Southwest Washington Education (K-12)

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”– Socrates

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WA State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Based on the outcome of the August 2016 Primary the following two (2) candidates move on to the November general election:

Blog stories we’ve published:

This is a link to a summation of Erin Jones and Chris Reykdal’s positions of various topics:

https://swweducation.org?p=3319

Erin Jones

On Tuesday, July 19, Superintendent Randy Dorn formally sued the State and seven of the state’s largest school districts, charging that teacher salaries are being funded illegally using levy monies. I believe his hope is to prove inappropriate use of funds, in order to demonstrate to the Legislature the damage that will be done when districts have to lay off teachers in order to be compliant with state law. After striving to no avail for several years to leverage past experience as a legislator to move the Legislature to action, Dorn is now attempting a new tactic.

In my opinion, filing suit is an irresponsible use of tax payer dollars. The Supreme Court has already ruled the State in contempt for not fully funding McCleary. An additional suit is duplicitous and will now penalize school districts, who have little to no power in this matter already. Should these large districts be found guilty of misusing levy dollars, teachers will be laid off, because there will not be sufficient funds available to pay bargained salary rates. If the State does not fully fund McCleary in the next year, these school districts will be left unable to pay their teachers a living wage, which will have implications for years to come.

As state superintendent, it is our obligation to build bridges between communities, to ensure equitable access to resources, to put students first. We must model collaboration and cooperation, not use our position to strong-arm others into action.

Erin Jones

At the Vancouver ESD 112 program these notes on Ms. Jones:

  • No plan for McCleary funding
  • Equality is key. Data, recruiting educators, authentic community engagement, student support.
  • Need better transitions between grades
  • Eliminate barriers for educators to do their job. Help identify local gaps. Academic and soft skills needed
  • High stakes testing is dangerous. Look at other measures. Focus on personal growth.
  • Public doesn’t understand levies. Make sure the public is aware of the financial issues.
  • OSPI should talk about family engagement
  • Need a conversation about who pays taxes
  • OSPI needs to provide data that can be used
  • Accountability has gone overboard – eliminate barriers
  • She is a Director for AVID
  • Match student passion with opportunities and careers
  • Summary: As an educator she eliminated barriers; running because she loves teaching

 

Chris Reykdal

Now is the time for bipartisan solutions, not more lawsuits.

As Superintendent, I would not have filed a lawsuit against local school districts for using local levy resources to support their educational programs at a time when we know the school system  is underfunded, kids are lacking critical supports, and we have a massive teacher shortage.  The intent of the lawsuit is understandable, but the risks are substantial.

School districts need to pay competitive salaries to attract and retain talent.  It’s the Legislature’s responsibility to provide those funds – but until they complete the task of full funding – local levies are the only alternative revenue source available to districts.  We already have a massive teacher shortage.  Imagine how much worse it would be if local communities were prohibited from supporting their teachers.

To eliminate local control and not have a fully funded state system is a dangerous gamble that puts our schools and communities at greater risk.  Let’s fully and equitably fund our schools before we ever consider telling communities that they can’t locally support their educators.

To achieve bipartisan solutions, we need an experienced education executive with a deep background in budget and policy!  Somebody who truly believes in equitable funding for ALL districts, with a deep commitment to ensuring local control of staffing, programs, and educational delivery.  We don’t need more control or unfunded mandates from the courts, the federal government or Olympia.  We need to fully fund our schools and let local communities get to work!

Chris Reykdal

At the Vancouver ESD 112 program these notes on Mr. Reykdal:

  • Capital gains tax is needed to raise more money
  • Local levy’s should go down or be eliminated and state property taxes increased
  • Need flexible pathways to get 24 HS grad credits
  • Testing is ok but needs work
  • Career vs. college ready: Functional vs. academic
  • Single snapshot on testing with something that helps and matters. Not linked to grad
  • Thinks ESSA is better than NCLB
  • Doesn’t support charter schools
  • Said Senate blocked action on the levy cliff. OSPI should be an advocate on levy issues.
  • ESSA: Supports; wants it to evolve
  • Local control of school decisions
  • Big data has +/-. Controls are needed. How to manage release? Data systems are poor.
  • Define customers and their needs
  • Steps vs. Outcomes
  • 24 HS credits look like college prep and career prep

 

Candidates Click the Candidates word on the left to take you to the section’s below.

 Update: On July 26, 2016 this new blog post on Randy Dorn’s lawsuit – Opinions from OSPI Candidates: https://swweducation.org?p=3056

On April 20, 2016, OSPI candidates gathered at the Puyallup School District to speak to the public. One attendee summarizes their views of the candidates below. This is their opinion and could be different from what others observed:

*Ron Higgins- He didn’t leave me with a very good feeling. He said a lot of “stuff” but didn’t really say anything of value and he spent an inordinate amount of time talking about inner city LA public schools. It seems to me that Washington state needs someone who is vested in Washington’s students not California’s.

*Robin Fleming- I was disturbed by the fact that she was so intensely focused on the special needs students and their medical needs to the point of excluding all other students. She made every single question a “medical issue”. I agree that the special needs students are underfunded and in need of qualified teachers, but that is a situation that all students face.

*Larry Seaquist- Said a lot and blustered a bit but when I reviewed my notes of the evening, I had absolutely nothing remarkable about him noted. He left me feeling like ‘status quo’ was all we’d get.

*Chris Reykdal- Was all about “data” and “uncomfortable” tax reform. He has a passion for the job and the managerial experience but in the end I was left wondering if push came to shove whether he’d have the wherewithal to follow through for the right thing or cave in to the pressure to just go with the status quo.

*David Spring- Had some very valid points regarding the state constitution (which he clearly has studied to some length) but his approach is very much “bull in a china shop”. He’s outspoken about tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations within the state and Common Core.

*Erin Jones- Also had some very valid points, most of which were classroom and district interaction based. She clearly spends time among the students and their families and she seemed to be speaking from the heart. She could bring the communities together but didn’t say much about the Common Core fix/removal.

Of the six of them, Chris Reykdal, David Spring, and Erin Jones impressed me the most with their knowledge and straightforward behavior. I did notice that David Spring was the one who consistently stood to address the crowd and Bob Higgins gave me the impression of being intimidated by Erin Jones. (not sure why that sticks in my mind but it does.) Also, when the panel was asked a specific question that addressed the financing needs for both Hi-Cap and special needs students (the extreme ends of the bell curve) only Erin Jones addressed the needs of the Hi-Cap students… the rest focused only on the special needs students.

TVW posted the link to the April 20th event here: http://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2016041038

The WEA (Washington State Education Association – the Teachers Union) has provided a list of questions to the candidates. Here is that list. We have been able to obtain the responses from three (3) of the four (4) candidates who attended the ESD 112 program on April 12th. Only one candidate (Chris Reykdal) chose not to supply this answers. Please scroll down to see the candidates supplied comments:

11 WEA PAC Candidate Questionnaire SUPERINTENDENT

OSPI Candidates  Forum – ESD 112 – Tuesday April 12, 2016

From 10am to 12 noon four (4) candidates for the Washington State Superintendent of Schools position came together at the offices of ESD 112 in Vancouver, Washington, to answer questions from Superintendents and others. [https://web3.esd112.org/#]

ESD 112 supports the following counties (the # of school districts in each are in the parenthesis): Clark(9); Cowlitz(6); Klickitat(8); Pacific(2); Skamania(4) and Wahkiakum(1). All told there are thirty (30) districts.

Assuming one (1) Superintendent per district there are a total of 30. Assuming five (5) school board members per district there are 150 directors in ESD 112. This means that the total audience (assuming no lower level or other people attended the April 12th session) could have been 180 people in attendance. In reality about 35 showed up and that included a representative from SWWEducation.org. We consider this a POOR turnout given the importance of education, the MCleary decision, funding issues and the critical role a new State Superintendent will play.

There were pre-planned questions. [We emailed our 9 questions to the ESD on April 11th – the date we learned about the program but none of ours were used] Following is the list of topics the candidates were told to come prepared to address:

Topics may include the following:
·         Experience and expertise for the position.
·         Goals and strategies.
·         School funding, including 2017 expectations.
·         Levies and funding inequities.
·         Teacher shortage, including compensation.
·         At-risk and vulnerable students.
·         Testing, assessment and graduation.
·         ESDs and their role moving forward.
·         Implementing the shift from NCLB to Every Student Succeeds.

Each candidate was given 2 ½ minutes to answer each question. The planned question session lasted about 90 minutes at which point they opened the floor to questions. They wrapped the session on time and adjourned to lunch for networking.

We audio taped the session but the file is huge (over 160mb) which makes it nearly impossible to share with our readers. TVW was there to film and they have posted the 2 hour session at: http://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2016041016

We took some notes from comments by each of the candidates. We offer those below in no particular order of their comments. A heading for each candidate:

Larry Seaquist (http://www.larryseaquist.com/)

  • No specific plan for dealing with McCleary funding – referred to his brochure
  • Only one to stand up to speak
  • Get kids to want to be teachers
  • Overall level of people becoming teachers is declining as more and more leave
  • Leaving low income kids behind but no clear explanation of what he would do to change
  • Superintendent should be educators partner and not tell them what to do
  • Address laws that impact education.
  • ESSA needs to be flexible
  • Likes “compact schools” model. Believes in local choice.
  • Opt-Out of high stakes testing now! Sue the feds to get out.
  • Change budget year between state and districts to offset times and give districts more time to plan
  • Must assure that the real/true cost of McCleary is understood and explained so people understand
  • Need an ESSA 2.0 and clean it up
  • Overhaul data cillection; analysis; reporting and use of data
  • Don’t accept federal laws without screening and push back as needed
  • Get out of high stakes testing and put the money into skill centers
  • Push businesses to participate in skills education
  • Support community skills model to get local people involved in class rooms
  • Summary: Next legislature isn’t going to solve McCleary; Professionals need to engage, energize and catalyze the public

Erin Jones   (http://www.erinjones2016.org/)

  • No plan for McCleary funding
  • Equality is key. Data, recruiting educators, authentic community engagement, student support.
  • Need better transitions between grades
  • Eliminate barriers for educators to do their job. Help identify local gaps. Academic and soft skills needed
  • High stakes testing is dangerous. Look at other measures. Focus on personal growth.
  • Public doesn’t understand levies. Make sure the public is aware of the financial issues.
  • OSPI should talk about family engagement
  • Need a conversation about who pays taxes
  • OSPI needs to provide data that can be used
  • Accountability has gone overboard – eliminate barriers
  • She is a Director for AVID
  • Match student passion with opportunities and careers
  • Summary: As an educator she eliminated barriers; running because she loves teaching

Chris Reykdal   (http://www.chrisreykdal.com/)

  • Capital gains tax is needed to raise more money
  • Local levy’s should go down or be eliminated and state property taxes increased
  • Need flexible pathways to get 24 HS grad credits
  • Testing is ok but needs work
  • Carer vs. college ready: Functional vs. academic
  • Single snapshot on testing with something that helps and matters. Not linked to grad
  • Thinks ESSA is better than NCLB
  • Doesn’t support charter schools
  • Said Senate blocked action on the levy cliff. OSPI should be an advocate on levy issues.
  • ESSA: Supports; wants it to evolve
  • Local control of school decisions
  • Big data has +/-. Controls are needed. How to manage release? Data systems are poor.
  • Define customers and their needs
  • Steps vs. Outcomes
  • 24 HS credits look like college prep and career prep

Robin Flemming   (http://robinfleming.org/)

  • Didn’t say her name in the intro
  • Least amount of education experience of candidates
  • School nurse with health as her focus
  • No plan for dealing with McCleary funding
  • Wants to level the playing ground
  • Invest in early learning and use a prevention mindset
  • Would create a new department to help districts get access to the system
  • Need a Core education. Talked about the need for trade training but nothing else
  • Role of testing and other methods but not for SBAC.
  • Immigrant and bilingual students have a harder time
  • Schools don’t fail. Poverty is the issue.
  • Excited about ESSA. Sees it as great opportunity for WA State
  • Levy transfers from richer districts to lower income districts to create a balance
  • OSPI needs to help ESD’s/Districts access data and use it. Need better use/applications
  • Health and poverty must be solved to improve education

The candidates are scheduled at ESD’s as follows (note: they will NOT show on the ESD web sites since these are classified as for “educators only”):

4/12/2016 Vancouver 10:00 am Educational Service District 112 at 2500 NE 65th Avenue Vancouver WA 98661
4/20/2016 Puyallup 5:30 pm Aylen Junior High School at 101 – 15th Street SW Puyallup WA 98371
6/02/2016 Everett 5:00 pm Everett Historic Theatre at 2911 Colby Ave Everett WA 98201
6/23/2016 Spokane 6:00 pm Washington State University Health Sciences Campus at 412 E Spokane Falls Blvd. Spokane WA 99202

League of Education Voters   http://educationvoters.org/2016/03/17/state-superintendent-of-public-instruction-candidate-forums/

Candidates

Erin Jones (D) – Educator

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten? Erin jones response..transgender education

 WEA-PAC Questionnaire – Erin Jones

Seattle Education asked for candidates opinions about Opt-Out. Here is Erin Jones response:   https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/erin-jones-statement-on-opting-out/

Erin Jones
PO Box 23125
Seattle WA 98102
(360) 918-3498
Erinjonesin2016@gmail.com
Chris Reykdal (D) – State Rep., Ex-School Board Member & Ex-Teacher

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?

The standards do not promote cross-dressing and other fabrications of the extreme right.  They teach gender identity and self awareness.  These are good things not to be vilified.

Mr. Reykdal’s responses to the WEA questions were received April 25, 2016: Reykdal WEA Candidate Questionnaire SUPERINTENDENT

Seattle Education asked for candidates opinions about Opt-Out. Here is Chris Reykdal’s response:  https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/chris-reykdals-statement-on-opting-out/

Chris Reykdal
855 Trosper Rd Ste 108-117
Tumwater WA 98512
(360) 790-3151
chris4wakids@gmail.com

Robin Flemming: www.robinfleming.org 

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?  Restrooms should be accessible to all people, however they identify.  It is easy to do this by creating bathroom stalls with walls that go to the floor and to (or near to) the ceiling to ensure privacy.  Hand washing facilities can be shared by all.

WEA Candidate questionnaire march 9-Robin_Flemming

Robin Fleming
PO Box 9100
Seattle WA 98109
(206) 235-5516
voterobinfleming@gmail.com

Ron Higgins   (http://www.higgins4spi.com/)

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?

I oppose the new health education learning standards that were quietly adopted by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on March 25 without issuance of public notice or press release.  These new standards include teaching gender expression to kindergarteners.  I believe that these standards are government-sanctioned and taxpayer-subsidized child abuse and should be rescinded.  I also think that the way in which they were adopted, without issuance of public notice or press release, to be egregiously unethical and a flagrant example of “government in the shadows,” rather than “government in sunshine.”

I have attached a more lengthy and detailed response to this email message.  Transgender Education – Ron Higgins

Ron Higgins
PO Box 4007
W Richland WA 99353
(509) 578-4738
educate@higgins4spi.com

David Springs    (https://springforbetterschools.org/)

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?

I have been asked for my position on the new OSPI Sex Education program as described in the following article. http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/01/washington-state-to-teach-transgenderism-to-kindergartners/

Let me begin by pointing out that I am the only candidate running for Superintendent with a Masters Degree in Child Development. I am acutely aware that young children do not have the capacity for abstract reasoning both in terms of brain development as well as an experiential frame of reference to even begin to comprehend most of the extremely complex subjects described in the article. So my objection to this program is the same as my objection to the Common Core standards – neither is age appropriate.

Beyond this, I believe in parental rights and local control of schools. One of the reasons I am running for Superintendent is to eliminate the huge burden of completely needless state regulations imposed on our public schools. There is a place for sex education. But it should be addressed at the local level with participation from and input from local parents and teachers.

Finally, I am deeply disturbed about these divisive debates as they take away focus from what is really harming our kids – namely the fact that we subject them to the lowest funded most over-crowded schools in our nation. What will help our kids is not subjecting them to a State Driven Sex Education Agenda. Rather it would be cutting class sizes from 32 students per class (the highest in the nation) down to 16 students per class (near the lowest in the nation) so that struggling students can finally get the help they need to succeed in school.

I am the only candidate with a REAL plan to double school funding, cut class sizes in half, build hundreds of schools, hire thousands of teachers, provide four years of free higher education and end the toxic SBAC test. I will achieve these goals by going around our gridlocked legislature and directly to our Supreme Court asking them to repeal billions of dollars in illegal tax breaks to wealthy multinational corporations. It is way past time that our State met its Paramount Duty to fully fund our public schools.

David against the SBAC and outlines his reasoning in this article: https://springforbetterschools.org/7-end-high-stakes-testing/why-i-oppose-the-toxic-sbac-test

Here are David’s responses to the questions posed by the WEA: 11 WEA PAC Candidate Questionnaire SUPERINTENDENT_David _Spring

Seattle Education asked for candidates opinions about Opt-Out. Here is David Springs response:   https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/david-springs-statement-on-opting-out/

David Spring
49006 SE 115th St
North Bend WA 98045
(425) 876-9149
david@springforbetterschools.org
KumRoon (Mr. Mak) Maksirisombat
8621 29th Ave SW
Seattle WA 98126
(206) 937-6928
kumroonmak@hotmail.com

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten? No response

Grazyna Prouty

12609 SE 212th Pl
Kent WA 98031
(206) 482-7313
grazyna.ospi@gmail.com

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?

Definitely we need to hold on some things – research AGENDA 21 – Tom DeWeese for the starters, please. Then: Alexandra Swann: AGENDA 21: Bankrupting America into Utopia One City at a Time – education IS a part of AGENDA 21.

Pac4-Life: EDUCATION – Grazyna Prouty – answer to the survey June 9, 2016

Elected Experience:

Political experience profound: links practice of legal industry dismissing laws, standards, and evidence in relation to education, rights of teachers, citizens

Other Professional Experience:

Early Childhood Education (8 years) , K-12 (elementary, junior high, high school certified teacher with six endorsements including English, Early Childhood Education, teaching ESL (ELL), Bilingual; College Instructor

Proficient: English, Polish, Russian (speaking, writing, reading), familiarity: Latin, German, French, Spanish

Education:

MBA (Master of Business Administration), Global Management, City University of Seattle; the second Master’s degree in English Philology: English, American Literature, Linguistics – Phonetics, Phonology, Education

Community Service:

Volunteering, open letters, testimonies.

Statement:

Grazyna credits Polish family (grandparents’ twelve children: eight plus four) and Polish teachers for teaching decency, honor, humility, resilience. Gratitude goes to professors at the City University of Seattle MBA Program: for transformations as dark side of leadership surface: ability to identify systems that lack quality, accountability, transparent budgets (participated: W. Edwards Deming’s red bead experiment, there).

Grazyna’s experience and research of planned agendas, the latest AGENDA 21: Bankrupting America into Utopia: One City at a Time, Alexandra Swann, Rosa Koire;

John Taylor Gatto: “Ultimate History Lesson of American Education ” that theme across with works of Beverly Eakman “Cloning American Mind. Eradicating Morality through Education,” Charlotte Iserbyt “How We Got Here,” “ABCs of Dumbed Down”.

Grazyna communicated ‘voluntary’ (mandated) AGENDA 21 through Open Letters to schools, cities as they implement it with contempt for public, “Common Core: Based on Agenda 21, UNESCO Standards.”

Grazyna is against charter schools (unelected boards), Academic Child Abuse (Engelman), Blumenfeld: NEA, standardized testing: examine Candice Bernd: Morna McDermott’s Flow Chart matching STOP AGENDA 21 – Tom DeWeese.

Public ‘homework” results in awareness on developed ‘pipelines’ that require push-back as multi-faceted endeavors connect both broad research and experience Grazyna has and ‘official language” (‘Amtssprache).’

John Patterson Blair

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?  No response

26410 Vashon Hwy SW
Vashon WA 98070
(206) 391-8780
JohnBlair@ANewFoundationWashington.org
Al Runte
7716 34th Ave NE
Seattle WA 98115
(206) 525-3608
alfred_runte@msn.com

What is your position on teaching transgenderism in Kindergarten?  Al_Runte_Transgender_Ed_Opinion

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