Ward 4 State Board of Education Special Election

[Anonymous]

Anyone going to the debate tonight at Lowell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone going to the debate tonight at Lowell?

Didn’t know about it. Can you share the details?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely O'Leary! Not bought like Henderson; not an advocate of the current testing focus like Ryan; and the other candidate...can't find much on her.

I'll take passion and experience on the ground (the latter is a bit lacking at the policy level in DC) any day!

Don't make claims about candidates that are unsubstantiated or untrue please. There is nothing to back what you are saying - in fact quite the opposite if you've attended any of the forums. You can support O'Leary, but don't lie about other people. I'm starting to think O'Leary's very pushy son is posting anonymously on here. I've ran into him more than once and I just have a hunch.

For anyone interested, I just returned from the Ward 4 Democrats debate. I went in supporting Elani who has a son at the same school as mine, but left supporting Ryan. He did not have a "current testing focus" like was said - it was the opposite and a similar position to what O'Leary takes. More importantly, Ryan was the only person who actually knew the current events in DC legislation and our schools. The other candidates had no idea how the Roosevelt HS principal created a scandal and why the music teacher at Shepherd Elementary was fired. He explained both situations to the audience because no one else could. Someone even yelled out to him "THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING IT!" after he answered. He was very clear and knew his stuff. I like that he has worked in both regular and charter schools. I like that he has been a principal. I was extremely impressed. I feel strongly enough that I plan to post on the listservs about it too.

I LOVED the question about how many SBOE meetings have you attended since starting this campaign!! Again, everyone said "one" except for Ryan who has apparently attended all of them and testified for the board twice. Elani said she has kids and that's why she can't attend the meetings. Oy vey! I felt bad.

Thanks for the recap. Sad that there's such a low bar for local DC politics. I'm not a news junkie, but I knew about these stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone going to the debate tonight at Lowell?

Didn’t know about it. Can you share the details?

PP. I stumbled across it on Facebook, but haven't seen it anywhere else. I'd really like to know whether all candidates will show up--otherwise I don't think I'll attend.

https://www.facebook.com/events/267137167333388/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone going to the debate tonight at Lowell?

Didn’t know about it. Can you share the details?

PP. I stumbled across it on Facebook, but haven't seen it anywhere else. I'd really like to know whether all candidates will show up--otherwise I don't think I'll attend.

https://www.facebook.com/events/267137167333388/

Did anyone attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I hate to say this but for me a Todd endorsement makes me less likely to vote for whomever he is endorsing. And his letter of support wasn't very compelling to me. I don't know what most of those roles mean in terms of being a good board member.

I was turned off by Ryan's residency fraud rant on his video. Maybe I'm sheltered but is that really among the biggest issues we need to tackle? It does nothing to make schools better and as someone with a babysitter with MD plates, I always thing the DCUM policing is a bit overblown.

Anyone Todd is for, I am against. Todd always helps me narrow down my choices at least by one.

[Anonymous]

Obviously, anyone Todd supports is a no-go for me as well. Everyone in my neighborhood seems to be backing O'Leary. Is there any compelling reason not to vote for him, DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, anyone Todd supports is a no-go for me as well. Everyone in my neighborhood seems to be backing O'Leary. Is there any compelling reason not to vote for him, DCUM?

Lots of Rhonda Henderson signs in my neighborhood, along with a few for the other candidates.

Does anyone know when the results should be available? Interested to see the final tallies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, anyone Todd supports is a no-go for me as well. Everyone in my neighborhood seems to be backing O'Leary. Is there any compelling reason not to vote for him, DCUM?

I really like Mr. T, but I don't think he has the support needed to top Henderson, so I voted for O'Leary.

[Anonymous]

I feel good about the level of interest and talent in this race and bad for those who lose. Really. I wish we had more races with people this good.

HOWEVER, I voted for O'Leary.

I had met Rhonda at activist type settings before. She was very useful and someone good to be around! Really! However, the problem is that she is too integrated into DC politics and in particular the Fenty-Bowser-Todd Green Machine patronage network. I do not need to vote for anyone else to amplify and "work with" these voices. I think that based on my feel for her, that if she wasn't part of the Green Team/Fenty/Bowser/Todd/Democratic machine but stood in opposition to it, I would actually be quite happy to have voted for her. And if she does win - which is a distinct possibility - I hope that she shows the intelligence and ability she has as an independent and effective voice for DC's students' future.

O'Leary certainly appears to have a big heart and has stood up for students and those working hard in the system through literally all of modern DCPS history. He has spirit and a good gut sense of things and who really needs advocacy in this system. He didn't seem sharp on policy and the scope of this job. And the general shoulder-shrug sense that he-worked-hard-and-so-did-his-students-and-bad-things-happened-to-them-and-no-one-graduated-actually-knowing-anything-or-prepared-for-much gave me pause - would voting for him be an endorsement of the status quo, where staff put in work (to a certain extent), students don't really engage, and we get a whole bunch of lifelong losers out of DCPS who really should be a new generation to bring DC to greatness? BUT I have a sense that his off-the-cuff remarks in opposition to the Mayor's team's 1984 education doublespeak and juked stats would be the right use of the bully pulpit the position serves. AND I feel like as the challenges of the particular position comes up, people who are activists like myself will be people he will listen to on policy concerns. Like actually listen, and espouse constituent views, without tempering them to meet the Mayor's plans.

Elani Lawrence would be someone I would be proud to have on the SBOE. DC SBOE should have someone who really knows the challenges of families with kids who speak Spanish at home and promised themselves only one thing; that their kids would have better lives than theirs. I think she could really bring that, along with a focus on the northern part of Ward 4 that is welcome during this particular time frame.

Tauriainen would also be a great choice in terms of energy, quality, and ideas and well-tailored to the position. The specific concerns I have would be about accommodation with charter points of view and something elitist in his approach to others - it feels like his message is that he's been successful, so we should give him this job. That to me does not sound like someone who wants to listen to constituents and put their views on an equal footing with his own or those of others on the Board.

All that said I will reiterate - if I had a chance to vote for several candidates in a citywide field, there's a good chance I would prefer all of these candidates over any from any other part of DC. Honestly, I think I will be happy for any winner, though I am getting to the point where opposition to the presumptuousness of the Mayor's political team and administration is becoming more important to me than the rest.

[Anonymous]

Voted around 10 and it was empty. O'Leary has our vote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely O'Leary! Not bought like Henderson; not an advocate of the current testing focus like Ryan; and the other candidate...can't find much on her.

I'll take passion and experience on the ground (the latter is a bit lacking at the policy level in DC) any day!

Testing has got to go! Test tell us how wealthy your family is not how much your kids know!

[Anonymous]

There were a couple people at my spot just before 8. Not many though. Voted for O'Leary...wasn't 100% sure between him and Ryan.

[Anonymous]

Apparently my voting place has had no people all day. Why didn’t they just have everyone vote at the early voting center (rec center)?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else suspect that one O’Leary supporter has written a lot of these posts?