UPDATE 12/2/2024:
Seattle School Board President Liza Rankin is “relieved” and will keep her gavel for now. On Monday, a King County Superior Court judge dismissed an attempted recall initiated by five Seattle parents. The recall petition, submitted last month, accused Rankin of violating her oath of office and malfeasance in her handling of district planning around potential school closures.
Judge Michael Scott said the petition lacked the proof to substantiate its allegations. He added that while the allegations levied against Rankin in the petition were not trivial, it was the court’s job to ensure public officials were not harassed by unsubstantiated charges in a court setting. The judge found that the petition did meet the standard of proof.
Five Seattle parents filed the petition to recall Seattle School Board president Liza Rankin, saying she mishandled the now year-long SPS deficit reduction planning process. The process has focused on closing and consolidating buildings to fill a nearly $100 million district shortfall expected in 2025-26.
“We allege several distinct ways in which Director Rankin demonstrated malfeasance, and violation of her oath of office,” the parents wrote in the petition. “Director Rankin has not met her responsibilities to the citizens of the School District, or, most critically, to the children she is charged with educating.”
Petition alleged a mismanaged process
Specifically, the parents accused Rankin of overseeing a process that:
- Adopted a rushed and improper process for closing schools,
- Repeatedly failed to provide transparency and community engagement on decisions critical to the well-being of the District,
- Failed to perform the basic oversight of the District expected of any Board Director,
- Failed to uphold the responsibilities of the School Board to ensure the District delivers student educational outcomes.
- Closed the Interagency Academy without following proper procedure
“Each of these repeated failures not only rises to the level of violation of oath of office, they endanger the future of Seattle Public Schools,” the parent petitioners wrote, “they hinder and undermine the education of Seattle’s children, and they do damage to the public’s trust in a foundational civic institution.”
In a November 13 report in the Seattle Times, Rankin said she had received the petition but is not responsible for the board’s actions any more than any other board director: “My vote has no more weight than any other board member,” she said in the report. As board president, my job is to run the meeting,” Director Rankin told the Times.
Who filed the petition?
The five parent petitioners include:
- Janai Ray, a parent of three children in Seattle Public Schools, says she is committed to ensuring every child has access to a high-quality education in a safe, supportive environment.
- Rebekah Binns is a parent of a toddler, kindergartener, and 1st grader at Graham Hill Elementary School. Binns has worked as an SPS teacher in high-poverty schools and as the Community Engagement Coordinator at Byrd Barr.
- Annie Becker has four kids in SPS. Becker is a public health research scientist and a kinship care provider. Becker is the co-advocacy chair at Sacagawea Elementary School.
- Nancy Bacon teaches nonprofit governance. In her petition website profile, Bacon says the “school board exists to ensure accountability to our community, our laws, taxpayers, and most importantly our kids; Seattle Public School deserves the kind of leadership that builds public trust. President Rankin has failed in her duty to provide it.”
- Ben Gitenstein is a SPS parent and a former candidate for the school board.
The petition charged that Rankin “acted arbitrarily and capriciously by advancing a knowingly flawed school closure process…based on misleading and questionable cost-saving assumptions.”
A breach of state law?
Further, the petition charges that on April 6, 2022, Director Rankin led a meeting where directors voted to approve the closure of three instructional program sites for Interagency Academy Schoo without conducting requisite community meetings or gathering public input. The vote occurred at the same meeting at which the closure proposal was introduced. The petition says that the action violated state law under Rankin’s board leadership.
RCW 28A.335.020 requires that a school district “conduct hearings to receive testimony from the public on any issues related to the closure of any school for instructional purposes during the 90 days before a school district’s final decision upon any school closure, the school board of directors shall conduct hearings to receive testimony from the public on any issues related to the closure of any school for instructional purposes.”
A failed petition filed in 2021 sought to recall six School Board members, including Rankin.
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