2015 race - Seattle times-recommends-michael-christophersen-for-seattle-school-board-district-1
The-seattle-mediums-2015-general-election-political-endorsements/
Why are you running?
We need drastic changes to insure the district can hire and retain the best teachers plus maintain our schools without taxing people out of their homes or taking on massive debt. Cutting teachers and librarians or forgoing building maintenance is not the answer to a financial crisis. Once in office, I would conduct a review of all possible cost savings including elimination of central administrative positions and unnecessary expenditures. I would like to see an expansion of the Running Start program and more online learning options, especially for credit recovery.
What is your biggest priorities?
Making sure our schools are properly funded without taxing people out of their homes and that the majority of funds reach the individual schools.
Empowering neighborhood schools
Our schools are central in creating thriving neighborhoods so fully funding each school plus empowering neighborhood schools to serve their distinct resident's needs is critical and an important endeavor to work towards. Cookie cutter approaches tend to leave students, parents and residents feeling removed from decision making and just don't work well in solving problems across a district with diverse populations. I support a new funding model that focuses on schools being funded over a district being funded. I support empowering schools the flexibility to provide the best education possible to each student.
Improving Outcome For Students With Learning Disabilities
With nearly 5,000 Seattle Public schools students having been identified as having some form of learning disability and an estimated 5,000 more students still unidentified, it is critical that we implement scientific approaches in our classrooms to address these challenges.
Lowering Central Administrative Cost
Once in office, I would conduct a review of all 800 + central administrative positions then work with the board and the superintendent to redirect unnecessary administrative expenditures to our classrooms.
Changing Board Policy 6220
Per Board Policy 6220, Procurement, all contracts for more than $250,000 initial value, excluding sales tax and contingencies, and changes or amendments of more than $250,000, excluding sales tax and contingencies, must be approved by the School Board.
I would push to lower the dollar amount to $25,000 for non-budgeted expenditures.
My partner and I both attended Seattle public schools and we have 2 children who have graduated from SPS , one in 2017 and the other in 2019. Our third child is entering high school this fall.
I'm ready to do what is needed to provide an equitable, meaningful, and fundamentally sound education for all students and I need your vote to do it and your support over the next 4 years.
Please vote for me.
Sincerely,
Michael Christophersen
christophersen4schools@gmail.com
Financial accountability is needed but a $20,000 amount needing board approval is unrealistic. The board would be spending an inordinate amount of time looking at purchases.
ReplyDeleteA better approach would be to put the District Checkbook online.
See how Peyton Wolcott made this happen in Texas school districts HERE Then we would know exactly where the money was going and the board could devote its time to directing the school system.
Financial Accountability
Thank you for the great idea. The main reason for lowering amount needing board approval centers around the financial agreements the district enters into without the boards involvement. There are also many law suit settlements under $249,000 that escape board scrutiny. I like your checkbook idea, but it seems too late to stop something once it's all ready paid out.
ReplyDelete" I like your checkbook idea, but it seems too late to stop something once it's all ready paid out."
DeleteOn the contrary, once the online checkbook accountability system was set up... Spenders would know that the spending would be made public. Spending decisions would be immediately altered.
The Board could then supervise the Superintendent's financial performance without being accused of the dreaded "Micro-Management".
Financial Accountability
I don't think is was responsible for the current school board to move an unbalanced budget out of committee. There could have been a underlining reason for doing so but that reason has not been clearly stated by the board. It's also troubling that the district has made it a habit to take ear marked levy funds and use those for other purposes. If you are already running a deficit how do you plan on returning the BEX funds so they can be used as the voters intended?
ReplyDeleteEquity is a balanced school district budget.
ReplyDeleteThanks for speaking with our group the other night and good luck. I'm interested in seeing your "box of shame" investigation posting you mentioned. It's hard to believe that grown adults are treating school children that way in 2019. I hope other SPS parents will read the story and take to action.
ReplyDeleteEmily
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Michael J. Christophersen,
ReplyDeleteI am a Seattle University MFA student enrolled in a course on public policy and the arts course this summer. Our class is compiling a Seattle Arts Voter Guide for the 2019 Election primaries. This project began with city council members and we are now expanding to include all Seattle Public School board candidates. This nonpartisan guide will include statements by candidates on how they imagine arts as part of public education Seattle.
Your response will be posted on the guide’s website, www.seattleartsvoterguide.com and shared on social media. The traction on the website has been gaining up to 166 visitors per day while our social media posts on Facebook have reached up to 126 people.
I am writing to invite you to participate in the guide. Here's how:
Email me and arts@seattleartsvoterguide.com at your earliest convenience share your arts platform that we will post on our website: To do so, reply to this email with the following:
My response:
Hi Erin,
Thanks for contacting me and congratulations on your MFA degree. My partner Darcie Kline is a graphic designer and scientific illustrator as well as other things. I wanted to respond to your email not with answers to your questions because I believe people usually say what they think other people want to hear.
I believe that beautiful art transcends politics. Some people enjoy the provocative side of art but being the son of a Northwest professional artist who created 1000s of beautify paintings over his lifetime, I do not particularly care for the provocative side of art.
Some of my fondest memories are of my father coming to my Seattle Public Schools art class and teaching students about what it takes to make a living as an artist. My father told the class that he felt very fortunate to make a living doing something that no one really needs.
As a father I encouraged all three of my children to participate in the arts. Each has their own area which they enjoy; acting, dance, music and of course drawing and painting are just a few of their artistic endeavors which they have enjoyed as Seattle Public School students.
Art can open up new opportunities for every child and I was fortunate to be immersed in art every day growing up, but most children’s only exposure to art is at their school. The benefits of art classes for children is well documented and in my opinion ill refutable, so we need to insure that children in our public schools get to experience a wide spectrum of art free from the politics of adults.
I hope you find my response honest and open and good luck in your future artistic endeavors.
Michael Christophersen
Zanna
ReplyDeleteSun, Jun 23, 1:21 PM
to me
Hello Michael,
I am a member of Seattle Integrated Schools (https://integratedschools.org/). Integrated Schools is a national non-profit organization growing the movement of parents who call for and participate in school integration. We currently have 15 chapters around the country, and over 33,000 downloads of our podcast.
In Seattle, we are sending the following questionnaire to all candidates running for School Board in 2019: https://forms.gle/PN6Gh6fevFuJj4K16
Your responses are much appreciated, and we intend to share them publicly so that people who care about segregation and integration can inform their vote.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Zanna Satterwhite
My response:
Hi Zenna,
Thanks for contacting me. Looks like you are working on something you feel passionate about. I'm running for District 1 which when you look at the data seems integrated more than most in Seattle. I don't know if you have the data, I could send you a copy of the excel spread sheet I created tracking distinct by district populations of SPED, FRL. I haven't inserted all the race data expect for district 1 yet but I will when time allows.
Our neighborhood elementary school Viewlands which is the school I attended in the 60s is a Title one school with a 27% FRL population and a very balanced racial population. I would say in the 60s it was almost completely white with blue collar families. My high school Ingraham probably had less than 25 black students back in 1980 and today whites are not the majority. Like Viewlands the racial balance at Ingraham seems integrated.
Having 7 school board members allows for the opportunity for people with different passions to steer the district for all communities. However if the district goes broke all students will lose out on many great opportunities we may have experienced attending Seattle Public Schools.
The problem I find with candidate surveys is most people will fill in what they think others want to hear. So, I will not be filling out the questioner.
My passions and concerns for SPS can be found on my blog : https://saveseattleschool.blogspot.com