The race between Carol Rava and Jen LaVallee to characterize South Seattle on the Seattle College Board is a contest of nuance.
Each candidates are riveted on higher oversight of the varsity district’s price range. Each have eloquently articulated new approaches to enhancing college security. And each have a demonstrated dedication to Seattle Public Colleges, although of very differing types: LaVallee is a mom-turned-activist. She co-founded the grassroots group All Collectively for Seattle Colleges, and has a good deal with regenerating belief between SPS and oldsters.
Rava, who previously labored at district headquarters, is extra of a brass-tacks pragmatist. Her eye is on setting efficiency targets, figuring out the way to meet them, and utilizing knowledge to make higher selections.
Both could be a worthy voice for households in District 7, which stretches from Rainier Seashore to Beacon Hill. However Rava has the skilled experience — in training coverage, know-how, finance and administration — to hit the bottom working, so she wins The Occasions editorial board’s endorsement. In a district with challenges the dimensions of Seattle’s, there isn’t a time to navigate a studying curve.
Essentially the most urgent drawback is SPS’ price range, which has been roughly $100 million within the pink for 3 years working. Darkening the image are latest analyses that recommend the Seattle College Board has didn’t scrutinize some 31% of its spending, largely at district headquarters.
A serious cause for this lack of oversight is the present board’s determination to remain out of cash issues below its new administration method, generally known as “Scholar Outcomes Targeted Governance.” SOFG, which comes with rigid rules and hefty charges for required coaching, deems college spending to be past the board’s purview as a result of funds usually are not a scholar end result.
“I feel that’s extremely problematic,” stated Rava, noting state legislation explicitly assigns fiduciary accountability to high school board administrators. LaVallee additionally opposes the SOFG mannequin, which, bizarrely, discourages board members from assembly repeatedly with their constituents. Whoever is elected, it’s possible the subsequent college board could have sufficient votes to finish its contract with SOFG. Hallelujah.
But, in her endorsement interview, LaVallee was squishy about how she’d vote on labor contracts the district can’t afford, such because the one at the moment in place with lecturers. Regardless of understanding its salaries went properly past what Seattle may cowl, LaVallee stated she “would have actually struggled” to vote no. It’s troublesome to sq. this place along with her outrage on the present board for abdicating its fiscal tasks.
For some, Rava’s historical past might increase questions of a unique type. She labored on training on the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis, a significant pressure behind the state’s controversial constitution college legislation, although Rava says she doesn’t assist charters. In 2008, she left that job to hitch former Seattle Public Colleges Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson at district headquarters, a interval when the district ill-advisedly closed 11 colleges (solely to reopen them a number of years later) and have become embroiled in financial scandal.
Rava, who had no involvement in these crimes, says the expertise made clear the hazards of getting a chief government blinded by allegiance to outdated associates.
On a extra private stage, Rava has seen 5 youngsters by way of Seattle colleges and put in time to stand up to hurry on Ok-12 finance by way of a certificates course at Georgetown College’s well-known Edunomics Lab.
She has a clear-eyed view for what’s essential to take SPS into the long run, and the skilled chops to make that imaginative and prescient actual.
