Tonight at the Kent School District Office at 5:00PM you have the opportunity to learn about the five candidates that

have been selected for in-person interviews tonight from a field of eight. One will be selected to fill the open seat that

Chris Davies left in District 2. We all need to care about these important Board positions because they not only affect our

schools but our tax dollars and how they are spent. The candidates that will be interviewed are:

Karen DeBruler

Ben Kodama

Carol Liu

Meghin Margel

Robert North

Take this opportunity to learn about the people making decisions about our Kids in this Community which are our most

precious resource.

After the interviews the Board will go into a private session and select the final candidate—they will take office March 10.

Good schools and good government takes the active involvement of the Community.

Each of us in the 47th District has the opportunity to be active participants in our children’s education and ultimately the future of  Washington State today. You and I can increase Washington’s chances of winning 250 Million dollars of Federal Education money in President Obama’s : Race to the Top competition.  In case you are not familiar with this Plan here is a little background

information on this issue. This is a competition between states, and the states that make the strongest reforms to education are the ones with the “BEST SHOT” at this additional funding for their State.

How do you fit into this picture—get involved today and call your two Representatives on the Washington State Education Committee:

Representative Pat Sullivan—360-786-7858

and

Representative Tina Orwall—360-786-7834

Tell their assistants or leave a voice message that you strongly support the Priest Amendments to SB 6696

These amendments have been initiated by Representative Skip Priest from Federal Way

They state as follows:

• Have the State design a new teacher evaluation system, instead of pushing that responsibility onto individual districts,

at a time when our districts (especially here in the KSD area) don’t have the extra money to design a new system.

• Make student growth one of the metrics in that new evaluation system

We are in critical times in this Nation’s History with our government, schools, infrastructure, and society as a whole. How it all

shakes out is going to be up to us. We have the power to make Differences by getting informed and getting involved.

Take a few minutes today and make those calls to the people we elect to have our voice heard on major education reform.

If we want to stretch our tax dollars even further you and I have to become advocates. Advocates for our Kids Future and Our

Posterity as a whole. Now get going and pick-up those phones and change the future of Education in Washington.

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ken/news/83781207.html?success

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/cmv/opinion/letters/81896572.html

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ken/opinion/82123007.html

http://www.dailysunnews.com/ARCHIVES/Story.aspx/6055/guest-editorial

By now you have seen the headlines of the ruling of KC Superior Court Judge Erlick in his ruling to fully fund Education. Of course, the State has the right to appeal this ruling. In addition, this ruling carries no timeline for the Wa. State legislature to comply with the ruling. Many factors are still up in the air but it is an important ruling because it forces our legislators to begin to at least have conversations on how we are going to address these issues. It comes at our most challenging economic times. I am confident that the good people of Washington will find a way to creatively make things work more effectively for all the Kids in our State. The make  up of our schools and the times have in my opinion changed so dramatically that our school system has not been able to keep up. What worked 10 years ago may not work today. We have new issues as a society to deal with and competition that is Global which never happened when I attended school. I think just like in our Politics we have to start listening to each others opinions in a more civil way and just because we have differences of opinion—not be so quick to just walk away from the table. We need to find that common link to humanity and the common good and start gearing all our policies and conversations toward it. On another Education Issue and really a health issue. Before the Rules Committee which just passed out of the House Education Committee is a Bill which would help reduce costs to Washington State in the obesity column. It is HJM 4002 and it carries no money with it. Urge the rules committee to pull it out for a vote. Your health costs and mine could benefit from it.

I look forward to an open exchange of topics and issues that I am heavily involved with from day to day. In the meantime—

Make each day matter because none of us knows how many we have. Seize the moment–

the busy Bee buzzing on the streets