It’s candidate registration week for Seattle School Board. Filing closes Friday, June 5th at 4pm.  Three of Seattle’s seven districts are up for election this November.

District 4- S. Ballard/Queen Anne/Magnolia (Michael DeBell- running)

District 5- CD/Capitol Hill (Mary Bass- not yet filed)

District 7- Beacon Hill/SE ( Cheryl Chow- not running)

Our district covers (covered) 11 schools. Of those, this year’s round of “capacity management” closed TT Minor and Meany,  split Lowell, partially relocated Thurgood Marshall and relocated/cohoused  Nova. We’re left with two vacant buildings for which no plans have been identified and over crowding at three, possibly more of our remaining schools. Seattle Public Schools face challenges and concerns in every district, but this year’s disruption to District 5 was unprecedented.

Currently, only one candidate, Kay Smith-Blum, has filed to represent our district. I do not know if Mary will seek another term. I’ve heard we may have another candidate as well.  Given the big money that poured into the last election (Directors Sundquist, Maier, Carr; 2007) paired with the poor management of our district and the larger SPS, this is an issue to follow in our community and city wide.

Update-

We have a second candidate for our district, Andre Helmstetter.

http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/contests/candidates.asp