Sarah Clark

Introduce Yourself

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

Based on my lived experience, I believe education is the most important tool we have to better individual lives, our community, our country, and global society. And unfortunately, in Seattle, our public school system is broken; we have been going in the wrong direction for too long. I want to serve a full term as a Seattle Public School Board Director for several reasons. As a native Seattleite and Seattle Public Schools alumna, I've watched the quality of our public schools decrease over the last decade, and I got to a point where I couldn't sit idly anymore. I have a master's degree in education policy and have worked on education issues at the local, state, and federal levels for over a decade. I have a deep understanding of how systems change is supposed to work, the role of legislative bodies in the operations of a system, and the vision, dedication, and collaboration it takes to make meaningful change, and I believe my expertise and perspective could help bring change to SPS.

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

I am bringing 14 years of education and professional experience in education policy, leadership, and systems change to the school board. With this experience comes a myriad of skills and perspectives that are currently missing or underrepresented on the board. First, is my belief in the state's defined role for school board directors; that, whether or not acting through its respective administrative staff, they are held accountable for the proper operation of their district to the local community and its electorate. Second, is my belief in the importance of listening to the entire community and working with stakeholders to inform and shape legislation. Third, my perspective that SPS's fiscal health is paramount to our ability to serve students, and it's the board's job to provide fiscal oversight. Lastly, it is my experience that equity in systems change does not mean ending programs with historical discrimination--it means expanding access to historically marginalized communities.

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

After serving on the school board as an appointee for the last 14 months, it's clear to me that SPS's biggest challenge is leadership, both staff and board directors. In my experience, all of SPS's issues, from budgetary and financial to operations and service delivery, to enrollment, stem from a decades-long leadership crisis. There are several specific actions needed to combat the leadership crisis. First, the electorate must choose candidates who are not ideologically compromised, those with an open mind, and a willingness to collaborate with the community. The superintendent search is also of critical importance; not just that board directors find and hire a new superintendent from outside SPS, but also that the board develops a good partnership with them. We also need to root out corruption and ethically compromised staff from the central office, conduct an external HR audit, and a forensic budget audit, particularly the last decade of deficit increases and HR spending.

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

Since my appointment in April 2024, I've been working hard to improve relationships with parents and educators by increasing community engagement opportunities, visiting schools across the district, and restoring board relationships with PASS and SEA. I plan to continue these efforts and believe there is more to be done to restore community trust, particularly with parents and educators. First, I plan to bring back transparency by working to re-establish committees (like the budget/financial committee) that were disbanded because of Student Outcomes Focused Governance. Second, I plan to work with educators and principals on any proposals that would significantly change operations. They've been left out of too many conversations, not consulted when they know their schools and students best, and I believe their voices should be included in substantive changes. Further, parents deserve to be heard, not just in board meetings or engagements, but in the policies the board passes.

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 opposed school closures of any size. I was the first and only board member to listen to the community and publicly state my opposition despite the flak I knew I would receive from colleagues. The school closure proposal was premature, opaque, overambitious, and misaligned with parents' desire for choice and options for their children, and transparency from school leaders. I do not believe school closures should be considered in the next 5 years and will do everything in my power to continue to fight them if I am elected to serve a full term.

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

There are several actions SPS can take to reduce disparities among SPS students. Reallocating resources to increase the number of programs known to support student learning (like expeditionary learning and dual language) in regions with higher numbers of BIPOC and low-income students. SPS could increase partnerships with CBOs that specialize in serving marginalized student groups with social-emotional support, learning opportunities, or invest in piloting proven strategies (like home visitors or keeping schools open later). I would like to see policy changes to expand access to highly capable cohorts, HC testing and enrollment requirements, and school choice enrollment. There are many evidence-based policy and budget actions SPS could implement to reduce disparities and increase outcomes for marginalized students, and personally, as a woman of color, I think it's racist to assume that BIPOC students and parents don't want academic choices or rigor.

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?

I believe there is a lot Seattle Public Schools can do to improve academic rigor, starting with reinstating and expanding popular programs like Walk to Math and advanced grade-level learning opportunities that have been eliminated. We can expand popular programs like Dual Language, Expeditionary Learning, and improve Highly Capable services. This can be achieved by expanding the cohort to more schools, increasing access to the cohort, changing testing and enrollment procedures that marginalize underserved communities, creating pathways in neighborhood schools, and scaffolding pathways for 1E students. We can also increase tutoring for children who need support, increase partnerships with community-based organizations with social-emotional learning programs through the FEPP levy. I am also very open to ideas from parents on how we can equitably improve advanced learning.

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?

Special Education Services and services for English Language Learners are fraught with chaos and dysfunction that lead to harm for students. I propose external audits of both of these services as a first step to better understanding what changes are recommended. Once the results and recommendations are made, I commit to partnering with our new superintendent and leading the board's development of a 5-year plan to improve these services district-wide.

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?

SPS should try to attract and enroll more families, starting with bringing back or expanding popular programs that were discontinued or shrunk (like walk to math, grade-level advanced learning, dual language, highly-capable). We could also reimagine how we prepare graduates. For example, we are one of the only districts in the region that doesn't offer work-based learning opportunities in aerospace and technology. The board could also seek state waivers to partner with college professors and industry experts to teach specialized courses (something that private and charter schools both do). There are other proactive measures SPS can take, like partnering with real estate companies that advertise local schools to homebuyers, changing our enrollment timeline to compete with private and charter schools directly, and increasing access to enrollment choice. I believe that before the board considers these or any other ideas to attract more families, the community should be engaged.

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?

Yes. There are nearly 50,000 students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools, with different learning and social needs, different goals, and at different places academically. With such a diverse population of students, it's imperative SPS offer a variety of school sizes, curriculum formats and grade bands.

Budget & Efficiency

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

There are several steps SPS should take to improve operational efficiency and fiscal health. There's a resource allocation assessment currently underway, with results expected late summer/early fall, which will provide a better understanding of how spending is or is not supporting student learning. I will be leading a budget committee later this summer, using the resource allocation recommendations and those from the strategic planning community engagement, to develop recommended budget changes for the board to consider. SPS also needs an external HR audit and a forensic budget audit to better understand the deficit and recommendations to close that gap over the next 5-10 years. A permanent budget and finance committee needs to be reinstated, and the board needs to resume financial oversight of SPS. It would also be incredibly helpful to improve operational efficiency, to meaningfully address concerns staff and community have with central office, and to do some house cleaning.

Student Safety

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

SPS needs to work better with community partners and local governments to improve physical safety for students going to and from school (and on lunch breaks). Board directors need to work with King County Metro and the Seattle Police Department to develop policies and partnerships that provide secure passageways for students using public transit to commute to and from school. SPS also needs to repair its relationships with SPD. It's been 5 years since the board passed the resolution ending the SRO program, and there's been no meaningful effort to reestablish or reimagine a new partnership that dedicates SPD resources to SPS (like neighborhood patrols, police off campus but near schools, etc.). Different school communities have different public safety challenges; therefore, the development of these initiatives should involve the students, parents, teachers, and staff and be tailored to meet individual school needs.

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 do not believe the past four years of SOFG implementation have been successful for the board or for students. In fact, I believe SPS is serving less students now, than it was before SOFG was adopted. Up to this point, there has been no collaboration on the board or collective decision making an implementation plan, instead SOFG implementation has been driven by radical board members and their supporters in the community, some of whom are directly benefitting financially from SOFG coaching contracts. If this dynamic continues, I definitely do not support continuing to implement SOFG. The only parts of SOFG that I believe have been beneficial is the resource allocation assessment, the student assessment which identified students in poverty as our target population, not students of color, and the progress monitoring, all of which can be accomplished (if a majority of the board desires to continue these initiatives) without SOFG or the Council for Great City Schools.