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Phone
(206) 821-0168
Email
vivian@songforseattleschools.com
Town where you live
Seattle
Experience (300 characters max)
Former school board director, public school parent, PTA leader, and finance professional. I bring expertise in education policy, budgeting, and community engagement—with a strong focus on equity, student outcomes, and aligning dollars with what matters most.
Cell phones can distract from learning and increase social stress. Schools should have clear, age-appropriate rules that limit use during class time. In elementary and middle school, I support “off and away” policies. High schools can allow some flexibility if phones are used for learning under teacher direction.
Some middle schools, including Hamilton, have piloted use of “Yondr” pouches to physically limit access to phones during school hours. Anecdotally, the pilots seem successful. Currently, PTAs are funding the pouches. The district should find a way to offer this to all middle schools without relying on PTA fundraising.
Policies must be applied fairly and consistently. Students, families, and educators should be part of the conversation. We must teach digital citizenship so students learn to use tech responsibly.
The budget process looks the same every year, but our needs have changed. It has not been a budget that delivers strong student outcomes and it is a budget that causes stress and drives families away. Critically, a budget is a best guess for the future, and the board must understand the assumptions behind it and ask tough questions and also track actual spending.
We can’t cut our way to excellence. We should avoid cuts that directly impact classroom learning. For example, transportation is a major cost driver, and a 2018 audit had ideas for efficiency. We can also grow revenue by increasing enrollment—investing in programs that meet diverse student need - advanced learning, career pathways, and more.
The board must directly involve staff and families — communicate why we have shortfalls and help them understand trade offs when cuts have to be made. Other districts like San Diego Unified have adopted practices like having the community on vote between a set of budget choices.
My top priority is ensuring that every dollar supports student learning, equity, and well-being. That means investing in the classroom—great teaching, strong academic programs, inclusive special education, and services that meet diverse student needs.
We should prioritize what directly impacts students such as early literacy, mental health, arts, multilingual education, and programs that keep families enrolled. Equity means directing resources to where needs are greatest.
We also need to examine central office spending, outdated practices, and areas where dollars aren’t aligned with outcomes. Transparent budgeting helps communities understand tradeoffs and rebuild trust.
Finally, we should budget with the future in mind. That means avoiding short-term fixes like the interfund loan and instead investing in what will strengthen our schools over time—like staff development, student support, and programs that attract and retain families.
Start by treating families and community members as true partners. That means sharing information early—before decisions are made—not just after. Clear timelines, accessible language, and regular updates help people understand what’s happening and why.
Restore standing board committees so key topics like budget, curriculum, and operations can be discussed in public. Use newsletters, social media, and town halls to reach people in different ways. Make sure interpretation and translation services are available so all families can engage. The district did a communications audit in 2022 and should implement such recommendations.
Transparency isn’t just about sharing facts—it’s about building trust. When people feel heard, respected, and informed, they’re more likely to stay engaged and support the district’s work.
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Phone
(480) 703-6359
Email
Allyceab@gmail.com
Town where you live
Seattlr
Experience (300 characters max)
10 years of maneuvering my children through Seattle public schools and advocating for educational justice. In that time served on multiple educational boards and volunteered in schools where we supported those furthest from educational justice through policy, practice and culture competence.
An agreed upon culture shift to minimize cell phone usage in classrooms and school overall.
In partnership with principals and administration, An inclusive approach of educating kids and building commitment and goals to incentivize buy -in, will make building healthy screen time habits.
If principals create a climate of healthy screen management with teachers, staff and families the likelihood of adopting a culture that self regulates screen time is achievable.
First a fiscal audit to understand where all the existing funds are being spent will help us understand our own spending habits.
Establishing a metric to measure outcomes of programs and (central office) positions, will provide insight in our return on investment of these expenses.
I would also integrate, through communication with principal and admin, effective ways to connect and communicate with all families and educators on school sites to bring them options of what they would be willing to cut to help the deficit. Aiming to ensure equity, I would create a rank voting ballot and ensure those furthest from educational justice are prioritized in connecting with.
I would also start the process of creating a PTSA/booster pool to build an equity distribution of private funds raised at school sites.
I would also advocate with city and state legislators and reps for a more progressive tax change.
Ensuring that all families and professional educators basic needs are met. If this isn’t met, our school district cannot educate and kids cannot focus on learning.
Partnering with community violent intervention programs to disrupt and prevent violent outcomes. Support counselors and social workers to ensure social emotional bridges for kids and educators are established. These preventative measures are crucial to building sustainably safe schools and communities.
Partnerships with higher education, local businesses, government departments, private businesses, and union trade workers so children are graduating with tools and skills that are in demand. Empowering these partnership to building strong communities and a localized sustainable academic economy. Encouraging children to seek the autonomy in carving a path for a successful healthy life as they define it.
School districts have important stakeholders on school sites, being their principal and administrators. These professional educators know how best to communicate with all their families.
I would seek insight from how best to connect with families.
It comes to meeting folks where they are at. If that is through WhatsApp, on-site school meetings, phone calls, etc. Relying on one way, leaves out so many voices.
Sharing financial reports, not just losses but regular budget reports at the school and district level.
Creating public rank voting in some fiscal decisions, as families and educators have to live with the impact of these decisions- so they should have a say in some of the changes that.
Phone
(206) 601-2448
Email
hi@janisforseattleschools.com
Town where you live
Seattle
Experience (300 characters max)
I am an attorney and mom of 3 who went to Seattle Public Schools from K - 12. I was Chair of the TOPS K-8 Site Council and organized an Alternative Schools Coalition. I was a parent representative on a District Task Force on Transportation and was President of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.
The issue of student distraction from cell phones must be addressed, as well as adverse mental health impacts. Ideally, I would like to see most schools teaching responsible use of cell phones and self-regulation rather than banning cell phones. However, I recognize that in some school communities, bans may be necessary. Thus, policy may vary between schools.
In addition, strategies to address cell phone use may need to vary based on student age. For example, it makes sense to ban cell phone use in elementary school but transition to teaching responsible use in middle and high school. There also need to be exceptions for students with disabilities. Some disabled students need access to a cell phone to monitor a medical condition. Others (with disabilities like autism or anxiety) use their cell phones for short periods of time as a tool for self-regulation when they are dysregulated or overwhelmed by the school environment.
School districts in Washington are required to have a balanced budget. In Seattle, however, the District has had to address significant budget deficits when planning for budget adoption in each of the last three years.
My first guiding principle is to prioritize funding that is directly connected to student learning and student services. I also support having ex officio members of the community with financial expertise on the Board’s budget and finance committee (or equivalent) so that the community has a stronger voice in understanding and supporting difficult budget decisions. Finally, I believe it is critical for the Board to understand how the District is spending the funds that it has before the Board can make decisions about what to cut in order to address a deficit. This means that the Board should receive receive regular reporting about spending from departments of the district along with benchmarking with other nearby and similarly sized urban districts.
Again, I would prioritize spending that is directly connected to student learning and student services in our school buildings and classrooms. That funding has to be our highest priority.
Then, I think we need to evaluate funding allocations to see which are for essential services to keep the district running. After that process, to make the hard decisions, we need to evaluate whether particular funding allocations are necessary to achieve the goals of the district and also look at whether those funding allocations have been effective in the past.
I recently attended a training session by Washington Family Engagement, a nonprofit that helps family members develop skills so they can support their children’s education and helps schools and school districts include families. Research shows that students in engaged families are more successful in school.
For as long as I have been involved in SPS, there have been concerns about transparency, communication and community engagement. We must and can do better. The District needs to have clear communication standards that are implemented through all departments. This is also an area where, due to lack of trust following the failed school closure process last year, the District would benefit from bringing in an outside group to audit engagement processes and provide recommendations for improvement.
As a School Board Director, I would visit every school in my district at least once per year, hold community meetings and engage with community organizations that serve youth.
