Mary Bass For Seattle School Board
School Board challengers: District needs more than "no"
Seattle School Board member Mary Bass is known to say no. But as she runs for a second term, her challengers say it's not enough to say no. Holding elective office also means offering up solutions.
Emblematic of Bass' style was her role in the school-closure debate. In March, she rejected Superintendent Raj Manhas' request for the board to commit to consolidation criteria. Instead, she asked him to prepare an analysis of each school in the district and outline which ones should be closed. But she panned that later, too, saying it wasn't well-conceived.
"The expectation for me was they were going to bring back some modeling ... so we could see how the criteria would fall out with different schools," Bass said recently. "Instead they came back with the closure plan. That was the choice of the district staff and the superintendent."
Bass says she came up with her own plan to save the district $9 million — but acknowledges she didn't share it with Manhas or his leadership team.
It wasn't the first time Bass and district managers haven't connected. Bass is often at odds with district administrators, at other times ambivalent on promoting any specific action. While her contrarian views have won her a small but vocal following, Bass now faces two challengers in the Sept. 20 primary for her District 5 seat, which represents the Central Area and parts of Capitol Hill.
Jane Fellner, a physician and active Seattle Public Schools parent, and LaCrese Green, a retired state employee, say the board needs more proactive leadership and a focus on improving the quality of education delivered to children.
Mary Bass, 48
Residence: Central Area
Occupation: Project/program manager, traffic engineering, King County Department of Transportation
Personal: Her father, Robert, and uncle, Roscoe, both served as principals in the district
Background: Master's degree in public administration, bachelor's degree in economics, both from the University of Washington; Garfield High School graduate
Top three endorsements: 34th and 37th District Democrats; state Sen. Adam Kline
Campaign Web site: www.marybass.com
Jane Fellner, 53
Residence: Capitol Hill
Occupation: Physician, associate director of clinical information systems, Hall Health, University of Washington
Personal: Married, three sons
Background: Spent a decade working for the Seattle Indian Health Board; active member of school PTAs and a past member of several school-district committees
Top three endorsements: The Alki Foundation, received a "good" rating from Women in Unity
Campaign Web site: www.janefellner.com
LaCrese Green, 62
Residence: NA
Occupation: Retired Department of Social and Health Services employee.
Personal: Louisiana native who has lived in Seattle for 31 years and teaches Sunday school at her church
Background: Bachelor's degree in home economics from Northeast Louisiana State College; taught for three years in public schools in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi
Top three endorsements: None
Campaign Web site: NA
Fellner has done most of her advocacy work behind the scenes as chair of a district task force for more than eight years. She said she was hopeful Bass would lead after being elected board president, become more than a critical voice.
"During those two years, she has not formed a working board that has moved forward her agenda, let alone any others," Fellner said. "I don't think that the children in the Central District are significantly better off than when she came into office."
Bass hasn't reported any campaign contributions as of this week. Fellner has collected nearly $10,000; Green hasn't filed a report.
School Board directors' legal duties include passing a balanced budget, appointing the district superintendent and making fiscal and policy decisions.
Over her nearly four years on the board, Bass has been a consistent "no" vote on major proposals:
• Budgets: Bass has voted against every operating budget. She gained acclaim for being the only board member to oppose former Superintendent Joseph Olchefske's 2002-03 budget, which turned out to be $12 million out of balance.
• Superintendent: Following a national search that yielded no viable candidate with broad community support, in October 2003 Bass voted against the board's giving Manhas a one-year contract, and then voted against a three-year extension last October. On both occasions she supported a new search.
• School choice: As board president, Bass criticized the district for appealing a federal-court ruling against it. The ruling struck down a practice that gave mainly South End students a chance to attend popular North End schools.
"I always speak up, and I'm going to let people know where I stand," Bass said.
Bass, whose father and uncle were district principals, continues to enjoy support from some minority leaders. Her proponents compliment her for being aware of the district's history, asking good questions and staying in close contact with her constituents. But when asked about her accomplishments as a policymaker, they're hard-pressed to point to examples.
Donald Felder, a consultant at the Black Child Development Institute of Seattle, describes Bass this way: "Sometimes you need at least one person who's always going to ask the hard questions, not endorse, so people will at least think about the move that they're going to render."
For her own part, Bass cites as accomplishments her community meetings, her board leadership role against charter schools and her drive to persuade the district's senior management to address "institutional racism."
Bass doesn't, however, enjoy the level of support she used to from the Municipal League of King County. In 2001, it rated Bass "very good." Now it rates her as "good."
Useful links for voters
For a list of candidates, rules on voter registration, absentee ballots, how to find your polling place, maps showing King County Council and Seattle School Board districts, and more election-season information, go to the King County elections office site or call King County Elections at 206-296-8683 (VOTE).
For a list of candidates, rules on voter registration, absentee ballots, how to find your polling place, maps showing King County Council and Seattle School Board districts, and more election-season information, go to the Snohomish County auditor site or call 425-388-3444 for information on voter registration, or 425-388-3422 for polling place information.
To check campaign contributions for Seattle candidates, see the Seattle Ethics & Elections Commission Web site
To check campaign contributions in other races, including state initiatives, see the Public Disclosure Commission
Bass' written statement to the League (www.munileague.org) is hard to follow. For example, she touts her "very unconventional approach to race/race-based policies" but doesn't elaborate. In an interview, she said she opposed using race as a factor in student assignment to schools.
In another instance, she referred to a "philisopical inversion [sic]" in the district without explanation. Later, in an interview, she clarified that she meant reversing a trend of more school autonomy and dependence on private grants.
Bass listed integrity, grace and tenacity as her most important personal traits.
"At times, I have found myself in rather lonely positions on the Board," Bass wrote. "I have faced criticism from some who thought that I was too critical and was not willing to be a 'team player.' But, I am a team player — I just don't like the game."
With the prospect of thousands of high-school students failing state tests required to graduate, Bass has recently suggested to her fellow board members that some under-used school buildings could accommodate those who need more time to learn. In addition, Bass supports standardizing the curriculum districtwide to ensure students' academic experiences become more uniform across the city — but she also supports parents' right to have a choice among schools.
"We're at a point where we're going to have to pull back decision-making from the building level," Bass said. "Those hard decisions may well have to come from the superintendent."
Fellner says she would bring a collaborative leadership style and focus on giving teachers more training and resources. Fellner said she also would work with city and state leaders to get universal preschool, extended learning time and more health and social services to families.
"The School Board has not made the difficult decisions that will allow us to live within our means while maintaining excellence," Fellner wrote in a statement to the Municipal League. The most recent example, she said, was the board's disarray on school consolidation.
Green, who retired 16 years ago from the state Department of Social and Health Services, said the district should zero in on academic textbooks, not those that "teach political indoctrination."
Green believes Bass has been ineffective on the board. Voting against proposals, Green said, makes it easier to gloat when a board decision turns out to be unwise.
"If she had known funds were being mismanaged, it was her job to convince the other members of the board," Green said. "I've been to all of her community meetings. She sits there and says truth is anything you want it to be. I don't. It's either black or white, and that's it."
Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com
posted by Mike at 5:34 AM
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