Transparency

One of the most important issues for the district is transparency. Many important district decisions are taken by the board, and by the district, without parent input or notification. Although board meetings are broadcast on the day of the meeting, these videos are not publicly posted (unlike Kirkland City Council meetings).

In order to increase board and district transparency for parents, I will work to see that district policy is changed to (a) post video of the board meetings on the district website and (b) make any slides/handouts presented at the board meetings available for download as powerpoints or pdfs.

Class Size

Class size is one of the most important predictors of student performance, especially at the elementary level. I-728 funds are dedicated to either class size reduction or teacher training, and our district is spending an increasing fraction of I-728 on teacher training, at the expense of class size reduction. I will work to ensure that district decisions on the use of I-728 funds are appropriately and publicly justified by the district, and that board approved budgets are easily and publicly available.

Parent Involvement

There is an old adage that public education is like a three legged stool, where the three legs are (1) a motivated student, (2) a talented teacher, and (3) supportive parents. Without any of these three elements, the system will fail. Unfortunately, our district has a tendency to make important policy decisions without parental input. For example, this past fall a number of significant revisions were made to bus routes, which is a rather important topic for parents. Not only was parental involvement not solicited in these decisions, but affected parents were not even informed of the changes prior to the first day of school.

I will work to implement policies that promote parental input on policy decisions, such as (a) web surveys of district parents, and (b) increased use of the District newsletter. The cost of expanding these efforts can be more than offset by allowing parents with internet access to opt out of paper mailings and into electronic distribution of district materials.

Curriculum Development

This issue follows from both transparency and parent involvement: it is district policy to involve at least one parent in the selection of district curricular material, which occurs once every seven years, but in the intervening years parental input is not solicited, and district curricular modifications are not publicized. At the moment, this is particularly evident in the elementary school math curriculum, where groups of parents have organized to request revisions, without any public signs of success.

I will work to implement policies that (a) actively solicit parental input into curricular modification in the seven year period between selections of curricular materials and (b) make the curricular modifications publicly available, so that parents can see when and where the district curriculum has been altered, on an annual basis.