sarah’s vision

Sarah Clark ran to be appointed in District 2’s vacant School Board seat in Spring 2024 because she saw a void in common sense leadership and felt called to drive education reform for Seattle’s children. Here’s what she considers primary priorities for Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle School Board:

seattle schools must be safer for students

Seattle Public Schools must be safer for students. Students can’t succeed while threatened with physical and sexual violence; the Seattle School Board must prioritize short- and long-term ways to improve student safety in schools. But these efforts can’t ignore a student’s social and emotional safety. Seattle Public Schools need to invest in common sense opportunities, like increasing social worker presence and returning student access to programs that are emotional safe havens, like music and the arts.

seattle schools must reach for real equity

Since before Covid, Seattle’s entrenched School Board has been centered their decisions on a narrowly defined version of equity, using it to push school closure plans and end programs like highly capable cohort schools. But achieving equity for our students farther from educational justice includes recognizing (and advocating) for student groups whose commonalities are beyond race. Students with different learning needs, like special education students (with IEPS or 504s), highly capable and advanced learning students, and English language learners, are all under resourced and often ignored by the School Board’s typical policy.

SEATTLE SCHOOLS MUST BE MORE TRANSPARENT

During this year’s school closure debacle, both Seattle Public Schools and some of the Seattle School Board demonstrated an unfathomable lack of transparency with its families and the greater public. The district needs to be held accountable to providing comprehensive plans that address the specifics before expecting family buy-in. And both the School Board and district must embark rebuild trust with families and the public by offering more access to their activities, by seeking more opportunities for two-way communication, and by demonstrating what the feedback they hear is valued.

SARAH IN THE NEWS