ShorelineSchoolBlog.org

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Simple Majority For Levies - 4204

Help get the word out to your friends and neighbors on 4204 by sending them these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9F4ABo3xg

http://www.simplybetterschools.org

Help Support New Candidates

Kyle Burleigh for School Board Director, District 1
Maren Norton for School Board Director, District 4
Richard Potter for School Board Director, District 5

What can you (educators, parents, students) do to help these candidates and make a positive difference in the Shoreline School District?

1. Leaflet an area in Shoreline or lake Forest Park on Saturday, October 20.
2. Wave a sign at a designated corner on Friday afternoon, October 19.
3. Write a letter to the Shoreline Enterprise Editor (or to the Times/PI).
4. Talk to at least five of their friends and neighbors in Shoreline and urge them to vote for Potter, Burleigh and Norton!

Here is additional information about each of these activities.

1. Leaflet on Saturday, October 20th:
We will meet at 9:30 am on Saturday morning, October 20, in the parking lot next to the Shoreline Senior Center at the Shoreline Center (south end) on 185th and First Avenue North. Teams of two will leaflet designated areas from 10 am to Noon. Volunteers will be given a designated geographic area and leaflets to distribute to residents or leave in door jambs or on door mats. Most important will be leaving a flyer in the door (NOT the mailbox) or sticking out from a door mat. If people are actually home, the only expectation would be for people to introduce themselves, ask the resident to vote for Norton, Burleigh, and Potter and leave a flyer. Please email me (from your personal, non-school account) or contact your building rep to volunteer!

2. Sign Waving on Friday, October 19th:
Join us to wave Potter and Burleigh signs on the following corners/intersections from 4 PM to 6 PM or 4:30 to 6:30 PM on Friday, October 19th: 15th Ave NE and 145th; 175th exit off of I-5; Ballinger exit off of I-5; 205th and Aurora; Aurora and 175th; Aurora and 185th; Lake City/Bothell Way and 145th; Ballinger and Bothell Way (Lake Forest Park Shopping Center corners) The campaigns will supply the signs. Please choose an intersection to focus on that may be near your school site and email me or contact your building rep to volunteer!

3. Write a Letter to the Editor of the Shoreline Enterprise and/or Seattle Times or PI. Talking points for Letters to Editor and/or community conversations could be as follows:
1) It's time for a change to the School Board. Shoreline cannot afford any more mistakes or fiscal mismanagement. The current Board members took four years to figure out that they needed to be more vigilant and watch the budget more carefully. They continue to rely too heavily on whatever District administrators tell them, and they have failed to ask independent questions.
2) Richard Potter, Kyle Burleigh, and Maren Norton understand and support the value of neighborhood schools. They understand that our community revolves around our schools.
3) Potter, Burleigh and Norton are willing to revisit previous consulting arrangements and determine whether Shoreline District is getting its money's worth out of those arrangements. The Board incumbents have been unwilling to correct past mistakes.
4) The three incumbents have treated educators, parents and concerned citizens as nuisances and placed public comment at the end of long Board meetings. There is a lack of accountability towards the parents, taxpayers, educators, and students in Shoreline. There is an unwillingness on the incumbents' part to engage in dialogue with parents, educators and concerned community members.

5) Shoreline's instructional integrity is at stake. We cannot balance the current District budget on the backs of students and educators. We need to provide adequate resources to the classroom - after all, that's where the rubber hits the road for education.

4. Spread the word:
Talk to at least five of your friends and neighbors in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and urge them to vote for Potter, Burleigh and Norton!

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Jacobs, Burleigh air views on Shoreline School District

By Sarah Koenig
Enterprise writer

Teacher's Union Endorses Candidates

District 1
Kyle Burleigh

District 4
Maren Norton

District 5
Richard Potter

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Maren Norton Endorsement

I attended the Shoreline Council Candidate Forum and would like to share my impressions on the School Board candidates:

Within two minutes of Maren Norton speaking I realized she is one of those rare, intelligence, exceptional people that come around occasionally and that we need to grab her because someone else will. She definitely stood out far from the pack.

Why? She has successful experience to bring to the table. She was voted student body president at Stanford University representing 14,000 students and 4 million dollars. She worked at Washington State House of Representatives getting to know our legislation process in Olympia. She went to Michigan Law School. She has an impressive resume and has received too many outstanding achievement awards to mention in email.

On a personal note: I had coffee with Senator Maria Cantwell when I visited Washington DC. When her Educational Legislative Assistant found out I was from Shoreline she asked about Maren Norton. She said she was outstanding and that both Senators are keeping an eye on our local Shoreline School Board elections.

She has awed both our State Senators, she has my vote.
Why is this legislative tidbit important? Because we have huge gaps in un-funded educational mandates and we need someone that understands and can begin the process of closing those funding gaps. She has the experience and connections to do a lot for us.
Please also vote for Richard Potter and Kyle Burleigh.
The school board incumbents are running on the platform that they inherited the school district mess and they have worked hard to correct the problems. Yes that is true, but they didn't start correcting any problems until they were brought out publicly about two years ago. Michael Jacobs has been on the board six years and Jim Leigh for four. Both robotically continued to approve budgets such as the $4.5 mil. (est.) energy studies which the district didn't have money for. Michael Jacobs was part of hiring Jim Welsh the school Superintendent that caused this mess. These incumbents didn't understand their jobs, and what was already falling apart finally came out in the open.
Teachers are frustrated with our current school board. Teachers are the ones in the everyday trenches educating our kids; and are our fist indicators of when things are not working.

Please email this to anyone that can vote and lets get a good school board elected.

Web Sites: marennorton.com
SmileForKyle.com
Vote4Potter.com

Shorelineschools.org for undated meetings and candidate forums

Tiia-Mai Barrett
Highland Terrace Elementary and Einstein Middle School