1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
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2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
3. Are you the incumbent? No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
5. How long have you
resided in
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30 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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1. Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held. Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.
Public Office |
Elective or Appointive? |
Dates Held |
Leadership Role (if any) |
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[Have served on nonprofit boards]
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2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge. These are defined as follows:
1. In a page or less, why are you running for this office? (Note: the interview committee will be given a copy of this statement before your interview; at the beginning of your interview you will have the opportunity to expand on this statement in any way you wish.)
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I am running to bring leadership and integrity to the School Board in order to re-establish public trust in our School District and our democracy. This is not only a time of fiscal crisis and mismanagement in our District, but children's health, welfare and education have been put at risk by the policies and carelessness of our school board.
As a career educator and successful education activist, I am uniquely positioned to help get our district back on track. I bring a deep knowledge of education from a variety of perspectives: classroom teacher, researcher, program director, teacher educator, educational administrator, and learner. (I myself am the product of public schools from First grade through Ph.D). I also bring a very broad base of community support due to 30 years of active participation in my Ravenna neighborhood, the Scandinavian-American community, the city and state. My ability to connect with people and bring constituencies together is reflected in my list of supporters-- parents, teachers, students, health care professionals, leaders in ethnic communities, labor groups, and others. I have the endorsement of the Seattle Education Association, King County Labor Council, and other organizations.I also have longevity in our District as the parent of two Seattle public schools students--14 years of active involvement including serving as PTA president, VP on Seattle Council of PTSAs, heading two statewide PTA committees, and serving on two School District committees.
We face many important issues and challenges in our District but I am focusing my campaign on the three fundamental, underlying issues. My highest priority is to address these systemic challenges and I have specific proposals to bring on each: ACCOUNTABILITY for finances and decisions; RESPONSIVENESS to the community, including those inside the school buildings; and strong and effective ADVOCACY for public schools including appropriate and adequate funding.
The School Board is not a tea party. Our decisions affect the daily lives and the futures of 47,000 children. Fundamentally, this campaign is about the care and nurturing of the most precious resource in our society-- our children. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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1. LEADERSHIP. I believe in people (including children), and my desire to honor their time and talent comes through. Because I care, I look ahead to see where our path is taking us, where we want to go, and what obstacles are coming up. The School Board needs this kind of vision and analysis--we do not want a board that will micromanage or rubberstamp the recommendations of the Superintendent, but a Board that can guide the course of the District over the long term, and can model the kind of communication and human relations we expect from everyone. Because I am candid, I connect with people in an authentic way, even when we disagree.
2. TRUSTWORTHINESS/RELIABILITY. I have served as an officer on a number of nonprofit organizations and have significantly improved every one of them. I believe in collective decision making and have demonstrated my ability to follow through and ensure that others follow-through. I have organized state and national conferences and understand why these are valuable traits.
3. QUICK LEARNER. The School District is a complex organism, currently in a crisis of its own making. It is critical that our school board members can get up to speed very quickly. With a doctorate in applied linguistics, I have demonstrated my ability to analyze and synthesize large amounts of information. As head of a nonprofit organization which I founded, I am an effective communicator and a creative, critical thinker. My specialty is not answers, but questions. |
3. Please describe in sufficient detail, one to three accomplishments or contributions of which you are most proud. These examples should illustrate effective skills and capabilities you think apply to the office you are seeking. These accomplishments may have occurred at any time in your personal, professional, or public life.
4. Please list or describe your current and past activities in the community in which you have acquired skills that relate to the office you seek. Include your role in the activity and the year(s) in which you were involved. Involvement consists of many areas such as family, neighborhood, community, employment, or public life.
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1. EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION. I developed and ran the graduate programs for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the School of Education at Seattle University (1996-99). In 1983-84, I was Acting Director of the ESL Program for University of Washington Extension. In these positions I developed skills including budgeting, outreach and marketing, supervision of teaching and support staff, long-range planning, public relations and management of day-to-day operations. These skills will help me appreciate and work with central staff to implement our Board-adopted policies.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. I co-founded and direct a large, grassroots, statewide, nonprofit citizen advocacy group which has been successful in meeting our own goals and in inspiring others (Citizens' Campaign for Commercial Free Schools) 1997-present. As PTA President of Washington Middle School (1994-96) and officer of the Green Party of Seattle (2000-02), I restructured these organizations and greatly improved our ability to meet our goals. This involved helping educate fellow board members about boardsmanship and motivate them to collectively develop the by-laws and procedures which would make us more effective. Much of this work involved building coalitions and involving volunteers, which is also the secret to running an effective school district.
3. POLICY ENFORCEMENT. I led the successful effort to make the Seattle School District comply with federal law regarding student privacy rights vis a vis military marketing in schools (Nov. 02-Feb. 03) as well as enforcing their own commercialism policy (Nov. 01-Feb. 03). This work involved investigating the current situation, analyzing the source of the problem, bringing the problems to the attention of the board and staff, and using the media to bring problems to the public when the board and staff ignored them. My ability to analyze and persist and hold staff accountable for enforcing the law and their own policies will be an asset to the District.
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1. Represent constituents The School Board members are our elected representatives and must maintain good two-way communication with their constituents--both seeking input and also helping educate them on issues affecting their children and resources. Board members must strike a balance between representing their own geographical community (Position/district) and the city as a whole. 2. Set policy The Board must actively seek and make use of all available information--resources, best practices, current data-- in order to set (and update) policies which reflect the values of the community. These policies must reflect an overall vision for public education, and a deep awareness of social justice and the role of public education in a democracy. 3. Ensure that policies are implemented/enforced The Board must build productive, open and honest relationships with the Superintendent and oversee that the District is being run legally, efficiently, and responsibly. This includes fiduciary responsibility and stewardship of other resources, time, and talent. 4. Advocate for children's needs The Board must be an active, public face for the District, and be willing and able to tell the story of our successes and challenges in Olympia and elsewhere. |
EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY
The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report is distributed to voters in print and/or on our website. It includes a summary of the candidate’s education. Please summarize your education in 120 characters (letters, punctuation, and space all combined). The League will delete material that exceeds the space limit by beginning with the last entry. Suggested order is (degree) (subject) (school) (year, if desired).
Note: If this question is left blank the League will not include education information in your candidate profile.
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Ph.D. Applied Linguistics UCLA 1986; M.A. Linguistics U.W. 1979; M.A. Scandinavian Languages and Literature U.W. 1973 |
FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT
The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report also includes a summary of each candidate’s civic involvement. Please summarize your civic involvement in the space below. We will make every attempt to include the information in the Candidate Evaluation Report as submitted. Due to space restrictions in the Report, your response is limited to 500 characters (letters, punctuation, and spaces all combined). It is important that you list your involvement beginning with the most important and ending with the least important. If you exceed the length of response permitted, or if the League should find it necessary to shorten responses for publication purposes, deletions will be made beginning with the last item listed.
Note: This information will appear verbatim on the League’s Candidate Evaluation Report. If this question is left blank, the Municipal League will not include information on your civic involvement in the Report.
Check here if you would like the Municipal League to copy the first 500 characters from Question 4 to paste into this section.
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A career educator, I am experienced in classroom teaching (30 years), teacher education (12 years) and educational administration (4 years). As an education activist, I led the successful effort to remove Channel One and other advertising from Seattle Schools, and spearheaded the grassroots effort to limit junk food in public schools. A Seattle schools parent, I am co-founder and director of the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools and former officer of Seattle Council PTSA. |
Finished!
If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (rebecca@munileague.org). Mail and fax numbers are listed below. If the League has not contacted you to schedule an interview, please call the League office at your earliest convenience.
Don’t forget to send the following to the Municipal League: a resume, a photo, campaign literature, and, if you are an incumbent, constituent newsletters and other materials. Please use the check-off list on the cover sheet of this packet to indicate which items you have sent.
Candidate Evaluation Coordinator: Rebecca Cooper
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: 425-671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org