Kate Martin
Running for School Board District 2
What have you done or what would you do to ensure that adequate financial controls are in place at the district? How do you plan to ensure that the information you receive about financial issues and other SPS issues from SPS staff is accurate?
Relentless audit of not just money, but mission.
It's not just financial controls that we need. We need to stay in the big picture long enough to fully realize our broad brush follies. We're actually off-course with public education, not only in Seattle, but nationwide. It's absurd that drilling for bubble tests in 2 subjects is the norm and bewildering that bubble test scores are the measurement of success. The ship has hit an iceberg, yet we're straightening the chairs instead of manning the lifeboats.
That said, on the path forward, I'm interested in zero balance budgeting that is responsive to the actual needs of students and their families, not more of the same shenanigans where admin and management remains untouchable no matter how miserable the results of their ill-founded strategies. We need a reset of the budgeting, not a round of tweaking.
We're still way too heavy at the top. Seattle is a bit more of a bottom up context than most of the people hired from out of town realize. A more lateral organizational structure with fewer bureaucrats protecting their positions would be useful, efficient, frugal and effective.
We are completely underutilizing the idea of collaborating with families on education. The standardization debacle tries to widget-ize both students and teachers and fails to acknowledge the importance of home and squanders opportunities for collaborating with families. That's nonsense.
How will you shield children in the classroom from the impact of district budget cuts?
Maximize the collaboration of families and volunteers.
I'd like to fully explore opportunities to make sure students get their per pupil funding instead of the money being squandered in directions that are not student-centric.
I propose mentors for all students K-12 so that students and families have an advocate and so that students can craft their own personal development plans with their families and then navigate continuously toward their goals both at school and at home.
Do you support keeping Susan Enfield on as Superintendent? Should Seattle conduct a national search for a superintendent? Why or why not on both questions.
No, I don't. We need candidates with a track record of real success who will hire people with a track record of real success. Bubble test score manipulators are taking us further backward. We need people who are fully qualified and who understand real education, real teaching and real learning. Bubble tests are not that.
Additionally, Susan Enfield told me she doesn't fact check resumés. The executive director of schools positions require 5 years of principal experience minimum. She hired one with 1 year of principal experience in a school with 50 students. That is unacceptable.
A national search? Possibly, but I'd also like to consider the idea of a home grown variety this time. Last national search brought us Maria Goodloe-Johnson who was certainly unqualified. Certainly I'd like to avoid anyone from any of the puppy mill "superintendent academies" like Broad.
This is Seattle, not Charleston, not Philadelphia, not Chicago, not Atlanta. These folks that fly in briefly on their way to their next $50K raise with ideas that have never worked anywhere anytime are not needed here. We need strong track records of real success in real education.
How do you plan to reach out to parents who feel frustrated or unheard with the school board or SPS administration? What new ideas do you have about public engagement, particular with SPS parents?
I don't think connecting parents to their children's education is a public engagement project.
My proposal for mentors for each and every student K-12 could really help parents bust through the exclusionary practices of SPS where math night, symposiums, workshops, rallies and such are standard issue in lieu of real relationships with students and their families.
What is your opinion on the Teach for America teachers coming into SPS? Are there enough qualified teachers applying for SPS positions?
Teach for America could be Assistant Teach for America, but it's not. We could use these folks to help in the classrooms, but as the teachers of record, I say no.
We have hundreds of qualified teachers applying for each teaching position; we're hardly in a desperate situation where we'd need to hire untrained newbies.
Many of our schools have needed re-building, retrofitting and repair. What can be done to ensure that capital funds are used appropriately in the future to this end?
Less politics and more pragmatism with BEX. Also, within the BEX, less cronyism. Additionally, I think we can tone down the over-the-top approach to rebuilding our schools and take a more fiscally conservative and frugal approach. These projects and their change orders have become a gravy train for the contractors. It would be great if safety was prioritized.
What changes (if any) do you think are needed in the district's new student assignment plan?
We've concentrated poverty with the plan and that won't work. Poverty currently equates with children arriving at school unprepared. It punishes the kids who are prepared as they will not get the attention and challenge that they need. I would prefer a plan that guarantees a spot at a neighborhood school, but also offers more options for students to attend outside their assignment so we can mix it up a little bit.
What do you think is the district's number one problem and how would you try to solve it?
We're completely underchallenging nearly 80% of the students. If you are a student and you don't have an IEP and you're not APP, then you're probably getting no attention. That is most students.
I would introduce mentors K-12 who can help kids to identify their gifts and deficits and work with their parents to craft an individual development plan so that there is a path to navigate education both in school and at home.
