3 candidates vying for School Board race in District 7

The three candidates for the Seattle School Board seat representing District 7 in the southeast part of the city would bring different areas of professional expertise to the job.

Wilson Chin is a research scientist. Charlie Mas is an investment adviser. Betty Patu ran dropout-prevention programs in Seattle schools for three decades.

The focus of their campaigns differs, too.

But all three are longtime residents of the area, as is Cheryl Chow, the incumbent who is not seeking re-election.

They each also have substantial experience working in Seattle schools or with school issues.

And all three received a "very good" rating from the Municipal League of King County.

The top two vote-getters in the Aug. 18 primary will advance to the November election.

Charlie Mas

Mas moved to Beacon Hill 17 years ago. A sometimes sharp but knowledgeable critic of the school district, he says he wants to press district leaders to live up to their promises.

He has been a school activist for about eight years, ever since he believed a former chief academic officer misrepresented parent concerns about a gifted program at a School Board meeting.

The School Board, he says, lets administrators fail to live up to many commitments — everything from providing quarterly updates on the district's long-range plan, to the math materials promised to elementary-school teachers.

That costs the district support because it erodes trust, he said. "The community doesn't trust the district because the district is not trustworthy."

Mas doesn't support the district's Southeast Initiative, which provides additional staff and programs at three schools — Aki Kurose Middle, Cleveland High and Rainier Beach High. He says it hasn't achieved its stated purpose — raising the number of families choosing the three schools.

Mas made an unsuccessful run for the board eight years ago. Four years ago, he supported Chow.

Wilson Chin

Chin has lived on Beacon Hill all his life. His main focus is reducing the gap in achievement among different ethnic groups.

If the district can't serve the kids who need it most, he said, it's not living up to its mission.

Chin has held a number of volunteer roles over 16 years at Kimball Elementary, the school his children attended. He's been on the building-leadership team there and also on interview teams for principals and teachers. He also serves on the board of Schools First, a group that campaigns for school levies.

Friends encouraged him to run four years ago, but he backed Chow. Now Chow is backing Chin.

No other board member has a background in science and math, Chow said. She's also impressed that Chin, a Cleveland High graduate, has sent all four of his children to Southeast Seattle schools.

Public education "is pretty deep in me," Chin said. It is that very powerful idea, he said, that "knowledge is not the purview of the elite, and not the purview of only those who can afford it."

He supports the Southeast Initiative in principle but says he needs to learn more about it.

Betty Patu

Patu moved to Seattle from Samoa when she was 8, moved to California for a while, then returned here in her 20s. She lives in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.

Her main goals are to increase school safety, establish more school-community partnerships and make sure policies are enforced consistently from school to school.

In 1978, Patu started a dropout-prevention program at Cooper Elementary designed for South Pacific Islanders but open to all students. She later established a similar program at the secondary level. Most recently, she worked at Rainier Beach High, where she's known as "Grandma."

She's also helped many students outside of school. Over the years, her children sometimes found themselves sharing a room with a student she brought home.

"How do you say no to a kid who needs somewhere to stay?" she said.

Patu retired in July, in part, to have time to run for School Board.

She supports the Southeast Initiative as an effort that has brought long-needed attention to schools she says thinks the district has neglected.

She has won state, local and national awards. She's twice run unsuccessfully for public office: Seattle City Council in 1991 and state Senate in 1997. In the council race, she said, people asked why she didn't run for School Board instead. Now she is.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com