1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
Last Name |
2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
3. Are you the incumbent? Yes No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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46 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Committee to Elect Linda Thompson-Black for Seattle School Board District 7 |
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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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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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1) As a Seattle School Board member, I will work to: 1) make academic excellence for all children our schools’ top priority, focusing on reading, math and science; 2) focus the board on solving the district’s financial crisis; and 3) fill the leadership gap and ensure strong management district-wide.
It is unacceptable that 50% of Seattle Public Schools students don’t graduate with their class. Schools must work for all students and families. Schools must be welcoming and supportive of all our diverse student body and they must be held accountable for academic achievement of every child.
Parents are key. They must be involved in schools and the decisions that affect their sons and daughters. My husband and I made it our priority to be involved in our two daughters’ educations. Both daughters are successful graduates of Seattle Public Schools who went on to the University of Washington. I served as PTSA president of South Shore. My husband and I founded and led an organization of parents for eight years that focused on reducing the academic achievement gap, particularly in math, at Franklin High School. For the past 15 years I have been a drop out prevention strategist with Communities in Schools in Seattle and other West Coast communities. So I have an up-close-and-personal understanding of the needs of both high achieving students and students at high risk of failing and dropping out. Meeting the needs of our wide range of students is Seattle Public Schools’ biggest challenge -- and opportunity.
In my professional life, I earned my BA and Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington. I was the business manager at the Seattle Aquarium, and then the Seattle Zoo, where I wrote, managed and balanced large public budgets. Seattle Mayor Norm Rice tapped me to organize the city-wide Education Summit, the result of which was the Seattle Families and Education Levy, which has been approved by voters three times. In my work for Communities in Schools I have worked with school communities throughout the West Coast. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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2) In virtually all of my work the key to success has been building consensus among people with diverse, sometimes competing interests. So I have become skilled at encouraging people who may be mistrustful to get involved, listening to and recognizing the contributions of others, focusing on building agreement around core values, and then proposing concrete action steps. I am by disposition fundamentally hopeful and positive; my father always tells me I’m the world’s longest living optimist. But I trace my pragmatic streak to my father; talk is not a substitute for action. It’s seems natural for me to build consensus around education issues. All of my family shares a deep commitment to education. My grandmother on my mother’s side was the daughter of slaves in rural Mississippi, was mostly self-taught and an avid reader. She raised 9 children to adulthood; each was a high school valedictorian, and each graduated from college. It’s her vision for her children that inspires me to this day. |
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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4) As a parent leader at South Shore Middle School and at Franklin High School, I honed my communicating and organizing skills developing strategies to address the needs of high achieving students, like my daughters, and those classmates who were at high risk of failing and dropping out. Specifically we focused on math: demanding more challenging courses and organizing after school tutoring programs. I learned a good deal about removing barriers that keep many parents from getting involved. In a few cases, individual teachers actively resisted parent involvement. Too often, it was parents who didn’t understand what they could do to support and encourage their students to achieve academically. Other parents just worked hard to support their children in school all the time. From my years of involvement in schools, I have learned to relate to the needs and hopes of students and parents across the community. As business manager at the Seattle Zoo in charge of writingand managing the budget, I learned how important it is for a public agency to align its resources with its programmatic goals. This sounds like it should be easy, but it takes leadership to get all departments to focus on a few key goals and to resist built-in momentum to distribute resources evenly across the agency. At the zoo we wanted to revamp our education program to make it easier for schools, community groups and parents to participate - and far more kid-friendly. And today, because we invested in making our education program more inviting, there is an ever-expanding base of enthusiastic zoo docents, volunteers, and donors, and zoo attendance – and revenues – are up.
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5) The duties of school board members are very clear: (1) Hire, fire and evaluate the superintendent. (2) Provide fiscal leadership and oversight, specifically: approve the operating and capital budgets, approve operating and capital ballot measures, approve all bargaining contracts; closely monitor routine financial reports and annual audits. (3) Set district-wide policies governing academics, personnel, safety and student behavior, parent involvement, etc.
Each of these duties is equally important. If the board doesn’t establish clear priorities, it can’t properly evaluate, hire or fire the superintendent. Nor can the district focus its financial resources if the board doesn’t align its policies with its priorities. Finally if the board doesn’t deliver the resources that are needed, the superintendent, principals, and teachers can’t do their jobs effectively.
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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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Graduate of Franlin High School, Graduate of University of Washington with a Masters in Public Administration. |
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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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