Will anyone run for Seattle School Board?

Three seats on the seven-member Seattle School Board aren't the only thing at stake in this fall's board elections.

Observers say voters could tip the balance of a board majority that over the past two years has devoted much energy to pet projects: lowering lead levels in school drinking water, banning junk food in schools and reopening a bus-service contract.

Lauded by some for welcoming more community input, the board has alienated others by deferring tough decisions such as whether to close schools.

Whether the public is concerned about the School Board's performance will become clear this week, when candidates file for office. As of today, two of the three open board seats are uncontested.

If no one else files, it would be the first time in a decade that a School Board race in Seattle was uncontested: In the past five School Board elections, no fewer than 10 people have appeared on the ballot in the September primary.

Does the dearth of candidates mean voters are generally satisfied with the district's leadership? Or does no one want to work 20-plus hours a week for free while enduring public criticism?

"I think it's both," said board President Brita Butler-Wall. "I think people do recognize that it is a huge and essentially thankless job, and I think that people see that we are slowly but surely having some success at turning the ship around."

Filing week

In King County, filing for county, city and special-purpose district offices opens at 8:30 a.m. today and ends at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the county elections office, King County Administration Building, 500 Fourth Avenue, Room 553, Seattle.

Among the offices on the ballot this fall are King County executive, sheriff, all nine Metropolitan King County Council seats, Seattle mayor, three of seven Seattle School Board seats, Seattle city attorney, four of nine Seattle City Council seats, and three of five seats on the Port of Seattle commission.

For more information on filing, call 206-296-1565 or see www.metrokc.gov/elections/

Primary day is Sept. 20.

General election is Nov. 8.

Source: King County Elections

In District 4, which includes Queen Anne and Magnolia, only Ballard High School PTSA President Michael DeBell has declared plans to run; incumbent Dick Lilly isn't seeking a second term.

Three candidates have announced campaigns for the District 7 (South Seattle) seat, from which Jan Kumasaka is retiring: Cheryl Chow, a former Seattle City Council member running programs for the Girl Scouts-Totem Council; Linda Thompson-Black, who works for a national dropout-prevention program and advised then-Mayor Norm Rice on his education summit; and Alan Lloyd, a Seattle Public Schools parent who oversees the state Department of Social and Health Services' budget for serving developmentally disabled children in Pierce County.

What stumps School Board observers is the District 5 seat, occupied by Mary Bass. Neither she nor anyone else has announced an intent to run.

Four years ago, six candidates competed for the seat, which represents the Central Area and parts of Capitol Hill. Bass won a plurality of District 5 votes in the primary and went on to defeat her opponent easily in the citywide election.

For months, Bass has remained noncommittal about whether she will run. Three of her supporters say she will; efforts to reach Bass for comment were unsuccessful.

"That's more her personality, trying to weigh the pros and cons up to the last minute," Butler-Wall said. "Mary has quite a fan base in her district. I'm assuming that out of respect to Mary, people are not coming forward because they would support her if she ran."

Bass has inspired a following by frequently casting the lone vote against administration initiatives. She voted against extending Superintendent Raj Manhas' contract and proposed reopening the search for a superintendent.

"The seat that could change the character of the School Board is Mary Bass', and it's somewhat disappointing to me that there isn't a challenger at this point," Lilly said. He and Kumasaka were among the four whose votes last October saved Manhas.

If Bass decides to run and wins, she will become the most-senior member of the board. If she isn't re-elected, all the board members will have served two years or less. That prospect concerns former board members, who worry that the lack of institutional memory both on the board and among senior staff members will result in the district trying old, unsuccessful strategies.

Bass supporter and former board member Michael Preston, who in 20 years on the board presided over the closure of a dozen schools, believes the district already is treading over old ground.

"We proved statistically and financially that closing schools really doesn't save the kind of money that you think it will on paper," Preston said. "Closing the schools only moves those teachers around. ... If you lose students as a result, then you're mismanaging the district."

Former School Board member Steve Brown disagrees. He said the board failed to grapple with the district's surplus of school buildings, an issue Manhas first brought to the board in May 2004.

This past spring, Manhas offered a proposal to save the district about $2.6 million in 2006-07 by consolidating programs and closing some buildings. He withdrew the proposal weeks later under mounting public criticism and little support from a majority of board members.

Without a major infusion of state funds, it's almost certain that the district will have to lay off hundreds of employees next spring to balance its 2006-07 budget. Forecasters project a $14 million gap in 2006-07 and as much as a $21 million gap in 2007-08. About 80 percent of the district's operating budget pays for teachers, counselors, administrators and other staffers.

Others say the school-closure issue was a distraction from academics. The board's most-visible step toward reducing inequities in academic achievement — what board members agree is their top priority — has been hiring an executive to recommend ways to fix the problem.

Donald Felder, a consultant with the Black Child Development Institute-Seattle, said making it a top priority is a good first step.

"As a system, there's a lot of work to do in terms of naming, declaring what we want all principals to do so that folks have opportunities during the course of the year to say, 'Show me. Help me understand. Walk me through the school so that I know that [promised changes] are actually occurring,' " he said.

Sanislo Elementary principal Eric Nelson said he hopes current and future board members will focus their public meetings on quality instruction and delve deeper into each school's student-achievement data.

"That takes time, but that time needs to be taken," Nelson said. "Because all the financial decisions we're going to have to make are depending on how does that affect instruction in the classroom. If you don't know what good instruction is, then you have no way of knowing how your decisions affect instruction."

Parent Rudy Salas, who serves on the district's bilingual-education committee, says that while he has faith in the current board, he thinks it would be more effective with someone who is Latino.

Someone, Salas said, like Adrian Moroles, a Latino community leader. Moroles, who ran unsuccessfully for the board two years ago, has been trying to get someone else to run this time but so far has had no takers.

"Who in their right mind would run for the School Board?" Moroles said. "It's been quite the grind for these board members for these last two years. ... The current board members are paying for the sins of the past."

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com