To follow is information from Demian Godon, a parent of a child in the Seattle Public School System and a member of Parents Across America Seattle:

In case you didn’t know, school board director is one of (perhaps the
only) position that has NO campaign contribution limits. In Seattle,
we have seen candidates raise astronomical amounts of money for their
campaigns. This is remarkable given that the position is unpaid and is
enormously demanding.
In 2011, here are the amounts raised for the main contenders for the
SPS board (according to
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/MvcQuerySystem/Candidate/loc_candidates):
Name Contributions
MAIER PETER L 69648.13 (Incumbent)
SUNDQUIST STEPHEN J 50640.69 (Incumbent)
CARR SHERRY L 42485.14 (Incumbent)
MARTIN-MORRIS HARIUM J 35868.15 (Incumbent)
MCLAREN MARTHA L 26963.73 (Challenger)
BUETOW MICHELLE C 19439.49 (Challenger)
PEASLEE SHARON D 16052.44 (Challenger)
MARTIN KATE 11418 (Challenger)

As a side note, the funding disparity was even worse in 2007 when the
incumbents came into office. I’m not sure if their supporter became
disillusioned or if they assumed they wouldn’t need as much, being
incumbents and all. See below for details.

Not only did the four incumbents have the advantage of name
recognition from being incumbents, but they each received tens of
thousands more in campaign contributions. And, when we look a bit
closer it was largely the same top 15 donors who contributed a big
chuck of this haul. Here’s what the top 15 contributed to each:
Maier – $17,000
Sundquist – $18,000
Carr – $20,500
Martin-Morris – $20,000

Incidentally, I know several of these top donors are also the funders
who donated to pay the Teach for America, Inc. (TFA, Inc) “recruitment fees” for the district. The identity of these donors was kept secret when the board voted to bring TFA, Inc. into our district.

Given that these donors were the incumbent’s biggest donors, I
would find it hard (impossible) to believe they didn’t know their
identities. That they didn’t insist on revealing this connection
before the vote is another betrayal of the public trust. It sounds to me like
a nice backroom deal to get the corporate reform machinery in the
door. If I get time (or if someone else knows wants to help), it
would be interesting to find out a bit more about these donors and
their motives. One notable change in their donors is the lack of any
support in 2011 from Nick Hanauer, who had donated very generously to
all the incumbents 2007 campaigns. Nick is the co-founder of the League of Education

Given how heavily their campaigns were bankrolled and the advantage of
incumbency, it’s remarkable that two of them (the two most heavily
funded) were defeated. None of them did themselves any favors with
their performance as directors, but it’s a testament to the
challengers to have pulled off this underdog victory. In a fair
election, I have no doubt it would’ve been a clean sweep. Actually,

-Demian

2007 Campaign Contributions:
Name Contributions
MAIER PETER L 167721.72
CARR SHERRY L 149130.88
SUNDQUIST STEPHEN J 116755.46
MARTIN-MORRIS HARIUM J 64220
SORIANO SALLY J 35063.76
RAMIREZ MARIA G 30038.32
STUEBING LISA C 22987.32
FLYNN DARLENE E 16717.96