Saturday, November 2, 2013

Sharon Peaslee supports Sue Peters for School Board | Seattle Education

Sharon Peaslee supports Sue Peters for School Board | Seattle Education:

Sharon Peaslee supports Sue Peters for School Board

A personal note from Sharon Peaslee:

Dear Seattle Parents & Concerned Citizens,

Seattle School Board Director Sharon Peaslee

If you haven’t voted yet you may be wondering why you should. This school board race is urgently important. Seattle Public Schools is emerging from scandal, crisis and head-spinning turnover. Voting is your way of helping to support the ongoing progress of our schools and district.

We need School Board Directors with unquestionable integrity so that we will continue moving forward. We need School Board Directors who are committed to honest, transparent dealings so that we as a Board can work collaboratively with each other and with the Superintendent and staff.

You can count on Sue Peters in all respects.

Sue has the integrity, intelligence and compassion to be a really great School Board Director. She has proven her commitment to Seattle Public Schools across ten years as a volunteer and parent– recently serving on the Strategic Plan Task Force and Superintendent Selection Committee. As a Stanford-educated journalist she relentlessly pursues the truth of any issue. I’ve worked with Sue as a writer and have witnessed how she tracks down information to the last detail before drawing conclusions. And she isn’t afraid to change her mind if more information is found. Sue’s ability to think clearly and critically is really important for the continuous improvement of our schools.

Seattle School Board candidate Sue Peters.

Sue is not controlled by any special interests. This is highly significant. She has no multimillionaires forming a PAC so they can funnel over $130,000 into her campaign. Sue’s campaign has not been bought and she won’t be controlled by an entitled elite who want a School Board that will do their bidding.

In stark contrast, Suzanne Dale-Estey is supported by the most entitled elite of our region. They include Microsoft CEO Steve (and Connie) Ballmer, CEO of the Gates Foundation – Jeff Raikes, businessmen Matt Griffin, Christopher Larson, Nick Hanauer. None of these people have children in Seattle Public Schools. But they and other Estey supporters do have special interests– including charter schools, Teach for America, and “accountability” measures that tie standardized test scores to teacher evaluation. Inevitably they will expect their chosen candidates to further their agenda, whether or not it’s what the parents of Seattle want for our children

Some of Dale-Estey’s supporters have formed a PAC.

Great Seattle Schools, with a war chest of over $130,000. The PAC recently sent out an attack mailer accusing Sue Peters of being a conspiracy theorist because she connected the dots between Gates Foundation & Eli Broad money to organizations involved in public education. These same connections have been reported in The New York Times, and other national newspapers. The funders of Dale-Estey’s PAC are apparently the only few who regard this as a conspiracy theory. Most know it’s just the facts.

Possibly even more disturbing is Dale-Estey’s own campaign of misinformation. She has repeatedly stated that the School Board rated itself as “utterly dysfunctional” on its recent self-evaluation. The fact is, not a single Board member did this.

Most of us raised concerns over issues of trust, and in my opinion this is the only dysfunction of the current School Board. It has arisen because some Board members have repeatedly used media contacts and influential people to disparage fellow Board Directors. This public and private backstabbing has most certainly undermined our ability to trust each other and work in a collegial manner. Truly we do not need a new Board member who is doing this before they’re even elected.

Dale-Estey has frequently ranted that Seattle Public Schools has a dropout rate of 30%, “and this is completely unacceptable.” It’s also completely untrue.

Dale-Estey could find accurate numbers by simply doing a Google search. The class of 2012 had an on-time graduation rate of 73.6%. The dropout rate was 15.6%. This information is available in the SPS report from December 2012:

Dale-Estey has been less than truthful about herself, too. On her website she claims she was a Federal Legislative Analyst for Washington State Governor Gary Locke. In forums (see video) she claims she ran Locke’s DC office. The truth is, she was a summer intern in his DC office for three months. You can read more about Dale- Estey’s Embellishments on Seattle Schools Community Forum

We do not need a School Board Director who intentionally distorts the facts to serve her own purposes. We do not need a School Board Director who is beholden to an entitled elite who are clearly foisting her into office to further their interests over the interests of our students.

We need a School Board Director who will seek and speak the truth so that we can make the courageous and continuous improvements needed to support all our students. We need Sue Peters, and I urge you to vote for her. Please pass this on to anyone you know who may still be on the fence, or who has not yet voted.

Sincerely,

Sharon Peaslee

Endorsements