I thought that before we take a look at the school board candidates this year, and there are plenty to choose from, we would take a look back to the voting record of the school board directors during the reign of our Broad trained superintendent, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, before she was fired.

The voting record of these four incumbents, sometimes referred to as the Gang of Four, is understandable given the fact that there were plenty of Broad sponsored retreats run by Broadies in the last three years.

So let’s see how the incumbents voted on the critical issues. The School Board Directors who are up for re-election are Sherry Carr, Peter Maier, Harium Martin Morris and Steve Sundquist.

Collectively they voted the following: Sherry Carr- 2 No votes, Peter Maier-0 No votes, Harium Martin-Morris-14 No votes and Steve Sundquist-  0 No votes.

Here’s the rundown.

The RIF (laying off of teachers termed a Reduction in Force) authorization in May, 2008

Sundquist: Abstained

Carr: Yes

Martin-Morris: Yes

Maier: Yes

Pay raise and contract extension for Dr. Goodloe-Johnson in July, 2008

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

School closures and splitting of APP in 2009.

Sundquist, Carr and Maier: Yes

Harium Martin-Morris: No (A flash of critical thinking outside the Broad box?)

Acceptance of a $1.2M grant from the Broad Foundation for the 5 Year Strategic Plan (Can you imagine that Broad was actually going to and did write our “Strategic Plan” that the board fell in lockstep behind?)

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

RIF Authorization in 2009 that didn’t make a lick of sense unless you understood the (Broad) superintendent’s intention of beginning the conversation about seniority, a hot issue with the privateers who think that experience does not a good teacher make, particularly if instead you can have Teach for America recruits on board. The majority of teacher gained their jobs back because as it turned out more students attended the Seattle Public School system than anticipated by central staff even though the census report and common sense and the early student registrations said something entirely different.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

The NWEA contract for $400,000.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

The “New Student Assignment Plan”, (What a joke! Did anyone even try to understand the ramifications of re-segregating our schools and making it difficult for students to apply to the alternative schools? Apparently not. The ultimate plan is to make the south end of Seattle ripe for charters. Gates, CPPS and the League of Education voters have begun to seep into those minority communities where charter schools reign in other regions of the country. See the e-mail below from Kelly Munn of the Gates backed League of Education Voters. The bold print is mine.)

Hello,
> If you know of anyone who would be interested in working for six months as a field contractor…please send them the job listing below. Preferably the person is of color, a parent, has done some education
advocacy and/or political work.
> —
>
> Kelly Munn
> League of Education Voters
> State Field Director
> Cell 425.773.7878

Contract Announcement:
>
> Community Organizer for Education Reform

> Who We Are: The League of Education Voters is a nonprofit
> organization who advocate for quality education for all children from
> cradle to career. We are the only Washington-based organization
> working to improve public education from early learning through higher
> education. We shape the debate, build powerful coalitions, and grow
> the grassroots to achieve meaningful reform and adequate resources for
> education.

Wanted: Six month Contract community organizer for education reform –
Highline, Seattle

Gates is doing the same thing in the Somali community of Seattle.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Yet another contract extension for Dr. Goodloe-Johnson in July, 2009 who had met only 4 out of her 17 goals.

(Need I even say?) Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Performance Management Policy

(I know this is getting redundant) Yes, yes, yes and yes

RIF Authorization in April, 2010

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Pay raise, incentive (as in “merit pay” as Sundquist referred to is as) and contract extension in July, 2010.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

NWEA contract for $450,000 while Dr. Goodloe-Johnson was on the NWEA board but had not disclosed this to the school board or anyone else for that matter.

(Conflict of interest for our former superintendent? The board said “No” but the rest of us said “Yes!” The reason that the superintendent finally announced to the board that she was on the Board of Directors of NWEA, which created that special MAP test that our students take 3 times a school year at the cost of $10M and counting,  was because some of us let it be known that she was on the NWEA board.)

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

The sale of the Martin Luther King school property at a bargain basement price to First AME Church, the church that Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and her friend Fred Stephens attended at the time, even though other interests offered higher bids.

Yes, yes and yes.

Maybe Martin-Morris smelled a rat because he voted “No” on this deal.

Bringing Teach for America, Inc. to Seattle for no good reason that any of us can come up with. Oh yeah, that five year strategic plan that Broad provided us with which had the ultimate intent of establishing charter schools in the south end of Seattle.

Yes, yes, yes and yes!

RIF authorization in May, 2011 by interim superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Pay raises for central administration staff announced by Dr. Enfield in June, 2011.

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

This is why all four of the incumbents need to be replaced with folks who are not bought and can maintain their critical thinking skills throughout their tenure.

Next up, the candidates.

Dora

Post Script: The information on the voting record of the incumbents was compiled by a member of Parents Across America, Seattle and can be found at this location.