2003 Candidate Questionnaire

 

SECTION I               

 

BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION

 

1.      Name as it will appear on the ballot

 

First Name

Middle Initial or Nick Name

Last Name

Sally

J.

Soriano

 

2.   Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):

 

Seattle Public School District #1, School Board, Position #1

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  

 

 

4.   How long have you resided in this district/city?

 

17 years/47 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

47 years

 

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?               Nonpartisan         

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

Campaign Name:

Parents, Students & Teachers for Sally Soriano

 

Address:

 

2343 NW 100th St

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Seattle, WA 98177

 

Campaign Phone:

 

(206) 782-8292

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

(206) 782-8292

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

sally@voteforsally.or

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

voteforsally.org

 

 

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

 

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)

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

2.   If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:

 

Office Title

Year of Run

Seattle School District #1, School Board Position #4

 

2001

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 


 


SECTION III

 

In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge.  These are defined as follows:

 

  • Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employment or public life to suggest readiness to accomplish challenging objectives? How do these activities demonstrate readiness for the challenges unique to the office sought?

 

  • Effectiveness: Has the candidate demonstrated promise of being productive in the office sought?  Has the candidate shown the ability to work with other people?

 

  • Character: Do the candidate's personal traits show the ability to take on the responsibilities of campaigning for and holding the public office she or he is seeking? Is the candidate a leader, participant or observer?  Is the candidate trustworthy, reliable and candid?

 

  • Knowledge: Has the candidate demonstrated the willingness and ability to learn and adapt?  Does the candidate understand the duties and challenges of the office sought?  Does the candidate have a firm grasp of the issues important to his or her constituency and their potential effects?

 

 

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.)

 

I am running for school board because the Seattle School District crisis has come as the result of the current School Board rubber stamping the former superintendent’s narrow agenda. Teachers and students did not create this crisis, but they have been made to carry the burden. This must stop. There are three ways I would stabilize the district: 1) make this district teacher/student centered by allocating the bulk of the education dollars into the school sites, 2) go to teachers, parents, students, community, and advocates in higher education for their advice on how to improve the learning experience, and 3) solve the problems of unequal education 4by creating optimum conditions in every classroom.

 

The current punitive standardization testing model, the selling out to the commercialization of our schools and looking at teachers and students as deficits or problems to be fixed— is the former superintendent’s narrow agenda. It has proven to be a failed experiment.

 

As a pubic interest lobbyist and former College of Education teacher, I am committed to creating a Seattle School system that is collaborative, equitable, student/teacher centered and democratic.

 


 

2.      Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.

 

•straightforward - I have a proven track record in articulating a clear plan, thus minimizing misunderstanding. I also have the ability to follow through in carrying out that plan and adapting the plan to unforeseen circumstances.

 

•collaboration and open communication - I am committed to taking in and seeking the valid insights of community and other board members.

 

•skilled at the art of persuasion - After putting together a plan with others, I have the ability to clearly state the arguments necessary to explain and justify the plan before the board and peers.

 

•self-reflective - New facts and new experiences are excellent opportunities to constantly critique my own position and to creatively change my position when the community  expresses a need and desire to adapt to new circumstances.

 

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. 

 

•Tutoring My Niece - Because of incredible teachers, my niece (8th grader last year) has excellent writing, math and critical thinking skills. She was also taught to understand that every student has a different ensemble of gifts which has fostered a sense of humility in her. I’ve been able to help her appreciate the process and content of learning. It was also an immense learning process for me to help a young child learn what was wrong with how other students used their learning to engage in one-upmanship whether it was on the playground or in the classroom. Such an attitude is important to carry into the community if we are to change the way we think about learning and its role in our society.

 

•Educating the Community about  U.S. Trade Policy - Through educating the public about how both NAFTA and WTO have the authority to overturn our democratically enacted laws, I used the skills of communication in various media and educated my fellow citizens on the importance of community-wide deliberation on these institutions of immense importance to us all.

 

•Creating a University Department Based in the Milwaukee Community - I help create the department of Community Education at the University of Wisconsin, which was committed to an innovative social policy curriculum. We developed five early childhood centers throughout the Milwaukee community. Courses were taught in these centers in the first year of the undergraduate degree program, so that marginalized and lower income students would experience an ownership of and a participation in the life of this public institution. What I came to understand in the process of developing this department, was that learning is not simply planning the educational process around the content of a student’s experience. Rather learning came to be associated with the wider community process.


 

 

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.

 

•Tutored in the math lab at South Seattle Community College (1982-84) - I have first hand experience of the roles and responsibilities of being in a teaching position there. Such a perspective enables me to better understand the framework and concerns that teachers communicate to board members.

 

•Taught a WTO-Fair trade curriculum to teachers, college instructors and trade unionists (1998-99) - Again, I know what it is like to be a teacher, so this puts me in a better position to be able to understand and deal with an educator’s concerns as opposed to looking at educational issues from the self-interest of the board or of the bureaucracy. I also feel, from this experience, that I would be better able to help teachers address the public, such as at PTA meetings, etc., because I have had teaching experience.

 

•Made numerous fair trade presentations and participated in debates at schools, union halls and churches (1992-2001) - These skills will help me defend the deliberations and decisions of the school board because of my ability to clearly lay out the facts  of the issues at hand.

 

•Attempted to start a union in my workplace (1989-90) - I helped bring together people from my workplace to explore starting a union.  Here I learned the critical skills of bargaining and conflict resolution.

 

•Campaign manager for state legislator (2002) - I engaged in extensive discussions with elected officials at the Congressional, state, county and city levels. Through such experiences, I will be able to communicate effectively with elected representative s to advance the vision and projects that the school board has developed for the future well-being of Seattle’s children.

 

•Worked with city-wide coalition on Seattle School issues (CEASE/SOS) - Here I have learned the skills of public outreach.

 

 

 

  1. Please describe the duties of the office you seek.  Which are the most important duties and why?

 

In order of priority:

 

1. provide oversight - As a board member I would have the fiduciary responsibility to make sure the board is run in accordance with state law and with city regulations. If a board member is incapable of carrying out the mandates of the law, it is unlikely that they will be able to prioritize any of the issues of importance regarding the future of the Seattle School system.

 

2. attend board meetings and ask detailed questions on agenda items  - Critical participation is a must for all board members; a board that has fallen prey to group-think and “yes” people, is a dysfunctional board.

 

3. represent the students (actually they should have their own representation at the board level) teachers, parents and community - The current board has a history of using the budget to serve the bureaucracy and its own narrow agenda. I am running so that the budget process is as transparent as possible and allocates the funds and other tools to put the needs of students and teachers first.

 

4. check policies, make sure they are working, if not fix them - As a board member, my responsibility is to assure that policies are implemented in a fair and equitable manner and are adapted to demands of the public. Failure to address this administrative priority would result in a dysfunctional school board.

 

5. conflict resolution - I would not set up situations, as the current board has, of playing community groups off each other. The current board has asserted that there is not enough money in the budget.  A critical project is having all parties adequately informed and educated as to the disbursement of funds so that not only may teachers have the resources they need to educate students but also to ensure that teachers, community members and students have a greater understanding of our current budget constraints.

 

While these items are prioritized in terms of a list, the actual day to day responsibility of a school board member entail a mutual balancing of all of them.

 


 

EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

 

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.

 

     

 

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT SUMMARY

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.

 

     

 

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.

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CAMPAIGN!

 

THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF KING COUNTY

 

Candidate Evaluation Coordinator:  Rebecca Cooper

 

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                  Phone: 206-622-8333                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

Seattle, WA 98104-1614                        Fax: 425-671-0506                        Website: www.munileague.org