3 challenge Mary Bass in Seattle District 5 school-board race

Mary Bass wants four more years on the Seattle School Board to continue what she's done for the last eight: Reach out to parents and students. Ask questions. Provide institutional memory as the veteran on a relatively inexperienced board.

But Bass won't cruise into re-election as easily as colleague Michael DeBell, who is running unopposed.

She faces three challengers for the District 5 seat who pointedly question her effectiveness.

Bass "has had eight years to effect change, and it hasn't happened," said Kay Smith-Blum, the co-owner of Butch Blum clothing store. She's running for Bass' seat along with former PTSA leader Joanna Cullen and Andre Helmstetter, a small-business owner and parent.

The top two vote-getters in the August primary will advance to the general election.

Some see this race as Bass' to lose. She has the name recognition of an incumbent and backers who like the contrarian role she's played.

She is often "the sole voice of reason," parent Pat Murakami said. "We need that."

Earlier this year, for example, Bass was one of two board members who opposed the superintendent's plan to close schools.

Many credit Bass for being the first board member to hold community meetings at which constituents have a chance to talk with her about concerns. Four other board members now do the same.

She counts that as one of her top accomplishments, and says it's one example of how she's pushed the district to take parent input seriously.

Change is harder to achieve than her foes think, she said. And she says she has been effective in influencing policy, even if she's often on the losing side of important votes.

Even some of her lone "no" votes turned out, in the long run, to be the right votes, she says, pointing to her opposition to the 2003-04 budget, which proved to be millions of dollars out of balance.

But some say it's time for someone new.

"Mary always talks about these plans and initiatives, but they never come to the light of day," said parent and blogger Melissa Westbrook, who backed Bass in the past but says she won't this time.

Bass received her lowest rating so far from the Municipal League of King County — an "adequate," down from "good" four years ago and "very good" eight years ago.

Smith-Blum received the league's highest rating of the four candidates — a "very good." She has a long list of ambitious ideas for Seattle Public Schools. She wants, for example, to require foreign-language instruction in elementary school, and to revamp middle schools.

She calls herself a "doer" and says she's always wanted to run for school board. Now that her children are grown and she's arranged to spend less time at her clothing store, she says, she has the time.

The school district, she says, seems to do a number of "dumb" things that don't make sense. Why doesn't it place portables at popular schools so more students can attend, she asks. Why do high-school students go to school earlier than research shows they should?

"It seems to me that we're just not working smart."

Blum has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Seattle schools, through auctions and annual appeals, and a citywide fundraiser in 2004 that netted nearly $200,000 for instrumental music programs in elementary schools.

Helmstetter, if elected, says his first order of business would be to ask parents in District 5 what they want. The job of a board member, he said, is to carry out the will of the public.

Helmstetter used to own Café Vega, a coffeehouse on East Yesler Way that he built into a community gathering place. He now co-owns another cafe but wants to return to the software business, where's he's been a quality-assurance manager.

Helmstetter credits his teachers with helping him through tough spots in his life, including a time in San Diego when he had to drop out of high school to help earn money for his family.

He initially home-schooled his oldest daughter because he wasn't satisfied with the schools near his home. But last fall, he enrolled her in the Montessori program at T.T. Minor Elementary and fought the district's decision to close that school.

He says he's over his anger about that and ready to help Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson connect better with parents. His Municipal League ranking was "good."

Cullen, a freelance writer and editor, hasn't been heavily involved in school issues for a few years. In 2001-03, she was president of the Seattle Council PTSA, the umbrella group for all the school PTSAs.

She originally encouraged Helmstetter to run but then decided she had more time and experience for the post.

The Municipal League ranked her "adequate" — the same as Bass.

Cullen says she's running because she was outraged by what she considered the rushed and chaotic way the district closed schools this year and wants to work to rebuild the trust of families in the Central Area, which had more school closures and moves than any other area.

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