Seattle Public Schools elections (2017)

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Seattle Public Schools Elections
Primary election date
August 1, 2017
General election date
November 7, 2017
Enrollment (14-15)
52,834 students

Three of the seven seats on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in Washington were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. A primary election for all three seats was held on August 1, 2017, because more than two candidates filed for each seat. Although the general election was held at large, the primary election was held by district.

Eden Mack was the District 4 winner, defeating fellow challenger Herbert Camet Jr. in the general. The two fended off Sean Champagne, Jennifer Crow, Megan Hyska, Lisa Melenyzer, and Darrell Toland in the primary. In District 5, Zachary DeWolf was victorious over Omar Vasquez. They both defeated Alec Cooper, Andre Helmstetter, and Candace Vaivadas in the primary. District 7 board member Betty Patu successfully defended her seat against challenger Chelsea Byers. They both defeated Tony Hemphill in the primary.^[1]

Five of the seven candidates for the District 4 race participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to view their responses.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors consists of seven members elected to four-year terms. Members run within specific districts in the primaries and, if they win, go on to compete for the citywide vote in the general election.

In order to run for a school board in Washington, candidates must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of Washington, at least 18 years old by the election day, and registered voters of the district in which they run.^[2]

Voter registration

Board Facts
Number of members:	7
Representation style:	Combined at-large and geographic districts
Regular term length:	4 years
Board Election Style: Nonpartisan
Primary election trigger:	3 or more candidates/seat
Primary election style:	By geographic districts
General election style:	At-large
Write-ins allowed:	Yes, primary and general

To vote in Washington, one must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Washington, and at least 18 years old.^[3] One may register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a county elections department. Registration must be completed 29 days prior to an election if done by mail or online and eight days prior to the election if done in person.^[4]

Washington is a vote-by-mail only state. Ballots are mailed to voters at least 18 days before an election. Voters must postmark their ballots by election day or return them to a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on the election day in order for them to count.^[5]

See also: Voting in Washington and Voter identification laws by state

Candidates and results

District 4

General results

Seattle Public Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Eden Mack	87.46%	167,772
Herbert Camet Jr.	12.54%	24,059
Total Votes	191,831
Source: King County, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Primary results

Seattle Public Schools, District 4 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Eden Mack	70.47%	18,954
Herbert Camet Jr.	7.75%	2,084
Lisa Melenyzer	6.11%	1,643
Jennifer Crow	4.84%	1,302
Darrell Toland	4.65%	1,250
Megan Hyska	3.58%	963
Sean Champagne	2.14%	576
Write-in votes	0.46%	125
Total Votes	26,897
Source: King County, "2017 Results," accessed August 15, 2017

Candidates

This symbol, , next to a candidate's name indicates his or her participation in Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey. Click the image next to a candidate's name to jump to their page detailing their responses.

Herbert Camet Jr.	Eden Mack
	Served as K-12 principal in the U.S., Cambodia, Iraq, and Vietnam Former Peace Corps volunteer as an ESL teacher and supervisor		Legislative Chair of Seattle Council of Parent, Teacher and Student Associations Former Peace Corps volunteer

Defeated in primary

Sean Champagne	Jennifer Crow	Megan Hyska
	Personal banker at Inspirus Credit Union		Taught ESL		Executive director of Foothold NW Principal at Dellaloca Design

Lisa Melenyzer	Darrell Toland
	Fiscal specialist at Hamilton International Middle School		User interface and motion designer

District 5

General results

Seattle Public Schools, District 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Zachary DeWolf	64.73%	124,310
Omar Vasquez	35.27%	67,733
Total Votes	192,043
Source: King County, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Primary results

Seattle Public Schools, District 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Zachary DeWolf	47.36%	11,493
Omar Vasquez	17.53%	4,255
Andre Helmstetter	15.49%	3,758
Alec Cooper	13.55%	3,288
Candace Vaivadas	5.69%	1,380
Write-in votes	0.38%	93
Total Votes	24,267
Source: King County, "2017 Results," accessed August 15, 2017

Candidates

Zachary DeWolf	Omar Vasquez
	Program manager with All Home King County		Attorney, Davis Wright Tremaine Taught with Teach for America

Defeated in primary

Alec Cooper	Andre Helmstetter	Candace Vaivadas
	Amazon executive		Senior Consultant for Matisia Consultants Former precinct committee officer for the 37th District Democrats		Owner and principal investigator at Vaivadas Legal Research & Investigations

District 7

General results

Seattle Public Schools, District 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Betty Patu Incumbent	68.35%	131,351
Chelsea Byers	31.65%	60,829
Total Votes	192,180
Source: King County, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Primary results

Seattle Public Schools, District 7 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Betty Patu Incumbent	68.41%	12,226
Chelsea Byers	20.98%	3,750
Tony Hemphill	10.03%	1,792
Write-in votes	0.58%	103
Total Votes	17,871
Source: King County, "2017 Results," accessed August 15, 2017

Candidates

Betty Patu	Chelsea Byers
	Incumbent (2009 - Present) Former intervention program manager with Seattle Public Schools		Vice president of instruction at a technology education organization

Defeated in primary

Tony Hemphill

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Washington elections, 2017

This Washington school board election in 2017 shared the primary ballot with elections for:^[1]

The school board election shared the general ballot with elections for:^[1]

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for this Washington school board election in 2017:

District map

Endorsements

General election

District 4 candidate Eden Mack, District 5 candidate Zachary DeWolf, and District 7 candidate Betty Patu received official endorsements from The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, and the Washington Education Association.^[6][7][8]

Mack, District 5 candidate Omar Vasquez, and District 7 candidate Chelsea Byers received endorsements from the Seattle Times.^[9]

Primary election

Mack, District 5 candidates DeWolf and Vasquez, and District 7 candidates Byers and Patu each received an endorsement from the King County Young Democrats.^[10]

Mack, DeWolf, and Patu received an endorsement from The Stranger.^[11]

Mack, District 5 candidate Andre Helmstetter, and Patu received an endorsement from Seattle Weekly.^[12]

Mack, District 5 candidate Alec Cooper, and District 7 candidate Chelsea Byers received an endorsement from The Seattle Times.^[13][14][15]

District 4 candidate Megan Hyska, DeWolf, and Patu received an endorsement from the Seattle Education Association.^[16]

Helmstetter received official endorsements from Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors incumbents Rick Burke, Leslie Harris, Betty Patu, and Sue Peters, King County Council member Larry Gossett, the 36th, 37th, and 43rd District Democrats, King County Democrats, and the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle.^[17][18][19]

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at elections@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

Reports

District 4

Herbert Camet Jr., Sean Champagne, Jennifer Crow, Megan Hyska, Lisa Melenyzer, and Darrell Toland all opted for mini reporting in this race, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission.^[20]

Eden Mack reported $18,627.34 in contributions and $16,351.97 in expenditures, leaving her campaign with $2,275.37 on hand as of October 12, 2017. Note: Mack also reported a $6,000 loan which is not included in the above calculations.^[20]

District 5

Candace Vaivadas had not filed a report with the commission as of October 12, 2017.^[20]

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Alec Cooper[20]	$8,437.78	$4,345.70	$4,092.08
Zachary DeWolf[20]	$30,113.00	$16,105.74	$14,007.26
Andre Helmstetter[20]	$4,335.00	$4,717.20	$-382.20
Omar Vasquez[20]	$24,370.97	$14,907.80	$9,463.17

District 7

Tony Hemphill opted for mini reporting in this election.^[20]

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Chelsea Byers[20]	$12,906.78	$6,252.73	$6,654.05
Betty Patu[20]	$4,631.90	$1,899.93	$2,731.97

General guidelines

See also: Campaign finance requirements in Washington and List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2017

Washington school board candidates must file a statement of organization within two weeks of filing for office. A statement of organization establishes a candidate's committee, treasurer, and bank the committee will use for its transactions.^[21]

Candidates who raise and spend no more than $5,000 in aggregate and who do not receive more than $500 from any one contributor, including themselves, can participate in mini reporting. These candidates must keep a record of their contributors and expenditures but they are not required to report them unless they exceed the stated thresholds. In those cases, they must switch their filing status from mini to full reporting.^[22]

The table below details campaign finance deadlines for 2017 Washington school board candidates:

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2015 See also: Seattle Public Schools elections (2015) District 1 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Scott Pinkham 69.6% 105,869 Michael Christophersen 29.9% 45,539 Write-in votes 0.52% 791 Total Votes 152,199 Source: King County Elections, "Election Results: General and Special Elections November 4, 2015," November 24, 2015 District 2 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Rick Burke 80.7% 124,381 Laura Obara Gramer 18.9% 29,112 Write-in votes 0.36% 554 Total Votes 154,047 Source: King County Elections, "Election Results: General and Special Elections November 4, 2015," November 24, 2015 District 3 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Jill Geary 62.7% 96,598 Lauren McGuire 36.9% 56,814 Write-in votes 0.39% 595 Total Votes 154,007 Source: King County Elections, "Election Results: General and Special Elections November 4, 2015," November 24, 2015 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Jill Geary 47.5% 8,237 Lauren McGuire 45.9% 7,966 Stephen Clayton 5.1% 889 David Blomstrom 1.1% 194 Write-in votes 0.37% 65 Total Votes 17,351 Source: King County Elections, "Primary Election Seattle School District No. 1 Director District No. 3," accessed August 20, 2015 District 6 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Leslie Harris 76.6% 117,648 Marty McLaren Incumbent 23.0% 35,357 Write-in votes 0.38% 583 Total Votes 153,588 Source: King County Elections, "Election Results: General and Special Elections November 4, 2015," November 24, 2015 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 6 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Leslie Harris 48.2% 7,522 Marty McLaren Incumbent 37.7% 5,879 Nick Esparza 13.6% 2,119 Write-in votes 0.56% 87 Total Votes 15,607 Source: King County Elections, "Primary Election Seattle School District No. 1 Director District No. 6," accessed August 20, 2015 2013 See also: Seattle Public Schools elections (2013) District 4 General Seattle Public Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Sue Peters 54.8% 92,552      Nonpartisan Suzanne Dale Estey 44.8% 75,758      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.4% 642 Total Votes 168,952 Source: King County Elections, "Certified Results," November 25, 2013 Primary Seattle Public Schools, District 4 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Suzanne Dale Estey 47.8% 6,422      Nonpartisan Sue Peters 41.4% 5,560      Nonpartisan Dean McColgan 10.9% 1,461 Total Votes 13,443 Source: King County Elections, "August 6, 2013 primary election results," August 20, 2013 District 5 General Seattle Public Schools, District 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Stephan Blanford 88.8% 144,320      Nonpartisan LaCrese Green 10.6% 17,286      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.5% 852 Total Votes 162,458 Source: King County Elections, "Certified Results," November 25, 2013 Primary Seattle Public Schools, District 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Stephan Blanford 79.3% 8,574      Nonpartisan LaCrese Green 13.1% 1,415      Nonpartisan Olu Thomas 7.6% 827 Total Votes 10,816 Source: King County Elections, "August 6, 2013 primary election results," August 20, 2013 District 7 Seattle Public Schools, District 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Betty Patu Incumbent 98.2% 121,914      Nonpartisan Write-in 1.8% 2,283 Total Votes 124,197 Source: King County Elections, "Certified Results," November 25, 2013 2011 District 1 Seattle Public Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Sharon Peaslee 50.6% 76,806      Nonpartisan Peter Maier Incumbent 49.4% 74,903 Total Votes 151,709 Source: King County Elections, "Election results," November 28, 2011 District 2 Seattle Public Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Sherry Carr Incumbent 52.5% 78,265      Nonpartisan Kate Martin 47.5% 70,826 Total Votes 149,091 Source: King County Elections, "Election results," November 28, 2011 District 3 Seattle Public Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Harium Martin-Morris Incumbent 58.7% 87,493      Nonpartisan Michelle Buetow 41.3% 61,536 Total Votes 149,029 Source: King County Elections, "Election results," November 28, 2011 District 6 Seattle Public Schools, District 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Marty McLaren 54.4% 80,949      Nonpartisan Steve Sundquist Incumbent 45.6% 67,857 Total Votes 148,806 Source: King County Elections, "Election results," November 28, 2011

What was at stake?

Ballotpedia survey responses

Five out of the seven candidates for the District 4 seat in the Seattle school board race participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. The following quotes from the candidates were in response to the question: "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?"

Top priorities

Herbert Camet Jr. wrote:

“	As a lifelong career educator with professional experience in K-12 education in 10 countries I will be the most qualified and innovative reform advocate on the Seattle School Board.[23]	”
—Herbert Camet Jr. (2017)

Sean Champagne wrote:

“	Big dreams: bi-lingual education K-12 offered to all students, subsidized rental housing for teachers in the communities they teach with increased pay at all levels, allowing elementary teachers to stay with their students from K-5 to give them years to deeply learn the best ways to teach specific students, and a year-round school system to prevent summertime brain drain in students whose families cannot afford to send them to extra-curricular activities during the summer. Little goals: Audit the bus system to reduce the number of school buses on the roads and save the district money, do a full scale audit of the school budget to find irregularities (2013 contracting fiasco that made Seattle Public Schools a sore loser), find additional ways to produce school revenue by creating a special state license plate that will allow private citizens to donate to the school districts through the DOL, and giving more facilities and operations duties to schools specifically.[23]	”
—Sean Champagne (2017)

Jennifer Crow wrote:

“	I hope to help the board take a fresh look at issues and to work hard to make the Seattle Public School experience a great one.[23]	”
—Jennifer Crow (2017)

Eden Mack wrote:

“	As the mother of three children in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and longtime education advocate and policy analyst, I know intimately that schools in our diverse district have great successes because of our families, educators, administrators and community, in spite of the challenges of chronic underfunding from Olympia, crowded buildings from Seattle’s growth, and racial and economic inequity. I will continue to fight for policies that support schools, retain educators, serve students with diverse learning needs, and those that increase equity.[23]	”
—Eden Mack (2017)

Darrell Toland wrote:

“	Curtail wasteful district spending.[23]	”
—Darrell Toland (2017)

Issues rankings

The candidates were asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. The table below displays the candidates' rankings from most to least important:

Positions on the issues

The candidates were asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. Links to the candidates' responses can be found below.

Herbert Camet Jr. survey responses Sean Champagne survey responses Jennifer Crow survey responses

Eden Mack survey responses Darrell Toland survey responses

Issues in the district

School board begins search for new superintendent

The district published a document on October 13, 2017, saying it was seeking a search firm to help identify superintendent candidates. The board said it wanted to hire a leader to replace Superintendent Larry Nyland by May 2018, whose contract ended in June of the same year.^[24]

The new superintendent was the third the district had in six years. Nyland became the interim superintendent in June 2014 after Jose Banda was hired to lead the Sacramento City Unified School District. Later that year, the board voted to extend Nyland's contract through June 2017, and again to add another year to it.

Board President Sue Peters said that it was time for the community to weigh in on a new superintendent, noting that a national search was never conducted nor was input asked from parents and the community before extending Nyland's contract. "It’s time to hear from the community,” she said.^[24]

Board member Stephan Blanford did not agree. He said he tried to convince his colleagues to add one more year to Nyland's contract so he could finish contract negotiations with teachers. Blanford also said he worried that a new superintendent would not do well in contract negotiations if they weren't familiar with the district's history or if they didn't have time to establish their own vision for it. “It’s an uncomfortable position in the best circumstance,” he said.^[24]

Phyllis Campano, president of Seattle’s teachers union, also thought it would be best for Nyland to stay until a new contract is in place. “His [Nyland’s] term ends right in the middle of bargaining,” she said. “And that’s just not good for the kids.” “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s been perfect,” she added. “But there are issues in the district, and we’re not going to solve them if we change superintendents every three years.”^[24]

Education budget adds $7.3 billion to public school funding

Washington added $7.3 billion over four years to public school funding with the budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on June 30, 2017. The funding was passed to comply with the 2012 McLeary v. State of Washington decision which ruled that the state was violating its state constitutional duty to fund K-12 education.^[25]

Under the plan, property taxes were raised in areas with high property values, while taxes in other areas were decreased. These raises accounted for approximately $4 billion of the total $7.3 billion. According to state Sen. Kevin Ranker (D), the property tax increases would add approximately $400 a year to the average Washington household's taxes.^[26]

Budget details

Washington teachers can receive two salaries: one from the state government and one from their school district. The new budget provisions included a minimum starting state salary for teachers of $40,000 (with adjustment for inflation and regional discrepancies), which was a 17 percent increase. The average minimum salary for instructional staff was $64,000 under the plan. School districts could also issue a salary over the previous maximum of $90,000 by up to 10 percent for educational staff associates or instructors who teach science, technology, engineering, and math, or in bilingual or special education programs. Below are a few other details of the new measure, according to Q13 Fox:

“

There’s a mandatory 10 percent [salary] increase after 5 years of employment. Starting in 2020-21, the minimum state allocations for salaries must be adjusted annually for inflation. Starting with the 2023 session, and every six years after that, the Legislature must review compensation to make sure they are adequate based on the market and economic differences between school districts.[27][23]

”

Reactions

“It’s absolutely helping the middle class and 73% of Washington,” state Sen. John Braun (R) said about the budget. He also said that it found a solution to comply with the McLeary ruling fairly. State Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) disagreed. “It’s a stressful situation; it looks like property taxes are a major component of this and I think it’s safe to say it’s a Democratic budget with a Republican tax plan,” Carlyle said. He called the budget “the good, bad and the ugly.”^[27]

McLeary v. State of Washington

The 2017 budget was passed in light of the McLeary ruling. When the decision was made in 2012, the Washington Supreme Court ordered the state to fully fund K-12 education by 2018. In September 2014, the Court held Washington in contempt for not making adequate progress. After the state still did not make adequate progress and produce a plan to comply with the Court's orders in 2015, the Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 a day until it complied.^[25] Those fines totaled $80.3 million as of October 24, 2017.^[28]

The State Supreme Court heard oral arguments on that day to determine whether or not the additional funding was enough for the state to be in full compliance with the court's ruling. An attorney for the state argued that the newest education budget was enough to pay for what the state's constitution calls for: a basic education for each child in Washington. The plaintiffs' lawyer argued that the Legislature was still far removed from reaching that goal. As of October 26, 2017, the court had not made a final decision.^[29]

Report a story for this election

Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.

Candidate survey

About the district

See also: Seattle Public Schools, Washington

Seattle Public Schools is based in Seattle, the seat of King County, in northwestern Washington. King County was home to an estimated 2,149,970 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.^[30] The district was the largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 52,834 students.^[31]

Demographics

King County outperformed the state of Washington as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 47.9 percent of county residents had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 32.9 percent for state residents. The median household income in the county was $75,302, while it was $61,062 for the state as a whole. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 9.8 percent, while that rate was 12.2 percent for the entire state.^[30]

Racial Demographics, 2015[30]
Race	King County (%)	Washington (%)
White	69.5	80.3
Black or African American	6.8	4.1
American Indian and Alaska Native	1.1	1.9
Asian	16.9	8.4
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.9	0.7
Two or More Races	5.0	4.6
Hispanic or Latino	9.5	12.4

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Seattle Public Schools Washington election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

Seattle Public Schools	Washington	School Boards
Seattle Public Schools elections (2015) List of school districts in Washington	Washington school board elections, 2017 Public education in Washington Local ballot measures, Washington	School board elections, 2017 School board elections, 2016

External links

• Seattle Public Schools
• King County Elections

Footnotes

	v • e State of Washington Olympia (capital)
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