Sharon Peaslee
Running for School Board District 1
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?
I would hold Administration 100% accountable and require that operations and controls be strengthened so that we know how our money is being spent. If any reports or expenditures seem questionable I would investigate them. I would bring to the attention of other School Board Directors any possible mismanagement that diverts funds away from meeting the needs of our students.
I would push to revise priorities so that we are funding from the classroom up. Classroom and school level spending would be highest priority, providing all necessary student supports. Funds beyond that would be used to cover other costs in a prioritized manner. Any costs that don't have proven value in supporting student needs will be on the chopping block. We have no funds available for non-essential spending and bloated bureaucracy.
I'm also in favor of creating a citizen oversight committee to review district budgets. This exists in Bainbridge and has gone far to increase transparency and improve spending decisions.
Additionally I would push to have all district documents that the public can legally view posted to a website for easy public access, review and input. I believe that allowing greater public scrutiny and input is the most effective way to restore integrity to our district operations and administration.
How will you shield children in the classroom from the impact of district budget cuts?
I will make classroom needs the highest priority. Keeping enough teachers in the classroom, keeping class size down, providing teachers with the very best teaching materials and professional development will be the highest priorities.
School level supports such as guidance counselors, support for special needs students, support for struggling students, and the development of compelling academic programs will also be highest priority. Cuts will have to come from areas that don't directly impact students. There are many ways this can be done. I will work with other School Board members and district administration to comb through all district budgets, cutting programs and positions that don't help us meet the learning needs of our students.
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.
Susan Enfield will go through a thorough review process with the new School Board. It would be unfair to pre-judge her without participating in that complete process. That being said, we need a Superintendent who is completely transparent and collaborative.
I'm very disturbed at the ongoing double-speak and tokenism with regards to the relationship between Central Administration and school communities. The Administration continues to obstruct parents, groups of citizens, teachers and principals in their attempts to bring about improvements to programs and curricula. Communications is completely top-down with rhetorical pronouncements that deny the obvious obstructions. Token surveys do not engage communities in a truly collaborative process, but merely give the impression of community involvement.
I am in favor of looking at a number of other candidates, and we have some excellent ones currently working in the District. I would much prefer that our next Superintendent come from within our own community, and I think we should explore all possible candidates before launching a national search. I'm not opposed to considering candidates from elsewhere if they bring with them a very real and determined commitment to work with and serve the greater Seattle community. I just think we're more likely to find this among people who are already rooted here with strong local ties.
I'm very opposed to hiring any Superintendent who is committed to the current top-down governance that makes decisions without engaging teachers, principals, parents and citizens in genuine, transparent collaboration. This is an enormous disservice to our district and our communities and needs to be completely reversed by the next School Board and Superintendent.
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 would restore Site Councils or some similar governing body at every school. These would consist of elected members from the school community who would work with the School Board in making decisions that impact their school and children. They would include parents, teachers, administration and concerned citizens. They would work with the same information the School Board has in considering important decisions such as capacity, curriculum, special needs, new program development. I would push to require that School Board directors meet with representatives of these councils on a regular basis and make decisions that reflect their input.
As a School Board Director I would also meet with other groups in the community who may not be comfortable participating in this manner. These meetings would be arranged by members of the community in whatever manner is most comfortable for their group.
And I would be available to meet with individuals or groups informally.
What is your opinion on the Teach for America teachers coming into SPS? Are there enough qualified teachers applying for SPS positions?
I'm completely opposed to Teach for America. It's not wise to put inexperienced, inadequately trained teachers in our most demanding classrooms. It's an ill-conceived program that somehow assumes that their elite recruits don't need thorough training to do the extremely demanding job of teaching an entire classroom of students. These recruits should be trained as thoroughly as any other teacher. The turnover rate in this program is extremely high, with few TFA recruits teaching beyond 2 years. Most are gone before they even achieve competence in the classroom.
We do not have a teacher shortage in Seattle. We have many willing and able teachers applying for every open position.
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?
We need to prioritize capital funds to meet student needs first. The district has a $500mil backlog of maintenance needs, and we contribute to this by ignoring routine needs in schools currently being used. When regular maintenance is deferred the problems become bigger and more expensive. So we need to make it highest priority to maintain schools currently in use, with retrofitting and renovations of those buildings as our next priority. Larger capital projects should follow these, as far as priorities are concerned.
We should look at properties that are in such disrepair that the district will never be able to renovate them, and put these in a category to be considered if it becomes necessary to sell real estate in order to raise capital. We should not sell schools that could be needed in the future, or those that are currently generating revenues and serving the communities by virtue of their tenants.
What changes (if any) do you think are needed in the district's new student assignment plan?
We need to increase choice and balance it with the benefits of neighborhood assignment. Choice used to be one of the great attributes of our system. We need to be sure we retain it. We need to revisit the changes that were made in assuring a seat in your neighborhood school and build more flexibility into the new system. Students should be able to choose schools outside their neighborhood with greater certainty that they'll be able to get into those schools. Students living closer to a school than the one they're assigned to should be able to choose the closer school.
I would push for gray zones between neighborhood schools where families in those zones could opt for either school. I'd also push for a higher number of choice seats in all schools.
It's completely unfair to require that students attend an undesirable school just because of the boundaries of the neighborhood assignment plan. We need to develop compelling programs in all schools and address issues that are making some undesirable. Ideally all schools should act as magnets, attracting students in the neighborhood and beyond it. A good balance of neighborhood and choice would result in a wider range of options for all students, and much greater satisfaction for people preferring either neighborhood or choice.
What do you think is the district's number one problem and how would you try to solve it?
The greatest core problem is the top-down governance, which has spawned a wide array of related problems. Over the past five years the district has swung to centralized control, taking decision-making authority away from principals, teachers and parent/guardians. All important decisions concerning capacity, funding, curriculum, programs, assignment, etc are being made at the top with token involvement of the communities, usually far into the processes.
We see that most decisions don't reflect the views and expertise of parents, teachers, principals. We see Central Admin obstructing parents, and intimidating principals and teachers—when these groups are working very hard to bring about badly needed improvements. We see them ignoring the information, data, pleas of parents who are desperately trying to bring about better decisions for their schools and children. And repeatedly we see that this top down governance is hurting our schools, communities and district by the poor quality of decisions that are being made.
I'm completely committed to flipping this top-down approach to one that works in genuine partnership with school communities. I'll push for the revival of Site Councils or other governing bodies at every school that consist of elected parents, teachers and other community members. These bodies will work with School Board Directors in a fully collaborative mode, with complete transparency of process and information—in making all important decisions that impact our schools and children.
School Board Directors must represent the views of their constituents in their decision making. They must be transparent, collaborative and visionary—providing both oversight and foresight to the leadership of the district. This is what I'll bring to the job.
