My Five top Priorities as a School Board Director are:

1. Academic achievement for all children with special emphasis on children living in poverty.
2. Academic excellence available at every school: enriched curriculum, honors, academies, language immersion.
3. Improve the graduation rate and WASL scores.
4. Build a balanced and sustainable budget that does not cut money for classroom instruction.
5. Build confidence in Seattle Schools by emphasizing our many accomplishments and promoting more united and deliberative leadership.

The Achievement Gap
Children of color and children living in poverty have shown a persistent lag in performance on standardized test scores compared to their white or affluent peers. This issue is being addressed on many levels in Seattle Schools, most critically by spending many more dollars per student on students with greater needs. Some schools have had remarkable success in getting all children to standards and their experiences should be duplicated where possible. However, there is no one simple answer and the efficacy of all existing programs needs to be examined. Attracting and retaining well qualified teachers at schools with greater needs is part of the solution.

Balancing the Budget
Superintendent Manhas has assembled a great team to examine this problem and their recommendations (due in December) should serve as a starting point for balancing the fiscal year 2006-07 budget. This could be a combination of cuts and new revenues from local sources, but in the long run all Washington Schools including Seattle need more funding from the state government. My priority is to put as many resources into the classroom as possible - that's where academic achievement happens.

School Closures
Seattle Public Schools has some 7000 empty seats spread among its 93 schools, a result of declining enrollment. It makes economic sense and could improve academic achievement to close some sites and consolidate students into more successful programs. It makes no sense to close successful schools with high levels of parent and community support. It is difficult on the surrounding community to close any schools but in difficult financial times, this option cannot be eliminated.

Transportation and School Choice
Busing is expensive and Seattle spends much more per student than other nearby Districts. The primary reason is our system of school choice and all-city draw schools. This policy needs to be examined and the options for reducing costs carefully weighed. If we can build strong neighborhood schools throughout the city, most families may chose to stay close to home where it is easier to stay involved with your child's school.

WASL Testing
As long as the WASL is a State requirement Seattle Public schools (SPS) should do its best to pass all children. Setting high standards is a positive and necessary part of high expectations. That said, the privately administered test has its problems in reliability and accurate scoring. Any test that uses this much school time should be available to students, parents and teachers as a diagnostic tool to improve performance.

APP and Spectrum
Enriched and accelerated curriculum programs have been a solid success and need to be expanded where possible. These programs cost the District almost nothing, attract highly involved parents and allow gifted students to learn at a pace that keeps them engaged.

Thank you,
Michael