As The Stranger’s new parenting editor, Goldy is following up later this morning with his take of what went down at the debates last night, as I am both childless and mostly opinionless when it comes to school district politics. But for now, here’s the bare bones recap of what occurred.

After a series of Seattle Public School scandals involving everything from shuttered schools to mismanaged funds and fired superintendents, the big question at last night’s Seattle School Board debate before a crowd of over 200 concerned parents and teachers at Town Hall was: Do challengers Sharon Peaslee (running for North Seattle’s District 1 position), Kate Martin (Greenlake’s District 2), Michelle Buetow (Downtown’s District 3), and Marty McLaren (West Seattle’s District 6) have that special blend of competence and crazy (they fucking work for free) to make our school district, with its 48,000 school kids, second to none?

Host Dave Ross first led all of the challengers and incumbents Peter Maier, Sherry Carr, Harium Martin-Morris through a battery of questions, like: Should Teach for America students, armed with five-and-a-half weeks of training, be allowed to teach in Seattle’s schools? The four challengers answered no. The incumbents, yes.

Peaslee, Martin, Buetow, and McLaren also believe that individual schools in the district should have the power to craft their own curriculum, while the incumbents do not.

But the head-to-head debates that were the most convincing (after each, the 200-strong audience got to vote by text for a winner). The elusive mix of intelligent craziness shined the brightest in the race for District 2: Carr vs. Martin. When Carr denied that it was “passing the buck” to fire superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson after a parade of scandals, “I apologized,” she said, “I work a full time job.”

Martin hit back: “Goodloe-Johnson came from a puppy mill of superintendents that cranks them out with five weeks of training,” Martin said to applause from the crowd. “I know some of these people didn’t hire her but they should’ve been on the lookout. She brought criminals with her. At her performance review [with the school board], she failed to meet her 20 stated goals. But instead of showing her the door, they gave her a contract and a raise.”

After which, Martin won with 62 percent of the audience vote.

In the race for District 1, nebbish* incumbent Maier won 52 percent of the audience vote by explaining, among other things, the work he’s done (and will continue to do) to raise funds for Seattle’s schools.

“One reason the levy lid increased in Seattle was because I personally worked on that,” Maier said. “We need an income tax, we need tax reform, but until we get there we need to build relationships with the legislature and build the budget cap. It’s also important that we live within our means. In two years, we’ve reduced our central district staff by one-third, putting us in line with other school districts throughout Puget Sound.”

In comparison, Peaslee’s response, “I will structure a campaign, led by the school board, to propose solutions to increase funds to the state coffers,” fell short.

Watching District 3 challenger Buetow debate Martin-Morris was like watching a menopausal beauty queen argue with a yawn. In the end, the yawn won 53 percent of the public vote.

And finally, McLaren, who was debating herself (incumbent Steve Sundquist canceled due to a family emergency), won big applause by declaring that, “There is no reason whatsoever to have teach for America recruits in Seattle schools… This is an idea funded by wealthy people outside the city with an agenda that has nothing to do with the students of Seattle.” McLaren also hearts math and thinks closing the achievement gap takes a “comprehensive approach with wraparound services.” Sounds logical, if a bit vague.

In the end, McLaren’s race wasn’t voted on because some members in the audience argued that, “It wouldn’t be fair.” Because as in public schools and in life, text voting should always be fair.

*Goldy calls it as he sees it.

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17 replies on “Who Won Last Night’s Seattle School Board Debates?”

  4. “20-strong audience”? Dang. You made Keck shell out to rent Town Hall for this, when you could have held it at a coffee shop. Noble effort.

  9. Thanks to the Stranger for a terrific event. This format allowed for real back-and-forth between the candidates.

    The incumbents said and did some surprising things. They – surprisingly – advocated a change in the math curriculum – one that three of them voted for and all of them have stalwartly defended. They – surprisingly – advocated for making language immersion programs option schools (accessible to students from all around the district instead of just the immediate area around the school), although they have taken no action in this direction for three years.

    Peter Maier said that the district needed to replicate the success at Maple and Mercer, but I don’t think he knows what caused the success at those schools and I don’t think the Board could take any action to replicate it.

    Sherry Carr said that the Board needed to make sure that policies are followed, but she and her colleagues have never done that. She also said that the new student assignment plan has preserved choice – it has not.

    Harium Martin-Morris said that he represented diversity on the Board and that he is the voice of diverse communities. Wow! Four surprises in that. First, THWACK goes the race card. Second, Harium doesn’t speak for anyone because the man barely talks. Third, he represents a pretty affluent slice of Seattle – Sand Point, Wedgwood, Ravenna, Laurelhurst, Montlake, and Madison Park – so what’s the diversity? The rich and the very rich? Fourth, I don’t know anyone who has told me that Harium Martin-Morris speaks for them. He said that no oversight system was in place when he joined the Board. That’s not true and it is no excuse for him and his colleagues to do no oversight at all for the past four years.

  12. Goldy, c’mon

    “a menopausal beauty queen” – she’s nowhere near menopause. A nebbish, though, is kind of appropriate. It’s hard to describe Martin-Morris’ demeanor.

  14. Who cares? You childless people should care. (a) The school district and board spend your tax money. Badly, at the moment. (b) You are going to have to live with the products of Seattle Public Schools when they get out–you should care if they are functionally literate, or able to, say, make change properly at the coffee house. Or fix your car or get your meds right or build your tunnels well.

    It was about 200 turnout. Should have been higher.

    Who won? Kate Martin and Marty McLaren kicked ass. It’s too bad Steve Sundquist wasn’t there–I do hope all goes well with his family. But had he been there, McLaren would have blown him out of the water.

    Sadly, Sharon Peaslee (who has spoken well elsewhere) did not show well against Peter Maier. Too much attacking Maier (granted, there is a lot to attack there), too little new plans. Somehow, Maier for once did not sound like a graduate of the Rick Perry/George Bush school or elecution.Unfortunately, Maier’s answer to everything (like fixing the achievement gap) is to just throw more money around. No wonder his crowning achievement is getting levies passed.

    Kate Martin was strong, knowlegible and is a total policy wonk, which is exactly what the school board needs. Sherry Carry, who usually comes across as one of the more effective board members, sounded defensive and tired. Far less contest there than expected. And #10 is right, how did the new assignment plan “preserve choice”?

    Michele Buetow talked so much about the reputation of Seattle Public Schools she started to sound like a Victorian mother. It must have been her marketing background coming through. She needs to talk more about solving the problems that bring that bad reputation. Yep, Harrium Martin-Morris played the “diversity” card a few times (he mentioned “my diverse background” What–that he was a ballroom dancer? How is he, personally, diverse? Multiple personality disorder?) Buetow missed the boat on the question of lowering the graduation standard to a “D” average. Martin-Morris said students who pass should be able to graduate, but the problem is that a D is a 60%, which, not too long ago, was NOT a passing grade. (in SPS, a B-, for example is an 80, a C is 73. There is a sudden jump to D as 60%. This is all eye-glazing, but it means Martin-Morris and his cohorts made a new allegedly passing grade out of what was formerly failing, presumably to improve the “graduation” rate in Seattle high schools.) Buetow should have hit him on the facts.

    Marty McLaren is also strong and knowledgible. Probably because whe was a teacher, she is able to go from seeming warm and fun to steely take-no-bull strength in an instant. Boy, would she be good at school board meetings. (She did kinda bobble a question about the city helping the school district.)

    So, two very strong challengers, two who look reasonable, even if they didn’t shine as brightly. These four incumbents are the weaker half of the board, let’s hope at least a few go away.

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