Candidates Sherry Marlin and Jim Leigh will vie for position 5 on the Shoreline School Board in the Nov. 4 election.
Marlin, 44, is self-employed and works as a substitute at Shoreline Community College’s parent-child center. She also volunteers in the district and is involved with the PTA membership.
Marlin said she feels it is a natural step to run for a position on the school board after spending 16 years working in various positions in PTA, and that diversity in experience might be just what the school board needs.
“We need new voices on the school board and we need to have representation of the entire community,” Marlin said. “Some people have been on the board for years.”
Leigh, 52, works as a Boeing engineer and ran for the same position on the school board four years ago. Like Marlin, Leigh said he feels the board needs a little shaking up.
“The current board is not doing enough for the district,” Leigh said, referring to the district’s history of poor fiscal management and recent budget cuts. The rapid turnover of superintendents in the district – five superintendents in less than a decade – and the Shoreline Education Association’s early June request for a vote of no confidence in the school board all make him believe “they are not running a stable organization,” Leigh said.
“I feel I have the background to do a good job at it,” he said.
Marlin and Leigh’s views on the No Child Left Behind act and the standards it sets for students almost mirror each other.
Both candidates agreed in saying it is ridiculous to expect special education and English Language Learner students to achieve the same standards as mainstream students on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning tests by 2014.
“It’s not possible – there’s no way any school could do 100 percent in that time,” Marlin said.
Leigh said changing the process by which No Child Left Behind and the WASL is used for special education and ELL students could be one way to approach the problem.
“What we need is to build equality into the process … a process so that kids can succeed,” Leigh said. “And we need to look and why and where they are failing and what we can do.”
Marlin and Leigh also agreed that stronger communication ties between the school board and the community needs to be put into place.
One point Marlin and Leigh didn’t agree on is budget priorities.
Leigh said he feels the District Budget Advisory Team put into place to help form this year’s budget was not enough to make a difference and that the district has a long way to go before budget woes no longer haunt it.
“We need someone honest enough to say ‘that’s not right’ … If I get elected I am going to clean (the budget) up,” Leigh said.
Marlin, on the other hand, said that with the majority of the general fund budget going toward teacher salaries, the district should look at hiring a grant writer. The change could bring in more money for the district while the state funding gets tighter, Marlin said.
Marlin added that an income tax could be another option. “It’s going to be tough unless we change how we tax in Washington state,” Marlin said.
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