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Rob O'Callahan - Candidate for Mercer Island School Board Position 4
154 Plays1 month ago
I speak with Rob O’Callahan, candidate for Mercer Island School Board (Position 4), about his background in software engineering and AI, his family’s experience at Island Park, and the issues he sees in the district. We discuss his concerns about curriculum rigor (including math and heavy iPad use), student-safety governance following the Twombly case, and financial transparency.
Rob outlines why he believes trust needs to be rebuilt—with emphasis on student-facing staffing (nurses, librarians), enrollment recovery, and clearer prioritization of capital projects after the recent bond’s failure. He shares a cautious view of introducing AI tools in earlier grades, and highlights goals around literacy, extended writing, and updating assessment tools. More about his campaign: https://rob4mischools.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Mercer Matters Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the Mercer Matters podcast. I'm Ben Sharp and I'm your host. I started this podcast about two years ago to give Mercer Island residents another way to get information on local elections and bond measures.
00:00:16
Speaker
If you enjoy this podcast, I would appreciate it if you could like it on the platform that you're listening to and also share with your friends and family via social media. Without further ado, here is the next episode.
00:00:27
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Mercer
Interview with Rob O'Callaghan Begins
00:00:30
Speaker
Matters podcast. I'm Ben Sharp and your host for today's discussion with Rob O'Callaghan. He's running for school board position four against Stephanie Burnett, who will also be interviewing in another episode.
00:00:41
Speaker
Rob, i'd like to start off by thanking you for stepping up and running for school board. um As I tell everybody, it's a lot of work, I know, running for office and putting yourself out there on behalf of our kids and our community. So thank you very much for running.
00:00:52
Speaker
um The goal for today's discussion is to give Mercer Island voters an opportunity to hear directly from you. to get to know you a bit more and learn about how you think about different issues facing our school district and our kids.
00:01:03
Speaker
So to start, I'd love to have you introduce yourself, maybe a bit about your background and kids and experience with VersaRound schools.
Rob's Career and Motivation for School Board
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm a software engineer. I've done a lot of different things in the past. I studied materials science engineering.
00:01:16
Speaker
I did a lot of biochemistry, some molecular genetic stuff in grad school, but and eventually fell into doing bioinformatics. And then after a couple of years at a start doing that, I I got a job at Google, I moved out to the Bay Area and ah just kind of stayed in big tech since.
00:01:33
Speaker
I moved out here three years ago with ah when I was at Facebook. Things were still remote back then, so i was just like, I could move wherever without a lot of paperwork. About two years ago, i left Facebook and started doing some of my own independent AI projects. And I think it's it's given me a lot of more fast learning experience, ah iterating fast doing my own things.
00:01:57
Speaker
My interest in the the school board is that i I have two kids at Island Park. I've got a fifth grader and a third grader. Three years ago, my second grader, when she just joined the school, one of her first comments was, oh, I like this new
Concerns about Educational Practices
00:02:11
Speaker
school.
00:02:11
Speaker
It's so easy. Before that, we went to Texas to because schools were open there, and we were in a private Montessori school ah for preschool and kindergarten and first grade.
00:02:23
Speaker
They really worked hard at that school. And I think most parents don't really want to hear that their kids are just having an easy time not learning a lot. But I just wanted her to make friends for the first couple years because it's a new school, new state.
00:02:37
Speaker
So last fall I saw the math that they were doing at the school. And it's this new math with all the confusing extra steps, six different ways to do multiplication. And it was also very iPad heavy. I think that kids can probably absorb knowledge better when they are using paper and pencil. I think there have been studies that show that.
00:02:55
Speaker
And so I started getting involved with the with the with the schools. Actually, I made a public comment at a at a board meeting, hoping that the current board could address these sorts of things.
00:03:06
Speaker
And then a couple of people reached out to me in private after that board meeting got in touch with me and we just sort of started talking about how we can improve the schools. And a lot of issues came up since then other than the MAP curriculum.
Student Safety Issues and Board Handling
00:03:20
Speaker
That's kind my intro. I'll let you ask me some more questions. Well, thank you very much for Again, for that introduction and joining. Yeah. And i so I think maybe we could just dive right into, you know, the other areas that that you see we can improve. um i mean, what what do you view as kind of the top issues facing students in Mercer Island School District in 2025?
00:03:40
Speaker
Oh, well, I mean, curriculum was what I started with. And then earlier, i started talking to director Dan Glowitz about things. And he he raised a lot of issues with financial transparency.
00:03:53
Speaker
His experience is that he he didn't always get the information that he wanted to know about the the school district so that he could better give direction and make decisions. But I guess by far what's overshadowing most of the other issues is the the recent student safety issue with a high school teacher who allegedly was ah a predator and had lots of victims at the school.
Need for Transparency in the School Board
00:04:18
Speaker
And so that, I think the the school board, The four who voted to go along with the the superintendent's decision, I think what they did was a grave error. I've talked to lots of people about this knocking on doors, and most people think it was mishandled by the superintendent, keeping it covered up, basically.
00:04:38
Speaker
The school district knew about this in December 2023, there only the Mercer Island reporter story that forced the superintendent to disclose this in August. So student safety, I think we need to make sure that we have a culture where we don't have this ah man cave thing.
00:04:54
Speaker
um There have been like Reddit threads talking about other teachers and sort of a culture that might have enabled this one predator and possibly others. But I think there's also, like, we have to be able to serve the other basic needs of providing enough student-facing staff.
00:05:11
Speaker
We've had the, there there have been some talks of cutting nurses, librarians, and these so sorts of roles that it's really kind of core education that we're having difficulties with now in the school district.
00:05:22
Speaker
I think a big part of this is that, well, we've had enrollment declines, and part of that's demographic. for sure. i think the year before COVID, we our peak enrollment was 4,300.
00:05:34
Speaker
forty three hundred And now we're at 3,800 full-time equivalents. And so I think there's a lot we can do to at least get 100 more students enrolled residents.
00:05:46
Speaker
There have been a lot of people who have withdrawn for their students for various reasons, like curriculum, safety issues. So I just want to build up the trust in the and the school district so that we address parents' concerns and we have a more functional school district.
00:06:02
Speaker
right, Rob. Well, thank you very much for going through you know what you view as the top issues there. And I think you know you've definitely hit on a number of things that are on voters' minds. I guess the tunnel in a little bit on the Chris Twombly issue, that's what you're referring to, the safety situation where she's high school and a teacher that was allegedly involved sexually with student.
00:06:22
Speaker
So you you talked a little bit about that, but I guess one of my questions is, if you were on the school board, What would you have done differently in that situation based on what you know now? um Well, so I guess ah ah putting myself in the place of one of the people who's there, i I would have been notified of this in an like executive session.
00:06:44
Speaker
Superintendent Rundle called an executive session, and at that point he presented what had happened to those the school board members. i would have consulted personal attorney because I would not have been aware of what what the proper thing to do in this case would be, but I definitely, i would have taken pretty much the same stance as Dan Glovitz would have had.
00:07:04
Speaker
i would not have voted to approve of the the severance or the separation agreement with Chris Twombly that let him stay on the payroll for 14 additional months and collect an additional lump sum and qualify for the state pension. But I, as for Whether i would have tried to disclose this to the public at that time as like a whistleblower, I would have wanted to do that.
00:07:28
Speaker
And that's why i would consult an attorney for my personal green light to do that sort of thing, because I know that the superintendent kind of intimidated them with anything that's in this executive session is completely confidential and must not be discriminated. discuss anywhere else.
00:07:44
Speaker
But I think that's when he goes over to say that and then continues to conceal that there's something improper about that. And it definitely needed to come out at that point that the student had been victimized.
00:07:56
Speaker
So to summarize that the two kind of key issues for you were the severance agreement and then the the lack of transparency from the district and the board on the issue. That's right.
00:08:07
Speaker
Okay. Going to another issue that you had faced, which is the financial situation that the district is in. you know I've had previous discussion with other school board candidates and Dr. Rundle on several occasions. um The district's in a tight financial situation, faces lots of challenges, as you've pointed out.
Financial Transparency and Spending Practices
00:08:27
Speaker
um How do you view the financial situation that the district is is in at a high level? um What are the challenges or opportunities and then what adjustments need to be made and and what will the impact be on students?
00:08:40
Speaker
Well, I think as for the current situation, There are a lot of known unknowns, as some previous cabinet member once put it. the The lack of transparency around the ah around the fiscal issues of the the school district kind of make it hard for an outsider to make, I guess, accurate and meaningful statements about.
00:09:02
Speaker
I'll give you one example. In last year's budget, in the in the public records, like the F-125, F-126. It was one of those sorts of filings. so There was one line item that was a transfer from the CapTech fund to the general fund.
00:09:18
Speaker
And this transfer was about $5 million, dollars or maybe 4.4, something like that. Without this transfer, I mean, the the general fund would have been, in the red, $4.4 million dollars that year.
00:09:30
Speaker
It's not clear to me whether that was loan. um They were entitled to borrow from the the CapTech fund by some state law under the condition that it had to be paid back in two years.
00:09:43
Speaker
It's not clear whether this is a loan or as the superintendent said, it was just they pay everything out of the general fund. They just reimburse it at the end of the year as ah as an accounting practice.
00:09:56
Speaker
When I met with so the superintendent Rundle in June, this is the answer he gave. And he said that the independent auditor said everything was cool, that this was done correctly.
00:10:06
Speaker
So i we could take him at his word for that, I guess. But I think there is a lot of lack of transparency. Another ah more recent lack of transparency is that at the school board meeting, maybe last one in September or maybe last one in August, the superintendent invited consultants from a strategy and PR firm, Strategies 360, to present the research that he had ah contracted them or commissioned them to do.
00:10:35
Speaker
And this is kind of in the context of the last bond proposition that failed. The superintendent wants to know the the community sentiment, why they would not have voted for it, and to formulate a communication strategy to give to, I guess, ah ah to advise the CMIPs or something, the PAC that supports the bonds here.
00:10:58
Speaker
to help them tune their communication strategy ah for having more successful passage of future bonds. I filed a public records request to the district on October 1st, and i I mainly wanted to know how much they were quoted for this project because I have professional experience and in market research. I'm a CTO of a panel company, so we we provide sample for these sorts of surveys.
00:11:25
Speaker
not to political sorts of surveys usually, but I know the industry well enough that I know that this sort of consulting project would probably be billed at, they were trying to get 400 responses and develop a communication strategy.
00:11:38
Speaker
So this, they would have charged between 20,000 and a hundred thousand dollars. It's kind of a wide range where a consulting firm would charge for these sorts of things. So I wanted to, i asked for all communications with this, uh,
00:11:51
Speaker
between the district and staff of this consulting firm. And the response I got to this public records request was that it would be January 6, 2026, before they could complete my request, which seems odd because it's it's all just emails, not looking for paper records.
00:12:12
Speaker
And if there were student names in the correspondence between the district and this consulting firm that would need to be redacted, I would hope there would not be any student names in communications with this consultant. So it didn't seem like there should be any reason for this request to take three months other than um they did not want to give a school board candidate talking points that would say that there would be something that was could be improved in the district.
00:12:41
Speaker
Interesting. So is there an expectation? I've i've not done a public records request ah here locally. I've done them with the FCC and other federal organizations. But is there an expectation that they have just generally for how quickly they turn those around?
00:12:56
Speaker
um I don't think there actually is like a formal um expectation. I know that the Attorney General, Nick Brown, has recently tried to announce that he would like to see all the public agencies having a five-day or five business day turnaround, something like that.
00:13:14
Speaker
Because I think having prompt responses to public records requests is necessary for functioning democracy. And I i agree with the the attorney general on this.
00:13:25
Speaker
Okay.
Analysis of Bond Measure Failure
00:13:26
Speaker
So I wanted to ask you about um the the issue relating to the school bond failing that you just mentioned. So obviously, the bond measure failed. It was to fund improvements to Island Middle School and and several to Merceron High School.
00:13:41
Speaker
Reflecting back on that, Rob, why do you think the bond measure failed? And if on the school board for the next the next initiative, what would you do differently? ah Well, I think I am pretty qualified to say um why did not get the amount of support it did to pass because I have probably talked to several hundred people while knocking on doors and I've heard like a kind of a list of concerns.
00:14:06
Speaker
There have been people who they have their own financial concerns. They've had their property taxes increase a lot and they are worried about an additional one. These are a lot of people who do not might not be able to afford a like a ah lot more increase in expenses.
00:14:25
Speaker
And so I've also talked to people who have lost trust or faith that this the bond money would be spent responsibly by the school district.
00:14:36
Speaker
Some have commented that they thought the the HVAC was supposed to be covered in a previous bond or in levy or in from the operational funds rather than the proposition that was in April this year.
00:14:49
Speaker
And so I think there's there was a perception of some people that the the school district was not ah spending the the last bond correctly. I think there's also sort of a general mistrust issue with the school district. It's that a lot of parents have withdrawn their kids from the schools here because yeah academic or other sorts of needs were not being addressed correctly. And they they might have taken their kids to St. Monica's or off-island.
00:15:19
Speaker
So I think as a school board member, I would want to make sure that we have good trust and that we are we're spending the public's funds correctly and that what we are spending is going to things that will really produce ah good outcomes in academics.
00:15:39
Speaker
If you have a bond, there's a need to have and nice to have things. I believe that one of the parts of the bond was tearing down a recently built building in the middle school to build a new building with like biophilic design.
00:15:53
Speaker
And I think to a lot of people in the community that would seem like ah a nice to have when we have some of the older elementary schools like Island Park, basically all the The three older elementary schools might need structural updates to comply with current codes. And I think a lot of people would probably like to see these prioritized over some of the things that the April bond was supposed to cover.
00:16:18
Speaker
So just to recap, a kind of rephrase, it sounds like you would not be in support of the work that was proposed at Islander Middle School nor at Merceron High School and would rather see maybe other projects prioritized in the district.
00:16:32
Speaker
i've I've only been in one building of the middle school, so like I can't speak like firsthand whether I think that these large structural changes were needed, but it did sound like the buildings I have been in the middle school, like the the common use or the cafeteria does seem like very recently built. It looks like to me compared to the buildings in Island Park I've been to. So that's kind of my experience as for the HVAC in the high school.
00:17:01
Speaker
i I appreciate that we we do need that sort of thing a couple of weeks a year. But I'm not sure if, I don't know how much that would actually cost.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I don't know if it's ah if it would come over some of the other sorts of priorities that some of the elementary schools might need.
Skepticism About AI in Education
00:17:21
Speaker
ah You mentioned that you're you know working on AI projects and an AI engineer.
00:17:26
Speaker
um i One of the questions I want to ask each candidate is kind of about the future technology and what the school system might look like in the future. And I think AI is one of those technologies that's really disrupting about everything.
00:17:38
Speaker
How do you see AI integrating into the academic process here in the Mercer Island schools? I think ah one one perspective that's... a lot of software engineers would have as a as a skepticismism there' a skepticism about software engineering ah because they've they've seen all the sausages made.
00:17:58
Speaker
For me, i think ah I would be pretty skeptical of any any of the like AI offerings for elementary and middle school. I think that before trying to make a really computer-driven tools.
00:18:12
Speaker
I think kids probably need to to work on basic fundamentals, um just things that building common sense with regular books and that sort of thing. I think that one of the things that the the AI currently is not very good at, they're just ah the large language models. there are They're trained to predict the next word, and they're trained on corpus of literature and all sorts of text data.
00:18:37
Speaker
But they don't have a great physical model of the world. Like they might not understand gravity, for example. They and might not be able to model how a ball flies through the air. And these are the the sorts of physical grounding I think that I think children need to develop before they start using these tools so that they can really judge whether the AI is generating something meaningful or not.
00:19:00
Speaker
So I think if you if you give these if you give young children access to what we have right now, like chat GPT or something like that, it might sound very convincing to them, but they might not have the critical thinking ability or theyre just the sort of common sense to have like express judgment over what the AI is doing.
00:19:19
Speaker
So I think we need to start with the fundamentals first before we introduce heavy AI curricula. Okay. Thanks for your perspective on that, Rob. ah Last to finish up here, I want to get your perspective.
Curriculum Improvements for Future Readiness
00:19:31
Speaker
What do you think are the biggest opportunities that you see for our students over the next four years?
00:19:35
Speaker
um i would like to see I would like to see curriculum improvements. And that's, I think, really how to better prepare for the future. There's going be a lot changing in the in the world in four years.
00:19:48
Speaker
And to better prepare kids for anything that might happen with, ah like people talk about general intelligence, artificial general intelligence, aga AGI coming out.
00:19:59
Speaker
And I think that people really need to learn to have adapt dynamically to to new things happening. And so I think we we need a ah good curriculum that will prepare for the future.
00:20:10
Speaker
So I'd like to see more focus on um better literacy. um The students need to be writing papers again, not just paragraphs that go into the no-red ink app. I'd really like to see iReady replaced with something that's been more proven to prepare kids for high school and college map.
00:20:28
Speaker
Well, Rob, I appreciate you joining the program
Conclusion and Campaign Information
00:20:30
Speaker
today. We had a couple technical difficulties here, but we made it through. um Where can folks go to get more information about you and in your campaign?
00:20:40
Speaker
Oh, I have a campaign website at rob4, the numeral 4, mischool.com. Some of my campaign signs on the island have the yeah URL there. I assume that you would also be able to post a ah link in in the in the podcast description. Absolutely. Well, thank you very much for for joining. I enjoyed our discussion today and I wish you the best of luck in your campaign. All right.
00:21:01
Speaker
Thanks. Thanks for having me.