Shoreline School Board member Mike Jacobs and challenger Walt Hagen will vie for Position 1 on the school board in the Nov. 4 general election.
Jacobs and Hagen have different goals in mind if they are elected.
Jacobs, 39, is an attorney and has four children enrolled in the district. He is a graduate of Shorewood High School.
Appointed to his current position on the school board two years ago, Jacobs said his involvement with the board stems from his commitment to community service and the Shoreline School District.
“I am very happy with the education I received, and I want my kids to have the same,” Jacobs said.
Hagen, 72, is a retired Boeing engineer. His four children all graduated from Shoreline schools.
His reason for seeking a school board position, Hagen said, is that he is “very concerned” about the Shoreline School District.
“I don’t think (the existing school board) are capable of making changes,” Hagen said.
He added that he also is concerned about the city as a whole, and would like to bring his involvement in the community to the school board.
“I don’t like looking at the city, community and school district as three separate things,” Hagen said.
Jacobs said an ever-tightening budget belt and recent requirements from both federal and state mandates have helped shaped his budget priorities.
“We need to funnel monies in a way that we can meet the goals and requirements of No Child Left Behind, the WASL and the certificate of mastery,” Jacobs said.
Hagen said education in general is his budget priority.
“But we better establish the goals we are trying to achieve with the budget and then we can set our priorities,” Hagen said.
Jacobs and Hagen take a different approach to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test as a benchmark for a student and a schools’ success.
Jacobs said, “While the WASL is an important test, it should not be the only benchmark for success.”
Hagen said he questions the benefits of the WASL because it doesn’t include history.
“I don’t know how good it really is,” Hagen said, “It’s sadly lacking because it leaves the civic section out.”
The state is scheduled to require students to take a social studies portion of the WASL by 2007, according to the website of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Jacobs and Hagen agreed on one issue, that charter schools don’t have a place in the public school system.
Hagen again stated that his first and foremost priority is the public school system. If charter schools were funded with money that would normally go to public schools, he said, “I don’t support that.”
Jacobs questions whether charter schools would bring new curriculum or more parental involvement than what Shoreline Schools already has. “I haven’t been able to determine what they would provide that’s not already available,” Jacobs said, “… and I think we’d be hard-pressed to imagine parents being any more involved than they already are. I don’t think we’d achieve anything better with charter schools.”
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