VOTE411 Voter Guide

Budget: We need to balance our budget while rebuilding our financial reserves and preserving educational excellence. We must continue to lobby the legislature to increase funding while coming up with creative solutions with community partners to minimize classroom impacts. Planning for future enrollment: We must plan for future growth in the north region of our district and an estimated 8% decrease in birth rate affecting other parts of the district. We need to plan for more schools in the north when the urban growth line moves. We can bring choice programs and resources to small schools to utilize empty classrooms, like the mental health and dental offices added to Lynnwood HS. Student mental health: We need to keep student mental health services. We should also provide professional development to teachers and counselors on common mental health conditions faced by students, such as anxiety, depression, autism, and ADHD. This can help us support both student learning and mental health.

We need to rebuild our financial reserves so that flexible payments by the state or withholding of funds by the Department of Education do not cause us to have to borrow money to make payroll and lose more funds to paying interest on the loan. Additionally, having a negative general fund would require us to enter binding conditions with the state as was required of Marysville and Bellevue School Districts. We need to continue to make hard decisions about services while maintaining the supports that our families and students find most valuable. We also need to keep pushing our state legislators to provide funds that are at minimum equivalent to our costs. We should also advocate for state funds to include funding for repair or replacement of buildings and technology, both of which are essential to education, but currently funded only by levies and bonds, if the community elects to pass them.

Issues raised during the open forum portion of board meetings can only be discussed if they are on the approved meeting agenda. Listen and learn sessions allow the board to share the most pressing issues (like the latest information about the budget or process of hiring a new superintendent) and allows the audience to ask questions for clarification about what the board shares as well as allowing families to raise questions that the board can address. Recording and posting these helps others who are unable to attend the meeting learn what is happening. School boards also need to ensure that there is a strong policy regarding communication in as many of the native languages of its community members as possible. Translators and technology can support this work where available and appropriate. Allowing meetings to be watched live on a platform that provides closed captioning also helps ensure that hearing loss doesn’t prevent good communication.

First and foremost, the school board needs to ensure all of its policies follow federal and state laws as well as OSPI guidance. Further, materials must also align with the district’s strategic goals, which are written based on community input. If the reason removal was requested needs further study, a work group could be convened to understand and evaluate the concern. If reasons are found that show that the material does not fit with the strategic goals and policies of the school district, the issue must be remedied efficiently. If the material in question is in alignment with laws, OSPI guidance, and district strategic goals and policies, it should not be removed.

We need to enter this work with a sense of curiosity. If a particular group is struggling or a situation presents repeated problems, we need to gather data about why it is happening. We can strengthen relationships between school staff and educators and the struggling group. We must meet with and listen to all sides, learn about factors contributing to the situation, and solicit solutions from the groups. We should work with community partners who may already be working on the issue or with the struggling group. We can talk to our peers in other districts to share ideas on either how they solved the challenges or how we are doing to solve the problem. We must evaluate services that state law requires and advocate for full funding. If our students consistently need services not provided for by the state, we must do our best to provide for those needs within our budget and with our community partners until laws and allocations change.

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(1) Ending all racially based programs choosing rather to promote equality (not equity) between children not by fixating upon racial differences my focus is on what makes us one people. if you live in America and are a citizen, or legal resident, then you are an American child, and as an American child your owed to be treated with respect dignity and given a quality education

(2) Protecting parental rights, parents shouldn't have to be concerned about their children being indoctrinated into transgenderism, homosexuality, and other deviant sexual ideologies; if a child wants to choose their sexual preference upon reaching adulthood then that is their right as a free American, when they reach the age of 18 to making life-altering decisions such as beginning the path of gender transformation.

(3) Offer classes on practical living; ide such as spending less then you earn, avoiding credit card debt, staying away from student loan debt, and choosing practical vocations.

Enact a teacher salary freeze.

Invite parents to read transcripts of planned school lessons; our internet based culture surly could accommodate platforms where the parents could see everything taught.. If schools are "public" they should be public places where there's nothing to hide and a free visual examination is readily available for parents. Perhaps even a password protected viewing portal where parents could watch classes live and in real time as well.

There's a lot of people who talk about protecting children from various outside dangers in society, yet, there are dangers that exist within the school system; young children, known for being impressionable and subject to peer pressure and propaganda are facing needless pressure from peers and often teachers who whether well-meaning or not are in reality recruiting school children into homosexuality, gender dysphoria, or other adult ideologies that the child themselves would never have thought of had the suggestion not been introduced to them by adults who should know better.

The fairest position for public school districts to take is NEUTRALITY!

The state shall maintain equality under the law but not serve as an advocate for any kind of lifestyle Of course not; and outside of school these are all perfectly protected under our First Amendment, and if parents want their children to be instructed in any of these things, then they have the legal and moral right to do so.

A greater shift to individualized self directed learning by discovering what each child is adapted to do by their personality and learning style; one child that might be thought of as having ADD might just be a really good multitasker...