Editor’s Note: The article below by Bellevue School Board candidate Steve McConnell is in response to last week’s Bellevue Reporter editorial. That editorial contained several errors, including:
– that he sued the district; in fact McConnell filed a citizen complaint with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and that OSPI agreed with him and ordered the district to take corrective action in 5 areas.
– that he sent emails to a school district email list
– that residents were angered by the email (which they couldn’t have been, because McConnell didn’t send any)
– that he has a habit of being less than forthcoming with numbers.
That editorial has been retracted by the Bellevue Reporter.
By Steve McConnell
Today the Bellevue Reporter includes a retraction of false statements that it printed about me last week. How the Bellevue Reporter allowed so many falsehoods to find their way into a single article I do not know, and where the author originally heard those false statements is a question worth pondering. But those are topics for another time.
In this article I want to focus on how to make the Bellevue School District the best district possible. I believe we can improve our district through a positive program focusing on Accountability, Openness, and Community Engagement.
In the area of Accountability, the school board should be defining comprehensive, measurable goals at the district level. These goals should be widely published, shared, and promoted. School board meetings should frequently focus on reviewing progress toward goals. I would like to see the goals include parent satisfaction, teacher satisfaction, college entrance rates, workforce entry rates, and measures of academic performance.
In the area of Openness, I have proposed publishing an easy-to-understand scorecard that reports district performance to the public without bias or spin, especially focusing on progress toward goals. Our community should be able to see easily whether our superintendent and district as a whole are moving forward, backward, or standing still. I believe strongly that this information should be publicly available, so I have filed public records requests and published district performance information myself at www.bellevueschools.net.
In the area of Community Engagement, since June I have hosted nine Town Hall meetings and coffee talks open to the public. With 18,000 students in our district, we can’t reach the entire population through in-person meetings, so I’ve also reached out online via Facebook, a website, and an education blog that details my positions on school issues. I’ve also answered hundreds of emails and had many one-on-one discussions. As a result of this accessibility, I’m the only candidate who’s been endorsed by the Bellevue Education Association.
Some people might say, “Our schools are good. Maybe we should leave well enough alone.” I wondered that too, so prior to my final decision to run for school board I reviewed the school board meeting minutes for every meeting since my opponent was appointed. What I found was that the school board had not engaged in a single review of district-level performance data or district-level progress toward goals in that period. No board member had advocated for a scorecard or anything similar. No board member had suggested engaging the community through town hall meetings, coffee talks, surveys, focus groups, or any similar program.
Our current board members have many strengths, but the board needs leadership in the areas of accountability, openness, and community engagement. I will bring a passionate focus on those issues to the board – which will help ensure Bellevue’s legacy of excellence continues.
I invite you to see my full agenda, including my campaign promises, on my website at steve4schools.org.
