
Candidates
Candidates
2017 primary election
Seattle School District 1
Director District 4
Herbert J. Camet, Jr.
2701 3rd Ave West, #314
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 397-4751
I am seeking your vote - a vote for our children and youth for their future - as a candidate for Seattle School Board.
As a lifelong career professional educator, teacher, school principal, education consultant, ESL training manager, business owner in 10 countries worldwide (USA, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, U.A.E., Germany, and Cambodia), I have a proved successful blend of teaching, administrative, and business experience in both USA and international K-12, university, and adult educational organizations, particularly in designing & implementing ESL training programs and K-12 curriculum models. Additionally I have organized and conducted teacher training workshops and seminars in various international educational organizations and cross-cultural venues.
No other candidate in this election has my professional, personal, and academic qualifications, as our schools are not a "corporate business" long misruled and made dysfunctional by corporate politicians masquerading as "public education officials", but are instead a mutual partnership among their own learners, teachers, and parents - the people own our schools, not these corporate politicos.
A primary professional interest of mine is teacher training & re-training, and mentoring teachers in learner-interaction-based, learner-centered classroom learning environments where the learner is the active participant, not a passive spectator, in his/her own learning discoveries and attainments. I have extensive professional expertise and experience with learner-interaction-based instructional approaches, strategies, and methods for classroom learning environments at K-12, adult, and university levels. The USA corporate 'public education system' has too long cheated and victimized our youth by making them into dumbed-down spectators in the classroom instead of the actual actors, participants, and doers in their own learning activities and experiences.
The time is now for reform and redevelopment of our K-12 public education, and I very sincerely ask your vote for our youth and our parents for their future.
Herb Camet, Jr.
Sadly, our District has too often been guilty of insufficient planning, research and community engagement, and this has repeatedly led to unnecessary disruption and tumult in the life of Seattle students. Facilities planning, enrollment planning, fiscal planning... we can do better and I will lead in this effort with my data analysis and systems thinking, honed as an attorney, as an Institutional Planning and Budget Analyst, and as a Fiscal Specialist for Seattle Public Schools.
In addition, I want to work with Seattle families to ensure that the District offers vibrant alternatives to our traditional teaching methods, and that all of our kids will flourish - whether that requires additional enrichment and academic foundational work, emotional and social supports, extra offerings in the arts or in STEM, or adaptive skills to help students move forward and be successful in their post-school years. We desperately need to focus our attention on closing the achievement gap, but school should be a place that is joyous for kids to learn, and I believe we should redirect resources to provide those different experiences within the context of the Seattle Public Schools. We need a better run system with better offerings in Seattle, not charter schools or vouchers.
I have years of experience in the District as an ear and an advocate for families, students and schools - through teacher layoffs, student reassignments, difficult financial times and challenging capacity issues. I have two SPS students: one Hamilton Middle School 7th grader who will move to Robert Eagle Staff Middle School for 8th grade, and a 10th grader who is in the SpEd inclusion program at Ingraham High School.
I am a volunteer, a former PTSA president, and a long-time supporter of Seattle Public Schools. Let’s work together and improve our Seattle Public School District!
I live in Ballard with my two daughters Madelayne and Lillian who attend Seattle Public Schools. I was asked to run for School Board because I know firsthand that some things need to change. Examples:
My daughters graduated from Loyal Heights Elementary, where the District is now proceeding to replace a school sized for the health of the children and neighborhood to one "mega" school lacking adequate play area and a footprint out of scale with the density of the neighborhood. This project is out of budget and will have the highest ratio of administrative staff to teachers in the country. SPS claims this project is green but uses outdated tech (geothermal) and plans on busing to make it viable. The cost of heating and cooling will be enormous. Hundreds of school families and neighbors opposed this plan. The School Board “listened”, but failed to act. Only one Board member brought forward a proposal to keep Loyal Heights as a reasonable neighborhood school. The vote was six to one. If you elect me, the next will be five to two. It’s a start.
Rather than buy back schools the District wrongly sold, the District built monstrous schools and shrank playgrounds at Thornton Creek and Pinehurst / Hazel Wolf, and plans to reopen Magnolia Elementary after shrinking ITS playground. Children need places to play. Look at Finland. First in world education. They integrate play instead of an afterthought. Weird.
The Board should vote independently from District administration and make it stick. Lunch and recess are too short. Stop leaning on PTA money and stop budgeting by formulas: budget by need and what makes sense.
Magnolia Elementary used to house the African American Academy; the District built the Academy its own school – and then closed it…and then reopened it. Whew.
Megan Locatelli Hyska
6555 Jones Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98117
(206) 859-1705
Every student deserves an affordable and equitable education. I believe that our public schools should be the cornerstone of this value, and should be on even footing with charter and private schools to provide a successful future. I believe in teaching a balance of science, humanities, the arts, health/physical education, and foundational life skills. These life skills include mental health, depression and bullying; non-violent communication and conflict resolution; critical thinking and privacy in the age of social media; preparing for death and grief legally and emotionally; credit cards and money management; and making healthy food choices (how to compare prices, shop, and cook).
I am not a mother yet myself (except to Boomer and Molly the cats), but have been an aunt since 1996 and am currently trusted to give love and support to nine niblings (AKA nieces and nephews).
I have worked in non-profits for 12 years have participated in education reform advocacy and volunteer work throughout that time. I have been a co-facilitator of the anti-racism committee (and white caucus) at Solid Ground Washington, Free Tax Prep volunteer for United Way of King County, classroom helper at First Place School, and receptionist at Ballard Senior Center.
I am currently the Principal at Dellaloca Design and the Executive Director of Foothold NW. Dellaloca Design supports the mission of nonprofits and local artists by providing affordable digital and print marketing consulting. Foothold NW is a non-profit startup looking to disrupt and change how higher education is funded. We focus on education, student loan assistance and advocacy. Follow our work at http://www.footholdnw.org, on Facebook & Twitter (FootholdNW), and on Instagram (FootholdNorthwest). You can also find my work and education background detail on LinkedIn at https://tinyurl.com/linkedinMLH.
Jennifer Crow
3448 10th Ave W
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 226-9536
I am a longtime resident of Queen Anne and a lifelong Seattleite, born and raised in the south end of Seattle. Making the Seattle Public School experience great is personal for me as my 4-year-old daughter will enter kindergarten in the 2018-2019 school year and my husband is a graduate of Seattle Public Schools.
My parents sent me to private school for grades 1 - 12, with the belief they were providing a better education for me. I want to change that perception; a private school education in Seattle is different but should not be “better” than a public school education.
All children deserve access to an excellent education. As part of the Seattle School Board I would work to raise the high school graduation rate in Seattle schools, provide more affordable preschool spaces for Seattle children, give school teachers the support they deserve, give our children more playground space along with adequate lunch and recess time, provide more oversight on “gap-closing” initiatives for African American students, and promote better neighborhood engagement.
Rezoning for elementary schools is currently happening in my neighborhood. Some families living within blocks of a school would be in a zone for a school farther away and other families, mine included, would be zoned to send their children across a busy four lane road to a school in a different neighborhood. We should involve and engage the entire community in pre planning discussions and meetings when such disruptive changes are proposed. We should work proactively rather than reactively to meet these growth challenges.
It would be an honor and privilege to serve.
Please elect Jennifer Crow.
Eden Mack
4211 29th Ave west
Seattle, WA 98199
(206) 701-1508
As the mother of three children in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and longtime education advocate and policy analyst, I know intimately that schools in our diverse district have great successes because of our families, educators, administrators and community, in spite of the challenges of chronic under funding from Olympia, crowded buildings from Seattle’s growth, and racial and economic inequity.
I’m ready to serve Seattle’s schools – the center of our communities – to invest in our community and ensure opportunity for every child. Born in Seattle, I’ve lived here most of my life, from Lower Queen Anne to Fremont and for the last 9 years in Magnolia. As an objective listener and problem-solver, I will continue to fight for policies that support schools, retain educators, serve students with diverse learning needs, and those that increase equity.
Serving as legislative chair for Seattle Council of Parent, Teacher and Student Associations (SCPTSA) since 2014, I’ve engaged with diverse community members and driven policy advocacy on education issues with SPS, the City, and State. I served as founding President of Washington's Paramount Duty, an organization dedicated to full funding of basic education. I have 12+ years of professional experience with 8+ years of board experience, and also served as the Youth, Schools and Education Committee chair for City Neighborhood Council, and recently on the SPS Capacity Management Task Force.
I’m grateful for broad support including: 36th District Democrats; education champions Sebrena Burr, Rita Green, Melissa Westbrook, Heidi Bennett, Lyon Terry and Summer Stinson; current School Board Directors Sue Peters, Leslie Harris, Rick Burke, and Jill Geary; legislators Gerry Pollet, Bob Hasegawa, Gael Tarelton, Reuven Carlyle, Jessyn Farrell, and Noel Frame; more at electedenmack.com.
Sean Champagne
201 Galer St #334
Seattle, WA 98109
(509) 205-8310
Thank you for your consideration in electing me the next School Board Director for District 4. In light of recent events with the election of President Trump and the values of his administration, notably Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, it is paramount that ordinary people step up for public office and agree to be a part of the change. I seek the confidence of local citizens to support me in my bid for School Board, and I will be an advocate for racial justice and aggressively recommending the decolonization of the curriculum. Also, I will advocate financial auditing and upset the bureaucratic systems set in place by the school systems like finding ways to decrease operation costs of the bus system. Instead of public meetings on the first and third Wednesday at 4:15pm each month, I will be recommending moving the first Wednesday meeting to the first Saturday each month in order to diversify the voices able to come before the board and speak by allowing people that could never attend a Wednesday afternoon meeting in central Seattle to attend a meeting on Saturdays.
If elected to the School Board, it will be my duty to always advocate on behalf of students in the public school system. I promise to the best of my ability to loudly and clearly stand up in defense of students in order to effect positive changes that not only reduce our drop-out rates but find opportunities to develop a useful curriculum that can help our students become resilient and successful citizens of Seattle.
Contact Elections
Email: elections@kingcounty.gov
Phone: 206-296-VOTE (8683)
TTY: Relay 711
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