Why I advocate for Joy Anderson:
She is the candidate that understands what our educational community, families and children need. She is a strong candidate not only because she has a child in the Seattle Public Schools, but because she is not focused on one issue, but the issues of 1) how the school closures have overpopulated our elementary schools; and 2)how the costs of portables, food services, the costs of bussing has actually increased costs to the district.
It is funny how people think that her platform is all about school closures. What folks tend forget is that the closure of ONE
elementary school in West Seattle has resulted in overpopulated classrooms, portables on the playground, increased costs to buss our kids all over West Seattle and a huge assortment of unhappy parents and children. The value of education has diminished and we have more schools failing the AYP (annual yearly progress report) due to overpopulation.
Does anyone realize that it will cost up to 10-12 millions dollars to rehab buildings for us to have an additional elementary school for our children to attend? Schools that will not end up in our neighborhood!
If we had allocated $500,000 to rehab one school in the area that was already open instead of closing that building, we may be dealing with issues that have literally screwed up an entire community? Makes financial sense to do that if were in financial crisis right?
Joy's advocating for our district. She is assertive and knowledgeable about this issues, including better education for our kids. She does not advocate for TFAs in our schools as we have qualified teachers that need employment in our area. She is an advocate for textbooks for our children so they can review the materials taught in class at home. She is a huge advocate of revamping nutritional services so we can cut the $600,000 budget which includes transporting the processed food from a 'centralized processing plant'(disgusting!)to putting the menus back into the schools where the kitchens are fully functional and the food menu can be properly planned within the school to meet the nutritional needs of the students.
She also has fantastic ideas on how to get the community involved in supporting our teachers and administration without increasing financial costs of district. She also has qualification ideas on what the New Superintendent should be accountable and responsible for.
Our other candidates (aside from Sundquist) are nice and have great ideas. But....West Seattle needs someone to go to bat for the families in the community. We need all of those issues mentioned and then some addressed by a candidate who knows and understands them.
While teachers are fantastic, there are more issues than curriculum that need to be addressed. We need a strong candidate who will be the voice of ALL West Seattle families. We are a community segregated simply by boundary lines drawn by the district. But more importantly, we a community who cares about the overall educational and childhood experiences that shape the minds and futures our kids.
Joy Anderson understands that, will advocate for it, making the changes needed for our community.
If you vote for Joy, you have voted for yourself, West Seattle and more importantly our children...our future leaders.
Charita Dumas
Compliance & Training Analyst Liaison - WA
Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc.
