Eric Feeny

Introduce Yourself

Why do you want to serve as a Seattle Public School Board Director?

We need somebody to listen to families, and be creative and aggressive to take concrete steps to make short and long term gains toward making this district the envy it should be. Please don’t vote for ideologies and buzz words; we’ve done that for 2 cycles and it hasn’t translated to results. Not every single board member needs to look like a 25 year education policy person. This hasn't worked for us. My priorities are based on volunteering in the schools and talking with staff and community. Academic excellence, organizational agility, administrative responsiveness, and creative maximization of budget with a priority on educator ratios.

Board Skills
What skills or perspectives do you bring that are currently missing or underrepresented on the
school board?

In my career, I have built high performing cultures with under-dog resources, and outcompeted better funded, bigger and better known competitors. In negotiating partnerships between companies, through engagement I have been able to understand what partners and customers need and design novel structures and policies that are successful because we do what’s right and fair and focus on lifting everybody up and getting results and being accountable. As my neighbor said, “A pragmatist, I’ll vote for that.”

Top Challenge
What is SPS’s biggest challenge, and what specific action would you take to help solve it?

The district needs to see itself not as a policing agent, but as a helping hand.

Increase school autonomy, allowing and encouraging schools to pursue excellence. Shift kids to mastery based groups by subject. When the goal is to make rapid progress, the most effective strategy is trying things in accordance with your strengths, while looking around and also copying what is working for others. We need to increase standards and demand growth from all students, not ignore them when they meet the minimum. I will be a ruthless opponent of blockades and obstacles and red tape, and a champion of excellence and cross-pollination.

Community Partnership and Board Operations
What will you do to improve relationships with the community, specifically with parents and
educators?

I commit to having nobody fall between the cracks. I have been involved for years and many times felt like we were yelling into the wind. With permission I will keep tabs on everybody who testifies at board meetings or reaches out to me and help organize them into appropriate action groups and then connect them with relevant district employees. My goal is to bring people into the process, keep them informed, and reestablish trust and decorum. I have already committed to staying more in sync with SEA. I also will try to get invited to professional development community events where allowed.

School Closures
Did you support or oppose the recent school closure proposals? Do you think that school
closures/consolidations should be considered in the coming 5 years?

I did not find the fiscal argument for closing schools to be compelling when adjusted for enrollment. I do not believe in monolithic solutions for a diverse population. I believe that in aggressively pursuing excellence we will win back families in excess of any demographic compression. The vast supermajority of families would prefer a strong public school option, so let’s pursue that doggedly.

Socioeconomic Equity
What policies or budget actions would you support that would reduce socioeconomic and racial
disparities among Seattle Public Schools students?

I am a huge proponent of getting the best out of everybody and making space for people with different strengths to shine. To me this comes down to increasing agility and responsiveness and accountability. More buzzwords than I’d like, so let’s give concrete examples. I want to put in place a public escalation board that shows what each school is struggling with or needs. These top 3 items will be managed by the school and its community and the dates will be visible. This allows us to see patterns between schools and see schools with aging unmet needs. I similarly want a board to highlight success. This will serve as data and inspiration for other schools. I will push the district and the community to agree on a common review platform so schools and teachers and families will have consistent feedback on what’s working and what’s not. Tools are worthless without commitment to learn from them and take action. And conversely, results will drive engagement.

Academic Rigor and Highly Capable Services What should SPS do to improve academic rigor? Do you believe SPS should provide advanced learning opportunities such as Walk to Math and Highly Capable Services? How do you envision delivering Highly Capable Services within SPS?

Pursuing difficult things is what pushes us to grow. When we develop excellence in one stream, we need to strive to put those lessons learned to work in our other groups. Just because a student is struggling with math, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a creative assignment and only get to do rote drills. By celebrating, but then spreading excellence we can raise all of us. I don’t believe the segregated cohort model is optimal. Students are not 1 dimensional and may be advanced in math but remedial in art. But the cohort model is better than nothing. So I advocate for designing and implementing the replacement before eliminating an existing solution. It is irresponsible that the district allowed the dismantling of even the cohort models in most areas of Seattle without a working replacement. And yes, I have testified at board meetings in the last year that all schools should be able to implement walk to math or alternative models for excellence.

Special Education and English Language Learners
How will you improve the delivery of special education services to students in SPS? How will you
improve the delivery of education to English language learners?

This is not an area of strength for me, because my kids are native speakers with fairly common learning needs. My son does have dysgraphia and struggles with the physical process of writing, and it was challenging within the school system to get that recognized because he was hiding it pretty well. So as with anything I don’t know about, I will listen diligently, engage people who are known to be well versed, and look for solutions that give the best results given our specific circumstances. But ultimately I view all families and students served by the school as stakeholders and anybody who comes to me and says they’re not happy has my ear. As my family will testify, I am more focused on getting better than celebrating the wins. You have my commitment, that I won’t lose track of you, and I won’t settle for anything less than what I would accept for my own family.

Enrollment Decline

More than 20% of Seattle children are enrolled in private school (second-highest in the country). Do you believe SPS should try to attract and enroll more families? If so, what would you do to achieve that goal? What degree of enrollment choice should be allowed?

I think you can make a choice or no-choice model work. Both have strengths and weaknesses that need to be managed. But I think the Seattle community ethos aligns with choice. So my goal would be to allow it, but try to support all schools to be successful such that most people wouldn’t feel compelled to inconvenience themselves with a choice. The biggest risk to a choice model is the rapid flight from existing schools based on real or perceived quality differences. And that especially is problematic when certain families get stuck without a choice due to logistical and resource constraints. This is where inequity takes root and festers. But knowing your biggest challenge makes it easier to commit to solving it. And ignoring the market due to a challenge often results in the market doing what it wants anyways and you just lose your seat at the table.

School Diversity

Should SPS offer a variety of schools with different building sizes, curriculum formats (e.g., STEM, DLI, expeditionary) and grade bands (e.g., K-8)? Why or why not?

So long as the schools have community buy-in and transparency, experimentation is acceptable. I am an advocate for local accountability and agility. One of our big problems is that we have too much red tape. We feel like we’re 10 years behind in some cases. I have toyed with the idea of investigating dividing SPS into 3 semi-autonomous sub districts but that have linked finances. But even without taking a step like that there is much that can be done to champion agility and autonomy. I find that schools communities and good principals know what they need, and that often is a fight with the district to be allowed to do what they need to do.

Budget & Efficiency

Beyond advocating for more state funding, what specific steps should SPS take to improve its operational efficiency and fiscal health?

The primary focus of my budget discipline would be on improving student:educator ratios. Largely the most impactful dollar spent on education, is one that gives a student time with an educator. This is the essence of pedagogy which literally means child leader. There are certain central supports that benefit especially at risk students we must protect. But when push comes to shove improving ratios is a good guiding principle. Everything needs to be weighed as competing with direct support for students. Secondarily, technology can be used to reduce hours teachers currently spend that competes with personal attention and guidance for students. Similarly technology can be used to substitute effective hours of work that would be necessary to deliver custom assignments and tracking to students.

Student Safety

What should SPS do to improve physical safety for students at school and in getting to and from school?

This is not an easy task for schools because largely the threats come from the outside and the district does not directly control things outside its walls. SPS cannot control how citizens lock up their firearms, nor how the city manages loitering. SPS can work with city council, and SPD, and CVIs (community violence intervention). In terms of common sense solutions, it feels feasible to allow a way for families to request a bus stop to avoid unsafe commutes even if they are within walking distance, as buses from outside the walking zone must pass through the walking zone to arrive at school. And it is also reasonable to continue work with the city to buoy mental health resources.

Role of the School Board (SOFG) Since 2021 the board has followed a way of operating called Student Outcomes Focused Governance (SOFG) that has been the subject of recent media questioning. Do you believe SOFG has been a successful model for the board to date and do you support continuing to implement it?

I believe being outcome focused and student focused are both good concepts. But I don’t believe in rigidly following prescribed methodologies. Do any of our top performing sports teams or companies follow a rigid prescription given to them by somebody else? Have you ever in companies you’ve been a part of felt like a rigid playbook from an outside consultant has really been effective? Many of the concepts in SOFG are reasonable, but people have been overly committed to process and losing track of connection to and accountability to stakeholders. I think it's time for the pendulum of trusting third parties in ivory towers to swing back toward a ground up approach listening to our community and front line educators.