I have years of experience in the District as a parent, an observer, a volunteer, an adviser and an advocate for families and schools.  Together we've been through teacher layoffs, student school reassignments, transportation issues, principal changes, superintendent changes, school schedule changes, difficult financial times and challenging capacity issues.  I have collaborated with teachers and with school administrators, worked on Building Leadership Teams, and helped write a school's strategic plan.  Currently I'm working as a Fiscal Specialist at Hamilton International Middle School, where I have a growing expertise in the hands-on financial operations of Seattle Public Schools. 

Too often our District has been guilty of insufficient planning, research and community engagement, and this has repeatedly led to unnecessary disruption and tumult in the life of Seattle students.  I can aid the District in better executing decisions and creating policies that are consistent with good data and with the values set forth in the Strategic Plan – those centering the District’s business on student learning!  We can do better and I can help lead the way with the benefit of my experience in the District and in the schools, my listening and people skills, and my well-developed analytical and problem-solving skills.

In addition, I want to work with Seattle families to ensure that we as a District are offering a wide variety of educational experiences so that all of our kids can flourish, whether they need additional enrichment and academic foundational work, emotional and social supports, extra offerings in the arts or in STEM, or adaptive skills to move forward and be successful in their post-school years.  We desperately need to focus our attention on closing the achievement gap, but school should be a place that is joyous for kids to learn, and I believe we should redirect resources to provide those different experiences within the context of the Seattle Public Schools.  We need a better run system with better offerings in Seattle, not charter schools or vouchers.

Seattle School District should also place more value on professional development and on creating district-wide professional communities that foster positive innovations and best practices and energy throughout our region.  If we can work to create more positive morale within our schools, we will create a more positive community between staff and families, a more enriching classroom environment, and more resilience in the face of our challenges.  Seattle deserves all of this and more!

Experience

About Me

Daughter & Granddaughter of Teachers

Ballard Resident since 2001

Parent of two SPS Students

Seattle Public Schools Fiscal Specialist

I have lived in the Whittier Heights neighborhood of Ballard for the last 16 years. I have two kids currently in Seattle Public Schools - a 10th grader in the SM4i Special Ed Inclusion program at Ingraham High School, and a 7th grader at Hamilton International Middle School (he'll be moving to Robert Eagle Staff Middle School for his 8th grade year). Both kids went to co-op preschools run by North Seattle Community College, and both attended Kaleidoscope Preschool in Magnolia for two years.

The Way Back Machine

My parents moved here in 1967, and my mom was a teacher at Montlake Elementary for that first year, where she taught her class in the school cafeteria until Thanksgiving, when a portable was finally provided to her.  They lived in an apartment building on Thorndyke and eventually moved to a house on W. Armour in Magnolia.  My father went to SPU on the GI bill to get his teaching certification, then found himself looking for a teaching job in 1971 when the local economy was contracting due to the mass Boeing layoffs.  We moved to Olympia where he found a teaching job, then my sister was born and we moved back to Pennsylvania to be closer to family.  My parents subsequently moved back to Seattle and now live in Olympic Manor in Ballard.

I myself attended public schools for all of my K-12 experience in a small town in Pennsylvania.  My dad was my 5th grade reading/math teacher, and my mom was a substitute teacher in the building during my middle and high school years.  My mother ultimately took an administrative job at Carnegie Mellon University, and I attended tuition-free as the child of an employee.

Or email to Elect.Lisa.Seattle@gmail.com