District 5 SPS School Board Candidate Forum

(District 5 covers the “central cluster”- cap hill, central dist, leschi, madison valley/park, montlake…)

When:    Monday, July 20 from 7 – 8:30pm

Where:    Garfield Community Center, 2323 East Cherry Street, corner of 23rd

Why:  Of the 11 Central Cluster schools, seven experienced closure and/or program movement.  Parents and the larger community are concerned about the impact on their schools next year, as well as district-wide policies around a new student assignment plan, curriculum adoption and alignment, equitable program access, teacher effectiveness/quality teacher retention, and genuine communication and partnership with Seattle Public School families.

This is an opportunity for the community to ask the candidates in District 5 about how they intend to shape the policy decisions that will come before them if they are elected to the school board.

Who: The school board directors govern our district. It matters who gets elected!  The board works with district administrators to set policy and make decisions, including the superintendent who reports to the board and carries out our board’s vision and direction.

The Candidates:  Three candidates are challenging incumbent Mary Bass for the central cluster school board director seat:

Mary Bass – [email protected]

Joanna Cullen  http://www.VoteForJoanna.com/

Andre Helmstetter  http://AndreForSchools.org/

Kay Smith-Blum  http://www.ElectKSB.org/

The Primary Election:  We vote by school board district in the August 18 Primary.  It’s a non-partisan race in which we will nominate two of the four candidates to move on to the General Election. We vote city-wide for all school board candidates in the November 3 General.  Those elected serve four-year terms.

Don’t forget to register to vote!  

July 18 is the deadline for registering online http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/registration.aspx                         

Or you can register up until Monday, August 3 in person at the King County Elections Office.  http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/aboutus/directions.aspx

For info or to volunteer at the event:    

Kerry Cooley-Stroum @ [email protected]

Barbara Kelley @ [email protected]