as a K-12 student.

We'll start with district two.

My bad.

District four, I apologize.

Candidate Rivera, please go first.

Yes, one word.

It was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00

Inequitable.

SPEAKER_04

Serendipitous.

SPEAKER_01

Formative.

SPEAKER_05

Experimental.

SPEAKER_10

Segregated.

SPEAKER_11

Supported.

SPEAKER_06

Hugh, in one word, what is your superpower?

And we'll start with candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Prioritization.

Creative thinking.

SPEAKER_05

Cheerleading.

SPEAKER_01

I'm going to cheat and have two answers because I do have a real superpower, which is parking.

I always get good parking.

Determination.

SPEAKER_04

Empathy.

SPEAKER_01

Listening.

SPEAKER_02

Curiosity.

SPEAKER_07

Uplifting.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, thank you.

Beside budget, what do you see as the most pressing challenge facing the Seattle School District?

We will start with candidate Ms. Rahi.

SPEAKER_00

The opportunity gap.

SPEAKER_07

Engagement.

Options and quality.

SPEAKER_08

Evaluation.

SPEAKER_11

Competition.

Satisfaction.

SPEAKER_06

What will be better at SBS after your time on the board?

And we'll start with Kenneth Gall.

SPEAKER_05

Collaboration.

SPEAKER_01

Outcomes.

SPEAKER_11

Sustainability.

SPEAKER_10

Cross-sector collaboration.

SPEAKER_04

Inclusion.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to hope the opportunity again.

SPEAKER_02

Reputation.

Inclusivity.

SPEAKER_03

All right.

Well, that concludes our time for questions this evening.

It is time now for closing statements.

Candidates, you will each have one minute to give your statements, and we will start with Candidate Olden.

SPEAKER_04

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Tonight you've joined together with this responsibility to create the future of education in Seattle.

This work is not easy nor is it quick, but it is necessary and I'm committed to making sure it pays off.

I'd like to thank our hosts tonight.

I'd like to commend my fellow candidates.

Upward and onward we go.

To the directors, heaviest in crown who wears it, I want to thank each of you for wearing the weight of tough choices and doing the hard work on behalf of our students.

We support you.

To our educators, parents, and community members, your presence and advocacy are paramount to the success of our schools.

Stay here, be here, give it all you got.

We're counting on you.

And lastly, to our young people of Seattle, Believe you can and you will.

Never lose your curiosity about the world around you.

Create the future you want.

We got you.

Thank you for considering me, Rachelle Olden.

In the words of Lincoln High School, let's all learn with passion, act with courage, and improve the world.

SPEAKER_07

Thanks I have thought about a lot of things today and I did not write a closing statement but I want to go with the grace and gratitude that I would like for myself and for all of us here.

Grace for me and the things I'm going to think on the way home and what I wish I had told you all and for the candidates and everyone in the room and really the gratitude for Seattle Public Schools, for our board members, for the staff who put this together, our student board members and did I already say the candidates?

And thanks, and a special shout out to my family.

My husband had to leave to get the kids some dinner and get them ready to bed.

But I will say that I want to remind everyone that we are volunteers.

Our board are volunteers.

And I think that we all want the best for our students.

And I hope that tonight I've demonstrated my commitment to education and specifically to Seattle Public Schools.

In closing, I'd like to invite you all to come find me on social media or on my website, lauramarieforseattleschools.com.

And to quote the Seattle Times, Rivera is the best choice.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We will now hear from Candidate Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

All right.

So today, after listening to all the great candidates and all the information that's been disclosed and all the passion that's been presented, I have to say that I'm filled with enthusiasm and optimism for Seattle School District.

I also want to thank everyone here.

I know this is a tough job, lots of complexity, lots of decisions that need to be made, and those are always very difficult.

The one thing I do want to say is I do hope to continue on this journey with you and bring my experience, keen insights, and strong work ethic to the board.

But if that doesn't happen, I'm pretty confident in one of the many candidates that are here today.

I am so happy that I'll continue to work with Seattle Schools through volunteer processes, so maybe sometime in the future that may happen.

The one thing that I did want to leave you guys with is that I am particularly interested in budget management and oversight.

I do love numbers and financial analysis, so it's one thing that I love to dig into.

I know it resets a lot of pages, but one of my high school pastimes was actually to read calculus books and technical books.

That's just fun.

I am confident, as has been said, in the impact of having different diverse perspectives to drive outcomes.

Thank you for this opportunity.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's hear from candidate Mizrahi.

SPEAKER_00

So growing up a biracial refugee first generation student in a deeply racist and inequitable school district, I saw the worst that the system has to offer.

I devoted my life to dismantling systems of oppression.

But one thing that I've learned is that as much as I'm proud of my job, the labor movement is not going to do it.

The federal government is not going to come in and do it.

Big business is not going to do it.

Corporate philanthropy is not going to do it.

And the state government is not going to do it.

No one is going to save us but us.

The one tool we have is the education system.

It is the best tool that we have at our disposal to disrupt systems of oppression.

And we have to use it, and we have to use it very, very wisely.

We have a responsibility to do that.

I so appreciate all the time tonight, everyone listening.

I appreciate the board is making this a thorough and inclusive process, and I appreciate being considered for this role.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's pass it to Candidate Thompson.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

After hearing everyone tonight, I think you've got a lot of great choices and a hard decision.

I'm just going to try to recap a few things.

Again, I think we've got a lot to get through, but we need to make sure that we're not just in a crisis mindset.

This is a growth opportunity.

We know things are continuing to grow in this city.

We will take care of what's going on now, but build for the future.

And second, we need to prioritize our core business of serving those students, their academics, and we also need to be responsive to our families, the students, and our educators.

Safety and security, mental health and wellness, and having a good work environment.

We cannot solve all of society's ills in our schools today.

We take our steps to do our best, and we prepare our students to be leaders for the future.

So as we move forward, let's remember the importance of collaboration, transparency, and inclusivity.

We can work together to overcome those challenges, and I'm happy to be considered for this board director position.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's hear from candidate Clark.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you everyone again for the opportunity to be here tonight.

I feel so energized by this discussion and confident that no matter the outcome, the board will have two new intelligent, thoughtful, incredibly service-minded leaders.

And I know, at least for myself, that regardless of the outcome tonight, I will continue to engage in advocacy with our state and local elected officials to ensure that the district has funding to prosper on a long-term basis and really be able to create a culture of sustained student success and legacy.

If I am selected, I promise to advocate for you tirelessly, listen to your needs, Actively seek your feedback, celebrate our wins, our students' wins, be accessible, and lead with humility, integrity, and curiosity.

Thanks again.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Let's hear from candidate Gull.

SPEAKER_05

In five years, no one's going to remember my name, even if I've done an amazing job on the board.

And that's good, because I'm not the main character.

We're not the main characters.

Our students are the main characters.

We're just here to further the plot.

And so I really want to emphasize that you are the heroes of this story.

And we need to be your sidekicks.

You're Batman, we're Alfred.

We're just going to make sure that you have Band-Aids and that, you know, you can dark night as you can.

So I, again, my name is Danielle.

I'm a candidate for District 2. And I think I would be a really good sidekick.

SPEAKER_03

All right, thank you.

And finally, let's hear from Candidate Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01

All right, I'm the last one, I guess.

Yeah, first, thank you to the moderators.

You guys have done a really great job.

It's late.

It's a school night.

You guys are pitching into your community.

Thank you.

Also, thank you to the other candidates.

It's been, as a parent and community member, really heartening to listen to seven other people with great perspectives who bring something to the table that will be valuable if they're chosen on the board, in addition to the value I think I could bring.

And thank you to the board for facilitating this process and running a great show here.

So I think the Seattle Public School System faces many big challenges, but at the end of the day, it comes down to our kids and our community.

The idea that public schools should be a force for good in the community.

It should be a hub that brings people together and lifts them up no matter where they come from, what their background is, who they are.

It is public school.

It is for everyone and I would be excited to help facilitate that.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

And with that, that is the conclusion of the responses from our candidates tonight.

Thank you, sincere thank you to all of you for your thoughtful participation in this forum and to the board for collaborating with us on this very important event.

And I'm going to be turning it over to President Rankin for some concluding remarks.

SPEAKER_09

They're going to be brief.

So thank you to Ayush and Sai for moderating tonight's forum.

And thank you very much to our candidates for your thoughtful, caring answers.

On April 3rd, the school board will vote on appointment to the districts two and four positions during a regular school board meeting.

Thank you to everybody who joined us tonight.

The special meeting of the board is now adjourned at 8.06 p.m.