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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Almost 10 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Kelley for Seattle Schools |
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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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I am running for Seattle School Board because I believe in the board's vision that every student will graduate and be fully prepared to lead a successful life regardless of their life circumstances, and we're not keeping that promise. We've created a "marketplace" public education system in Seattle, where parents are forced to shop for schools for their kids because their neighborhood school doesn't meet their child's needs. And in a "marketplace" model, some students will always have more access than others. It doesn't make sense to have a "public" education system operating that way. Parents need to have their confidence restored in sending their child to the school a few blocks away, instead of half-way across the city. And Seattle needs to have its confidence restored in the leadership of the school district. I'd like to help restore some credibility to this collective leadership group, and work with the various stakeholders to re-focus our efforts on getting adequate resources to neighborhood schools so that they can meet the needs of ALL students across the district. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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I am typically a very unassuming person, who listens much more than I ever talk in one-on-one or group settings. But in collective leadership situations (such as boards of directors that I've sat on), I am most often the member that tries to remind the group that we are coming together for something bigger than our own personal agendas or convictions, and that our decisions need to be based on input from a variety of stakeholders and made with clarity around how it will impact the most vulnerable (or those with least access, etc) among our service population. I value service to the community. Not only do I help other people get involved in the community in my day job, but I also have a variety of service experiences myself. I've been a youth soccer coach, a math tutor, a volunteer tax preparer, a home-builder here and in Biloxi, MS, and volunteered as well as worked as an ESL instructor. I also possess a pretty dry sense of humor, like a lot of others, and believe that this does serve me well in my personal and professional life in a variety of ways that are often underestimated, even by me. I think all of these traits would serve me well in the role of School Director. I have direct and theoretical knowledge of operating as an individual in a collective leadership environment, and can also connect with and relate to people on a personal basis. |
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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One of my proudest accomplishments is the programmatic growth and development in my professional work that I have been able provide to my employer. When I was first given the responsibility of managing what's called our "corporate volunteerism initiative," we were seen as nothing more than an administrative support organization within the business community.
Without really even being asked to change that perception of our role in the business sector, I threw myself into a process involving intense study and learning on my part, researching of similar examples for dealing with clients with specific needs, and reaching out to people with different backgrounds and levels of expertise in order to form a relationship based on a common goal.
Companies now invite us to train their employees about how to volunteer, how to serve on boards, and how to volunteer with their families. Because of this work, I (and my organization) am viewed locally and nationally as an expert in the field of employee volunteer program development. I am confident that the work that I've done in building this strategy and establishing those relationships will continue even after I leave the organization. |
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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Two years ago, I was a math tutor for a 9th grader who had failed algebra, and didn't know what a negative number was when I first met her. Over the course of several months, three times a week, we worked together to raise her test average over 40 points. I also coached a boys soccer team for six years (until 2003), worked on a team within my organization to develop service learning opportunities for students in local school districts for four years and to take a leadership role in organizing local activities for National Mentoring Month and National Youth Service Day. While these activities are no longer part of my daily life or my team's annual work plan, they did prove to me that students need to feel that adults care about them (and not just in terms of their test scores), and that every child can learn and achieve if we're willing to give them the resources they need.
I manage a leadership development program that prepares people from communities of color to serve on nonprofit boards or committees, giving them the tools they need to understand what the role of a board member actually is and how it's different then being a paid staff person for an organization. Managing this program has given me the opportunity not just to hone my own leadership skills and knowledge, but also to interact with people of various ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, and walks of life. Being able to listen to someone "where they're at" while maintaining a perspective on the broader community is a vital skill for any public office, and I think working with the program at my organization has really helped me improve my ability to facilitate conflict conversations.
I have served on a variety of boards myself, including Seattle Works--where I was Vice Chair of Board Development, and 2V/ACT (formerly Seattle Youth Involvement Network)--where I was part of the group who made the decision to close the organization before we had to. And I also serve as the co-chair of my organization's internal group focusing on undoing institutional racism.
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The duties of a school director include: being a vocal advocate for ensuring adequate financial and human resources are made available to schools in the district; being a community liasion between the district and other stakeholders, such as parents, students, and other members of the community; monitor the revenue and expenditures of the district to ensure it is functioning within budget; approve the annual budget; approve and monitor all collective bargaining agreements and vendor contract relationships within the district; partner with the superintendent of the district to set goals for ensuring equal access to educational opportunities that help each student succeed, monitor progress towards that success, and reward/evaluate the superintendent on that progress. All of these responsibilities are of equal importance in my mind, and need to be purposefully broad to help prevent the school board from falling into 'micromanaging' behavior. |
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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I received a BA in German from Whitman College, and fulfilled credit requirements for minors in World Literature, History, English, and Mathematics. |
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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I have served on the boards of directors for Seattle Works, 2V/ACT (formerly Seattle Youth Involvement Network), Directors of Volunteers in Agencies (DOVIA) of King County, and the International Drop-In Center. I also served on the planning committee for the 2006 National Conference on Volunteerism and Service, and have volunteered as a tax preparer for the past two years, helping to make sure that low-income wage earners take advantage of all of their eligible tax credits without having to pay someone to do it. |
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