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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42 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Carr For Seattle's Kids |
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Address: |
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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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Seattle Public Schools Superintendent's Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence (CACIEE)
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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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Three primary reasons: 1. Academic outcomes for all children are not what
they need to be in Seattle Public Schools, especially where a significant
achievement gap exists between the races. We can do better for our kids.
While pockets of excellence exist in the Seattle Public Schools and while
improvements in academic outcomes have been demonstrated for some of our
students, achievement levels must be raised. A high quality public
education is an imperative for a successful and democratic society. Further,
for many of our children in Seattle a quality public education represents the
opportunity to change their lives. We can and must deliver on this responsibility. 2. Public confidence in our school system has
faltered, and it must be restored. There is documented information that
tells us that our Seattle citizens and voters have lost confidence in our
school system. Voter turnout for the February, 2007 levy was down
significantly (over 10K fewer votes cast), and volunteer and donor support
were also down from previous years. The results of the voter survey
commissioned by Schools First evidenced deep dissatisfaction with the School
Board and the District leadership. Voters and parents have always been
supportive of our public schools in Seattle, and we need to regain their
trust. The School Board and District leadership need to demonstrate solid
governance, strong leadership and instill a culture of accountability of this
public institution, and that they can work in genuine partnership with
parents, unions, the business community and other community organizations -
and delivers academic results for children. We can’t afford for our School
Board and our community to be so dangerously divided—not when our kids’
futures are at stake. 3. We have to achieve financial stability for our schools if we are to succeed. For the past 5 years, our school district has been seriously destabilized by a series funding shortfalls. While the Seattle Public Schools leadership has made efforts to buffer the classroom from the resulting budget cuts, impacts have been unavoidable and have been demoralizing to educations, staff, and families. In addition to shortfalls, a strucutural budget gap exists and it must be closed. Adequate funding that is well managed and classroom focused is central to delivering the quality education that our children deserve and will facilitate the restoration of public confidence in our school system. Further, a clear, articulate and compelling case needs to be made for additional funding that will be required to close the achievement gap. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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Ability to work and lead in a team environment - Through my volunteer roles in PTSA and in my professional career in Finance at The Boeing Company, I have consistently demonstrated the ability to lead a diverse group of people through debate on a complicated or divisive issue and to find common ground. I do this by listening carefully to others, looking for points of disagreement, and finding common ground on which to build solutions. I make a point to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to weigh in and that no one individual dominates the discussion or steers the solution. I help the group focus on the issue and the data, and not on the personalities or people involved. In the end, I drive the conversation to closure around a solution.
Ability to analyze complex issues or situations - my approach to complex issues is a well reasoned one. I listen to the facts and data, reason my way through them, validate their source, seek appropriate external benchmarking data for comparison, and then using my professional experience and judgment, I thread my way to a solution. Once my solution is established, I articulate my solution and my rationale regarding how I got there. I remain open to additional information that might change my proposed solution, as my goal is to get to the best quality solution we can find - even if it isn't my solution.
Build and leverage respectful relationships with others - I have spent years building the relationships with parents, teachers, District staff, existing School Board members, the business community, union leaders, and other community leaders that are required to be effective in this role. Building and maintaining respectful relationships is paramount to the success of a School Board Director. Listening is key, as is finding common ground upon which to build.
Demonstrated a strong work ethic - In all of my endeavors, I have worked hard to get positive results. I have consistently demonstrated a willingness in both my volunteer and professional careers to do the homework and analysis necessary to be prepared, my attendance record at meetings is strong, and I actively engage in whatever I work on.
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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.
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- As a parent, I participated in a small grassroots effort to turn a failing Seattle Public School into a flourishing school community at Daniel Bagley Elementary. In 1999, after a threat of school closure, I joined forces with a handful of other parents and teachers and accepted the challenge put to us by the Seattle Public Schools Superintendent. We were given four challenging targets: Three years to meet a minimum enrollment of 250 students (we were at 150 and declining), attract families back from the private schools, increase parent involvement and demonstrate community support, and finance any growth with money raised from private sources. Our parent led group built a plan to implement a public Montessori Program at our school, coupled with an emphasis on arts enrichment. We built a comprehensive multi-year plan that included requirements for finances, facilities, marketing, outreach to local businesses, community organizations, and churches, staffing (teachers, instructional assistants), grant writing, and media outreach. We were successful in spite of insurmountable odds. Today enrollment stands at over 330 students with wait lists at many grade levels, the PTA has membership that is 6-8 times what it was in 1999, community partnerships are strong and growing, and academic outcomes have improved significantly for our students. My role in this effort was that I was the PTA President during the first two years of this initiative and I partnered closely with the Site Council Leader. It was our combined leadership, coupled with a new principal in year two, that led to these outcomes.
- As a member of the Superintendent's Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence (CACIEE), I partnered with 13 other community leaders to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve academic outcomes and ensure the fiscal viability of the District. I had the opportunity to delve deeply into the academic performance of students (including volumes of data that demonstrated the achievement gap), the financials of the Seattle Public Schools, and become educated in how public school is funded the State of Washington. We also were given an overview of School Board governance models that outlined successful approaches for working with District staff and the Superintendent. Our team spent 8 months working closely with the staff to understand what opportunities existed, independently analyzed volumes of data, developed recommendations, and then tested them with the community using statistically valid techniques as well as self selected open forums. Our report was heralded by many community leaders and parents as an important piece of work that offered a structural blueprint for change in the Seattle Public Schools.
- As a Finance manager at The Boeing Company, I was a part of the leadership team that addressed the impacts to the 767 Program after the events of September 11th. In addition to the international tragedy that the events represented, our commercial airplane business was devastated. We faced immediate and unprecendented impacts that were more severe than any in our institutional memory - huge financial losses, order cancellations, etc. Over a period of 3-4 months, I worked closely with a small team of leaders to develop a plan to restructure our business and return to profitability. My immediate team played an instrumental role in outlining the bold actions it would take to achieve our goals. We worked closely with key stakeholders and executives to understand the action plan and gain their concurrence. The results were painful from a human perspective and it took a personal toll on each of us. Our results changed the course of our program, returned us to profitability, and made us a stronger program and company. |
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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I have two daughters in Seattle Public Schools since
kindergarten. They currently attend Daniel Bagley Elementary and Eckstein
Middle Schools. Finance Leader, The Boeing Company, (1987- currently employed). I have had numerous leadership roles across Boeing Commercial Airplane including key roles on the 787, 767 and 747 Programs as well as in Commercial Aviation Services. I have led and managed employees from many functional disciplines outside of finance, and have managed both union represented and non-represented employees. I have worked on development a well as production programs for both commercial and military products.
President, Seattle Council PTSA, 2005-2007 - Leader of
12,000-member organization supporting the 46,000 students in the Seattle
Public Schools. The organization’s mission is to be a strong, effective
voice to promote the health, education and welfare of all
children.(http://www.seattlecouncilptsa.org/) ·Every Child a Great Reader ·A Great Teacher in Every
Classroom ·A Great School for Every Student (http://www.alliance4ed.org/)
Vice-President, Seattle Council PTSA 2004-2005 -
Provide leadership and assistance to the Seattle Council PTSA President and
guidance and mentoring to PTA Leaders within the Seattle Public Schools.
Co-Founder of Site Council, Daniel Bagley Elementary School, 1999-2000. Community organization that provides governance to school business and academic decisions.
Team Member and Parent Leader, Montessori Program implementation at Daniel Bagley Elementary. 1999-2003. Successfully implemented a Montessori program in our public school, reversing enrollment from 150 students to over 330 in 6 years.
Boeing Volunteer, Washington State Special Olympics,
1994-2004
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The School Board Director is elected to act on behalf of their constituency by exercising good judgment and ensuring academic success for every student. The most important duties include:
o Charting the course for where the school district will be in the future. This must be done in partnership with the key stakeholder groups - educators, parents, unions, the business community, and other public agencies. Inclusion of the key stakeholder groups is imperative for success. Values that are core to the vision should also be identified and clearly stated. From the vision, the Board should work with the District staff to develop the mission, strategies, and goals.
o Establishing the governance structure of the institution. The hiring of the Superintendent is the most important of these responsibilities. Developing a respectful relationship with the Superintendent and his/her team. This relationship is imperative to the success of the District and is the foundation on which everything will be built. Relationships built on trust, open communication, healthy conflict, and an ability to debate the issues are paramount. Also vital is the understanding that accountability is also an important part of the relationship. Without this, a partnership cannot be formed. Also key to the governance structure is developing the strategic plan and establishing policies that remove roadblocks and support the values defined by the Board. Approval of a budget that is fiscally responsible and is in alignment with the vision and strategic intent, and supports the goals is also central to establishing the governance structure. Other duties include approving curriculum selections, ratifying labor union contracts, and making decisions about offering property tax levies to the voters.
o Establishing an accountability structure and an accountability culture within the School District. A clear set of performance criteria and measure must be established up front with the Superintendent and reviewed on a regular basis. In addition, a clear set of performance measures should be established for every goal/objective in order for the Board to assess if progress is being made against those goals. The measures should be reviewed regularly, and District leadership should be allowed to ask for help from a policy or budget perspective where help is needed. Everyone inside the District should expect to have their performance evaluated, and the measures should be used diagnostically, not punitively. Dialogue should focus on how additional resources, training, policy change, etc. might correct the situation. Performance to the plan should be transparent to the public, and conversations should be respectful of all parties involved.
o The School Board Directors must take an active role in advocating for the School District. The role of the Board is not to run the District - that is the responsibility of the Superintendent. Directors should be an voice outward to the community, to local, state, and federal government representatives on matters such as adequate funding, special needs or underserved populations, and with education oriented organizations. |
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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MBA, Seattle University, 1992 BA in Business Administration, University of Washington, 1983 |
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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Finance Leader, The Boeing Company, 1987-07 Seattle Council PTSA President, VP, Area Director, 2002-07 Schools First Board Member, 2005-2007–Honorary Co-Chair of the campaign Alliance for Education Board Member, 2005-07 Superintendent's Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence Committee Member, 2005-06 Board Member, Pacifica Children’s Choir, 2005-07 Volunteer, Seattle Children’s Theater 2004-05 Daniel Bagley PTA President, Treasurer, Secretary, 1999-03 Volunteer, Special Olympics, 1994-04 |
Finished!
If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (cec@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: Jason Thibedeau
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: (425) 671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org