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Julian Bradley - Candidate for Mercer Island School Board Position 2
99 Plays1 month ago
I sit down with Julian Bradley, unopposed candidate for Mercer Island School Board (Position 2), to discuss his decade of volunteering in the district—from classroom reading programs to serving on the PTA and PTA Council. Julian talks about his personal journey to Mercer Island, his experience raising two children (one in high school, one in middle school), and how his involvement has shaped his views on district policy and communication.
The conversation explores three key themes: funding challenges (especially the role of the operations levy and state contributions), academic priorities and gap-filling, and parent–school transparency and tech systems (like ParentSquare). Julian also shares his perspective on open enrollment as a tool to preserve course diversity in high school and weighs in on how future bonds might be structured. For more on his candidacy, visit bradleyforboard.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.
Julian Bradley's School Board Candidacy
00:00:24
Speaker
Without further ado, here is the next episode.
00:00:28
Speaker
everybody. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Mercer Matters podcast. I'm Ben Sharp, and I'm your host for today's discussion with Julian Bradley, who's running for school board position two ah for the Mercer Island School District.
00:00:39
Speaker
um It's a lot of effort ah to run for office and put yourself out there, so I want to ah express thanks on behalf myself and our community for for running. And i understand you're running unopposed. And so I suppose this is a ah thank you in advance for the time and energy you'll be contributing for our kids over the next four years. So ah thank you very much.
00:00:59
Speaker
um The goal for today today's discussion is to give Mercer Island voters an opportunity to hear directly from you, i get to know you a little bit and learn a little bit more about how you think about different issues facing our school district and our kids.
Julian's Background and Volunteer Experience
00:01:10
Speaker
ah So to start with that, I'd love to have you introduce yourself a little bit about your background and your experience, your prior experience with the Mercer Island School District. Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me, Ben, and I really appreciate the opportunity to come on this podcast.
00:01:24
Speaker
um Every chance the voters get to hear from the candidates is incredibly important. And again, I'm just very grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you and the voters of Mercer Island.
00:01:35
Speaker
um For those that don't know me, ah my name is Julian Bradley and I moved to Mercer Island about 10 years ago. Like many of you, I moved to Mercer Island because of its reputation for outstanding public schools.
00:01:50
Speaker
We moved to Mercer Island when my middle son was in kindergarten and that is when I became a full-time stay-at-home parent and volunteer. ah My first opportunity to volunteer with the school district was in my son's kindergarten classroom ah doing book in the bag.
00:02:08
Speaker
For people that aren't familiar, each kindergartner will pick a book every day, bring it home, practice with their parents, and then bring it back to school the next day to read with a teacher, parent volunteer, or paraprofessional.
00:02:20
Speaker
That's one of the ways that they get better at reading. So that was my first chance to volunteer in the district. And when you do a little bit of volunteering, people will ask you to do a little bit more. And I continued to say yes.
00:02:33
Speaker
So I volunteered a great deal at Island Park where my kids went to elementary school in the classroom doing events, including the Eagle Hop, which was the dance at the time. Then,
00:02:45
Speaker
Worked as secretary on the Island Park PTA and then eventually as president of the Island Park PTA. Then my next transition was working into on PTA Council, first as vice president and then most recently as president. And PTA Council, we work with district administration on policy matters.
00:03:04
Speaker
um And so during my time on PTA Council, ah we were one of the major stakeholders in the new cell phone policy in schools that was implemented last year to great success. And we ah most recently have been working on e-bikes for middle schoolers.
Key Issues Facing the School District
00:03:19
Speaker
um And so, you know, I have a kind of a 10-year track record of volunteering in the district. um And I really enjoyed that. I've found it to be incredibly fulfilling to work with the schools and helping to improve them as best I can, ah working to develop relationships with administrators and other parents, bringing those parent concerns to the district.
00:03:43
Speaker
And I kind of view this run for school board um which ah like many others, I am surprised to find myself running for elected office, but I've actually really enjoyed the process. um But that I kind of view it as a natural extension of the volunteering that I've already been doing ah because I do have a 10 year history of volunteering in the schools and at a pretty high level most recently.
00:04:08
Speaker
Awesome. Well, thank you very much ah for that introduction. So, ah You know, it sounds it sounds like you've got quite a lot of experience with the schools. how many How many kids do you have in the in the district? I have two kids in the district. I have a son who is a a freshman at the high school, and then I have a seventh grader at Islander Middle School, and then I also have a daughter who attends boarding school as well.
00:04:33
Speaker
Okay, great. Right on. um So I guess the the first question I'd like to ask is, what do you see as kind of the top issues or challenges that are facing the Mercy Island School District as we sit here in 2025?
00:04:47
Speaker
Sure. The number one issue, and this is true for all school districts in Washington, particularly those in western Washington and suburban Seattle, ah the number one issue is funding.
00:05:00
Speaker
Schools in Washington state, particularly since the McCleary decision about 10 years ago, The funding has not kept pace with expenses. And so that is the number one issue that's facing our schools.
00:05:14
Speaker
ah There are certain things that we as parents can do to alleviate the funding crisis, ah ah the funding issues of the schools. ah The most important thing, and that's coming up shortly, is the operations levy that's coming on the ballot early next year.
00:05:31
Speaker
That levy represents about 15% of the budget, or in real dollars, about $12 million dollars of the school budget. So ah making sure that there's adequate funding for our kids in schools makes a huge difference. And that funding is what pays for things like a seven-period day in the high school, um the co-curricular programs, art, music, sports, ah paraprofessionals in classes in elementary schools.
00:06:00
Speaker
So the number one issue I think is funding. ah Other important issues i think are kind of academics, making sure that our kids have access to excellent curriculum, making sure that they are competitive on a national and international level, specifically for ah college readiness, career readiness.
00:06:22
Speaker
um And then i i think one of the other important issues is ah transparency and partnership with parents. um As a parent of kids in schools,
00:06:33
Speaker
One of the most frustrating things can be access to timely and actionable information. you know For my high schooler and middle schooler, so am I able to easily see if they're getting their assignments turned in, what their grades are?
00:06:47
Speaker
How can I hold them accountable? And I don't think that that's always as easy as it should be. um You know, there are different systems at different levels of school. ah You know, ah cumulative is where their transcripts exist.
00:07:01
Speaker
ah Schoology is often where the grades and assignments are. For younger kids, there's Google Classroom. And so having a consistent tech, I mean, access to information, I think is very important in communication with the schools.
00:07:14
Speaker
i think the parents on Mercer Island want to know what's going on with their kids, how they can hold them accountable, and how they can make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing So for those sort sort of three most important issues, funding, academics, and then sort of transparency and partnership with parents.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, i appreciate you mentioning that that last piece because oftentimes I have four kids in the district and i am just overwhelmed with the amount of tech that I have to keep up with and how frequently it changes.
00:07:45
Speaker
um It seems like every year there's there's some kind of change that forces me to to relearn what I what i knew. So I appreciate mentioning that. so note So this year, the new piece of Parent Tech is ParentSquare, which is a communications platform. ah The district implemented that to be able to better communicate with parents. And also, you know, one of its advantages is it automatically will translate the school and teacher communications into, I believe, 130
Enrollment Strategies and Competition
00:08:15
Speaker
languages. And so, know, making sure that parents know
00:08:19
Speaker
where and how to get information is incredibly important. And also that it's presented in a clear and concise manner. And I don't think they're doing as good of a job these days as they could be. And it will you with four kids, I'm sure experience this.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's a lot to a lot to to keep up with every year, but we're managing. um So to to to hit on your, kind of the the number one issue that you mentioned, which is ah funding and kind of the finance situation, I've had previous discussion with school board candidates ah with Dr. Rundle number of times.
00:08:51
Speaker
ah you know It's fair to say the district's in a tight financial situation and faces a lot of challenges and difficult decisions. Some have already been made with staffing cuts and others, I'm sure, on the horizon.
00:09:03
Speaker
um How do you view the current financial situation the district is Is it solely... a lack of incoming funds? Do we need to increase taxes in order to meet these budget shortfalls?
00:09:17
Speaker
Are there adjustments that meat need to be made operationally in addition to what's already been done in your view? And then ultimately, what what do you view the impact on students will be over the next two or three years that we navigate these challenges?
00:09:32
Speaker
Sure. um In my first part or of the answer to this question, I'd like to sort of zoom out to a state and regional level. um There are currently 15 school districts in Washington State which are in binding condition, which means that you know they have a negative fund balance.
00:09:53
Speaker
ah Mercer Island is not one of those districts and Mercer Island actually has been doing a relatively good job of managing its fund balance and has been one of the few that has increased it year over year the last few years.
00:10:05
Speaker
However, our sort of peer and competitor districts locally, such as Bellevue and Bainbridge Island, do have more issues with their finances. And so I think that, you know,
00:10:18
Speaker
When you first take a look at this, it's important to acknowledge that it is a state and region and regional problem of you know the income from the state.
00:10:29
Speaker
ah Each student gets approximately $13,000 state funding. So, and that is what pays for basic education.
00:10:40
Speaker
ah Mercer Island parents expect a lot more than a basic education. And that is what we have the levy for, to pay for the extras. um And so with the funding, then where do you make sure that each dollar spent is improving the academic and social experience of the kids, right?
00:11:01
Speaker
How do we make sure they're learning and how do we make sure that they have a good experience in the schools? And so I think that the most important thing is as you make cuts and as you make decisions, you want to try and keep those cuts away from the student experience as much as you can.
00:11:20
Speaker
um and you know, I think that, for example, Lake Washington School District most recently cut its high school periods from seven periods to six periods.
00:11:31
Speaker
And so, you know, it's that seventh period that allows a high schooler to take a class that is of interest to them. And, you know, whether that's art or music, just but something that excites them about learning and excites them about going to school for that day.
00:11:47
Speaker
so And again, that's something that the levy does pay for. Does that answer most of your question, Ben? Or was there a second part that I've missed? Yeah, no, I mean, I think, yeah, I think the goal is to kind of hear your perspective on, you know, where where you see things are. know, and so another part of the funding, I think it's important to understand the funding model of Washington State.
00:12:09
Speaker
And so, you know, I think that schools are... out of High fixed costs, low variable costs. You know, the first student that shows up is actually incredibly expensive to educate because because you have to kind of have the building, all the teachers.
00:12:26
Speaker
And, you know, there's a lot of fixed costs that go into opening the doors of school on day one. And then, you know, that marginal student, you know, if you get a new student that shows up on the first day of high school and is ready to enroll, you know, everything is already there. So that marginal student is actually quite...
00:12:45
Speaker
inexpensive to educate. It doesn't add many costs or in some cases, no cost at all. You don't have to add additional classrooms or teachers for that one student. Now that has been one of the benefits to open enrollment is that I believe that there are about 130 students in open enrollment, 65 of those students are children of e of Mercer Island School District employees and city employees, and then about 65 are kind of that true open enrollment.
00:13:15
Speaker
But that has allowed the school district to have some marginal dollars to keep more classes and more a wider variety of classes for kids to take. And so I think that that's a good thing.
00:13:27
Speaker
And you have to look for those marginal needs. And some of those classes are are in advanced math and science classes that people are particularly interested um And so, know, that's another important piece of that funding model is finding marginal dollars that can add to the student experience.
00:13:47
Speaker
And so, Julian, I'm glad that you brought up the open enrollment because was going to ask you about that. For those that don't know, within the last year or so, right, that we switched from a closed enrollment to an open enrollment model. I think we're now in our actually in our third year of open enrollment. um And it's the The policy has changed slightly ah each of the last years. When it first started, they were looking for open enrollment in kind of eighth grade and up, and then it's now moved to all of middle school.
00:14:13
Speaker
and ah And are the elementary schools, is that? No. Okay. So. No, the elementary schools, to the extent that they have, quote unquote, open enrollment, those are students that are the children of Mercer Island School District employees or city employees. Which has been a longstanding policy, right, for for them to be able to enroll their kids. A longstanding policy. and and And I think a huge benefit in attracting hundred percent good teachers and good employees to our to our community. Yeah, i think that makes a ton of sense.
00:14:44
Speaker
So you say we've got about 65 now. Where do you see that going in the future? Is that something where we'll have, you think, more you know open enrollment students in the district or about that? And and what's you you mentioned that sort of marginal dollars.
00:14:57
Speaker
Can you kind of frame you know what the impact is as we as we allow more kids from off the island you know into our schools? Is that... is that significantly helping the financial situation or is that just making, you know, barely a dent?
00:15:10
Speaker
um You know, so 65 students times $13,000 a student is approximately, I believe, $900,000. So, you know, ah in a budget that is about $80 million, you know, what getting about a million dollars from open enrollment, know, it's ah You know, not quite a percent and a half. So, you know, anything that you can do to bring a little bit more money into the system, I think is very helpful.
00:15:41
Speaker
But it's not really about raising the money. It's about making sure that there are enough students to have a wider variety of classes. And that was really what was brought back.
00:15:51
Speaker
to the table is that, you know with fewer classes in the high school, know, it frees up an English teacher to teach a class that they're more interested in. It frees a math teacher to teach up ah to teach advanced math. So it's much more about the variety of classes at the high school than it is about the more ah the money.
00:16:11
Speaker
um And so I think that open enrollment is going to be a policy that is watched very closely over my time ah my time on the school board. i would prefer not to have to do open enrollment, but I also want my kids at the high school to have access to the classes that they that they want to have.
00:16:31
Speaker
And so, you know, I think that that's going to be a constant tension over the next few years. And I know that it's just going to be watched closely and making sure that there's not an impact or a negative impact on me on kids not being able to get into the classes that they want because it's too full.
00:16:50
Speaker
And so to the extent that it expands, it would expand very slowly and very carefully. i don't see it becoming a huge part of the enrollment, but I also don't see it going away. um All of the districts locally at this moment in time have open enrollment, so everyone is competing for students.
00:17:11
Speaker
And when you're competing for students, you want to have the best possible offerings that you can have because you want students to choose your schools. And we want local Mercer Island students to choose Mercer Island schools for their excellence.
00:17:29
Speaker
and their continued excellence. um And we know that we are competing with private schools for students. We know that we're competing for other public schools for students.
00:17:39
Speaker
And so we have to have as competitive of programming as we can have to be attractive to students and have people want to enroll their kids in Mercer Island schools.
Enhancing Academic Support and AI Integration
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. And I actually liked the framing there of introducing some competition. Competition's healthy. um And you know as you as you say, competing against other districts for students, you know one of the challenges got us here is a declining enrollment overall. And there can be arguments made that it's sort of broadly demographic. There are people that tell you that you know it's it's as a result of the school district not meeting certain needs for their kids. They've gone to private schools, as you've mentioned, or other options. But yeah you know over the last three or four years, my experience has been that the district has acknowledged that and and I think done a good job at attracting kids back into the program.
00:18:27
Speaker
you know We have friends that that were at ah at a private school and the the middle school rolled out the red carpet. They did tours. I mean, it was like ah you know kind of like a college admission process. And I was very impressed. I think that's a good thing to want to attract Mercer Island kids back to the public schools. so So I appreciate your your framing on that. And that's something I've seen as well.
00:18:46
Speaker
And I think that, you know, it's not just prospective parents that we want to show that the schools are doing a good job. It's the wider community as well. And I think that that's one of the things that's, you know, as people age out of the school system, they just don't have a sense of what's going on.
00:19:04
Speaker
And it's important for the school district to get the good news out there that, you know, they're doing a good job and ah Parents are largely happy and there are people that are coming back to the schools that left for one reason or another.
00:19:18
Speaker
um But I do think that understanding that it's a competitive marketplace for students drives good decision making in creating programming that people are interested in.
00:19:30
Speaker
So the next question I have, Julian, is and it touched on sort of your your number two priority, but Talking about what we can do to attract students back in um and even and even convince the broader community um that the schools are doing the right things by the kids. what What are some of the things that we can be doing academically for the kids that we're not doing now from your perspective? What are the what are the opportunities we have?
00:19:56
Speaker
So the opportunities exist in identifying where the gaps are in kids learning, um both on an individual basis and on a wider kind of student population basis, and then teaching to those gaps and filling those gaps and bringing kids up.
00:20:19
Speaker
um You know, educators talk about making sure that kids are getting one year's growth in one year's time, and that's for math and reading. mean, making sure that in math, they progress one year's math and ah in that one year's time.
00:20:34
Speaker
And I think that that is the goal. One of the things... that as this conversation comes up of what are the things that we need to be doing, i think it's important to talk about, know, what are we trying, what are the goals that we're trying to accomplish?
00:20:51
Speaker
um And on Mercer Island, I think those goals for most families, know, the graduation rate of Mercer Island High School is about 97%. And and yeah I believe the statistic is 94% of kids go on to four-year colleges and and you universities.
00:21:09
Speaker
So you know parents want their kids ready for college and they want them ready for top colleges. And you know what are the things that we can be doing to prepare kids to be competitive to get into college?
00:21:26
Speaker
um know There are... Certainly bringing s SAT testing back to the island is incredibly important. um you know And i think for an older generation of people, you know they don't really realize that standardized testing is no longer filling out bubbles on a Scantron sheet.
00:21:48
Speaker
It's now computer adaptive tests. you know And so, which means the SAT is modules, but different tests are different ways. you know So that if you answer The first questions correctly, you get offered a different set of harder questions.
00:22:03
Speaker
And that is one of the things that the curriculum needs to be able to do is to be adaptive and give kids challenging material when they're ready for it and keep building on that challenging material.
00:22:16
Speaker
um There have been gaps that have been identified that I think that we're working on. One of those things is the dyslexia pilot program. ah There ah was a group of parents that worked through the PTA at the elementary level to get additional funding and additional support for students with ah with dyslexia.
00:22:38
Speaker
That was first rolled out at Northwood, and it's now this year being rolled out at Islander Middle School. And so you know some of that is parents identifying that hey, for my child with dyslexia, the district is not meeting their needs.
00:22:55
Speaker
And then being able to come together, work productively with the district to come up with programs where those kids are given additional support. And I think that that's one of the things that I'm proud of from my time working on PTA is helping people work productively with the district to do things like the dyslexia pilot program.
00:23:15
Speaker
Excellent. So another question that I've got, I think will be on everybody's radar, you know, significantly in the education space moving forward is surrounding AI. And, you know, you look at all the different industries that it's beginning to to proliferate in and disrupt.
00:23:31
Speaker
I just read an article yesterday about how there's ah a school, I believe it's in Texas, where parents are paying $40,000 year to have their kids ah in school and AI is at the front.
00:23:41
Speaker
So they interact with an AI teacher and then there are, I think they call them helpers or coaches that that you know help the kids through the the process.
00:23:52
Speaker
So it's quite a different model. How do you foresee using AI within the Mersin School District? um what are What are the opportunities that this technology has? um And how quickly do you think it will start to to become more prevalent in our schools?
00:24:08
Speaker
If you have a student in high school or college, AI is already quite prevalent in their educational experience. you know And from a parent perspective, one of the things that I do not want to see and one of the things that I talk to my own children about is going to a large language model like ChatGPT or Claude and just typing in their homework prompts and say, give me a three-page essay about the Iliad.
00:24:39
Speaker
And then it will type something up and have my kid turn that in. That is not what I want AI to be used for, because I think that that is a huge detriment to both the work ethic and critical thinking skills of kids.
00:24:53
Speaker
What AI can be useful for is going through large amounts of information and finding trends, patterns, inconsistencies.
00:25:04
Speaker
you know And so how are you able to use artificial intelligence and the large language models for good and to actually enhance your critical thinking?
00:25:15
Speaker
I think that that is the question that educators are going to be grappling with. for the foreseeable future. When you're in high school, you sometimes you do want to take the easy way out. And so just typing your stuff into an AI prompt makes it easy.
00:25:33
Speaker
And that is not what we want from education. and so But I just think that it's going to be a constant tension for the next mean just ah for the foreseeable future of how do we use AI to enhance critical thinking in education instead of taking away from it.
00:25:52
Speaker
And do you foresee? And I don't have great answers for that. Yeah, that that's fair. i you know i I was talking with a teacher at West Mercer and she had a colleague who, and this was early on in the ChatGPT days, she yeah yeah had students go basically use AI, the ChatGPT, to create a paper and kind of walk through the process and taught them how to do it.
00:26:14
Speaker
And then they came and they they turned it in. And then in that very class, she said, all right, now, you know, ah here's here's another topic. You need to write the paper and do it in class. and i And I liked how there was a little bit of sparring there, right? Acknowledging that that kids are going to use these tools, but then also, you know, forcing them in the moment to to produce something without the tool.
00:26:37
Speaker
And I think teachers are, you know, kind of left to their own to figure out with any new technology, um how to handle it. Do you think that the teachers need support and training on integrating AI and sort of how to deal with that? Are they getting that support now? Like, can you just kind of talk from your perspective, what what, you know, what supports for the teachers?
00:26:57
Speaker
From my perspective, I have not seen any professional development for teachers on artificial intelligence, large language models, how to incorporate them into the classroom in a productive way. I have seen some stuff on how to run papers through AI to see if they were produced by AI. AI detector. you check yeah Actually doing their work.
00:27:23
Speaker
That I have seen. um But no, I think that one of the great benefits of those LLMs is to differentiate the learning and you know see in what ways kids can, you know, you have a classroom of 25 kids of creating lesson plans that are targeted towards and ah individual students, what their needs are, what their gaps are.
00:27:49
Speaker
and And use the data from the math curriculum to then generate worksheets that are different for each kid. That seems like that'd be a great use of AI. And that's not something that I've seen, but that would be hugely beneficial to the kids.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I suppose part of that is just the tooling you know being developed and and proliferate and tested and all that, which takes time. and so But no, I think that we are in the early days of a i We absolutely need our need to teach our kids to use it, the pluses, the minuses.
00:28:22
Speaker
um My wife's an attorney. It's often great to come up with a first draft of something, but you also need to know when you know the ai is kind of creating a mirage of something that in fact does not exist or is not true and how you're able to kind of critically think and come up, mean, and double check that that
Bond Failures and Future Proposals
00:28:46
Speaker
is correct. But, you know, AI, I know I use it in my own life to create first drafts of emails to people you know, and then you kind of tailor it to your own voice.
00:28:56
Speaker
So it, can make people much more productive than they have been, but you know you don't want it to diminish the critical thinking skills. Great. Well, thanks for your perspective on that. um you know I know that a lot of us here on the island are ah techies, and so ah appreciate you spending little time on that.
00:29:16
Speaker
um I want to shift gears a little bit to the ah the the recent Mercer Island School District bond ah that failed. um I spent quite a bit of time talking with folks on this podcast about about the bond.
00:29:30
Speaker
i want I want to spend a little time to get your impression about sort of looking back. What happened? um Why do you think it failed? And what would you do differently when you're on the board for the for the next attempt at an improvement bond?
00:29:44
Speaker
I also was very involved in the bond. um I also listened to all of your podcasts. I thought they were quite good. First off, I felt like the bond was a good plan. you know, I think that there is work that needs to be done at the middle school and the high school.
00:29:59
Speaker
um And I think that there's that our kids deserve to go to school in an environment that's safe, distraction free. um You know, I have been touring colleges with my oldest kid um and ah facilities is absolutely part of what attracts people to certain schools and school districts.
00:30:18
Speaker
um So I do think that facilities are important. Why the bond did not pass. I kind of have my own. General sense of why it did not pass. um It did get, I believe, 57%, so not the 60 that was required to pass, but oh it got pretty close. um My general sense is that the bond was not specific enough.
00:30:40
Speaker
um you know, that there were a certain element of what people kind of just thought was a grab bag of projects that um were not going to directly benefit kids' academic experience in school.
00:30:56
Speaker
So, know, I think that there was probably a little bit too much in the bond. So maybe it was a little bit too ah too large and included projects that were not specifically targeted towards improving kids experience in school. So that's my general sense of why the bond did not pass.
00:31:16
Speaker
But, um you know, I think that, you know, I viewed the bond as a good plan that you know, there is work that continues to need to be done at the middle school and high school.
00:31:29
Speaker
Um, ah Can I give a short plug for the city's bond at this point in time? Since we're talking about bonds, there will be another bond on the ballot in November that is for the city. um is that an OK thing to mention at this point in time?
00:31:42
Speaker
Let's let's let's stay focused on the on those schools. I don't want to venture too far off um I will be, ah i i' I'm interviewing Mike Ciro, who's representing the no side. And then I'm also talking ah with ah David Rosenbaum on the, ah kind of getting his perspective. So we will be having ah those perspectives here on the podcast. But I think back to the school bond, Juliet, i what what would you, so but based on the feedback that that, you know, your general perspective, what would be your,
00:32:16
Speaker
What would you do differently next time? what what What are some of the direct things that you think either get better clarified or adjusted in order to get the community to sign off and get the 60% and move forward?
00:32:30
Speaker
I think that there is sort of the path forward on a bond for investment in the schools is i think that there will be a future bond. The next future bond will either be targeted specifically at the middle school or specifically at the high school.
00:32:47
Speaker
If you carve out some of the projects from the most recent bond, if you thought that you could pass a hundred million dollar bond, you you ah you could do one bond just for the middle school.
00:32:59
Speaker
If you thought that $100 million dollars was too much, you ah you could do a $50 million dollars bond just for the high school and do things like HVAC. um So depending on, i know that the district has hired an outside consultant to gather data because one of the things I think is important is you do need good data of why the bond didn't pass.
00:33:21
Speaker
You can't just listen to anecdotal evidence from the loudest people in the room or the loudest people on next door. You have to have a really good sense of why the bond didn't pass.
00:33:33
Speaker
um But, you know, I would carve out specific school projects, target them at one school. And I think the number is approximate, you know, looking at the most recent bond that was about one hundred and sixty five million dollars.
Transparency in Public Service and Community Strength
00:33:47
Speaker
If you carved out About $100 million dollars would do the projects at the middle school. About $50 million dollars would do the projects at the high school and come up with a bond that you felt like could pass, whether that number is $50 million dollars and do it at the high school or $100 million and do it at the middle school.
00:34:04
Speaker
But just do a single school-specific bond. Okay. Okay, that's fair. Thank you very much. um So shifting gears to another issue that's been, you know, hotly discussed and debated is the the issue surrounding the Chris Twombly at Mercer Island High School.
00:34:22
Speaker
And i just want to ask a question to get to get your perspective on the the issue and and really how you feel that the resulting action or inaction, you know depending on your viewpoint by the school administrators and the school board,
00:34:38
Speaker
um in that particular case. um What do you make of the situation? And I think more importantly, you know, what, if anything, would you have done differently in hindsight if you were on the school board?
00:34:50
Speaker
You know, the situation is a total mess. ah I think it has caused people to lose a lot of trust and confidence that the school board was making good decisions.
00:35:02
Speaker
Um, that's my overview of the situation. Lots of mistakes were made at various points in time. Um, what would I have done differently?
00:35:14
Speaker
to be honest, that is an impossible question to answer. I don't have all of the information that I would need to make those decisions and to speak confidently on what I would have done differently.
00:35:26
Speaker
Um, from the information that I do have, you know, ah you kind of going over the timeline, you know, certainly when the first anonymous report was made in 2015, the ball was dropped.
00:35:42
Speaker
Whether that was a poor police investigation, inaction from the district or the union, I don't know. Certainly the ball was dropped in 2015.
00:35:53
Speaker
um I don't know what you do about that going forward, but and I don't specifically know what changes to the system you would have made in 2015, because the mandatory reporters did do their job as mandatory reporters.
00:36:10
Speaker
But, know, clearly there was something wrong. Clearly it was not identified and the appropriate actions were not taken in 2015. but, and then. How about,
00:36:22
Speaker
but and then how about yeah no no yeah sorry Then we kind of move to more recent history. um When the ah the most recent allegation surfaced against Chris Twombly, he was immediately removed from school.
00:36:41
Speaker
So that was good. Um, that the investigation took 14 months seems like a long time. Um, but people are entitled to due process.
00:36:53
Speaker
Um, was a settlement the right thing to do? ah I don't know. That is what I specifically do not have enough information to be able to answer.
00:37:06
Speaker
Sometimes in life you have to choose between bad choices. um I think that from my own conversations with Superintendent Rundle and board members, they felt like given the circumstances, they made the best choice of a bad set of options.
00:37:24
Speaker
you know, I, you know, I, again, I don't have enough, right. I wasn't in the room. I don't have access to all the information. Right. So I have a hard time criticizing that.
00:37:36
Speaker
That's fair. And I, and I don't expect you to, by the way. Um, and I, and I appreciate you saying, I don't have enough data to make the decision because you weren't there. I don't know if you've seen the most recent high school newspaper, the Mercer Island Islander. Uh, this was an article published on September 26th. Uh, it was written by the Islander staff. The title of the article is we wish we had known sooner. Uh, and I think that this article actually raises a couple of important points, uh,
00:38:04
Speaker
and that I don't have ah answers to myself. One of which was that, you know, the students that worked most closely with Twombly were not told not to get in touch with him.
00:38:16
Speaker
That is not acceptable. They should have had some type of heads up of don't get in touch with this guy. um So that is one thing from that article that I find to be unacceptable.
00:38:29
Speaker
because you know they needed a heads up. The second of which is, you know from this article, it says that they got in touch with 31 of 35 of his former students, and the investigator had not gotten in touch with any of them.
00:38:42
Speaker
So it gives me real pause that a good investigation was done if none of if you know none of the students that the high school newspaper was get ah was able to get in touch with were contacted by ah ah by the investigator.
00:38:55
Speaker
And so you know from my own leadership perspective, I think we do have to be led by student ah ah by student voices. And this most recent article and ah ah in The Islander, We Wish We Had Known Sooner, brings up some very troubling questions.
00:39:11
Speaker
Thank you. Point it out. I hadn't seen that article. So this is new information to me. But i yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, those those seem like two really important points and I'm glad that those are important to you. One of the, I guess to finish on this subject, one one of the key words that that I see in discussion pop up is transparency.
00:39:30
Speaker
And whether that's lack of or ah sufficient transparency, people have views on either side. and How do you view that with respect to the administration and the board with respect to how much transparency was provided on this issue?
00:39:44
Speaker
ah So on this, I'm actually going to touch on my military service, a sense of duty, a sense of personal responsibility, ah sense of integrity. Sometimes doing the right thing is incredibly difficult.
00:39:59
Speaker
Sometimes it is incredibly uncomfortable to get up and and say things that are true, that are important to say, but people are going to disagree with people and that people are going to have a hard time with.
00:40:14
Speaker
things ah Things that are going to make you look bad. And that is what we expect from our public servants, is that they will be willing to tell us the truth, even if it makes them look bad.
00:40:27
Speaker
ah That is something that I would like to think that I have the ability to do. um And it's something that, you know, I think I bring that's a little bit different.
00:40:38
Speaker
And it was, you know, um when I was graduating from Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia, ah The admiral that came to give us our graduation speech, um he presented a very interesting model for how to make decisions during our time in military service.
00:40:57
Speaker
I was a supply corps officer, so I did stuff that largely involved money. um And he said that no matter when you guys make mistakes, when you guys do things wrong, you will end up on the front page of the newspapers.
00:41:11
Speaker
um Will you be able to be comfortable with the decisions that you've made when you end up on the front page of the newspaper? And that has stuck with me as a mental model of how to make moral decisions for 25 plus years.
00:41:29
Speaker
And I think that that is a great moral model for one of these types of problems. And I don't think that everyone is comfortable with how they made decisions now that they are on the front page of the newspaper.
00:41:42
Speaker
Well, Julian, I appreciate you sharing your perspective on that. And I, yeah, yeah that seems like great advice. So the the last question I have, we spent a lot of time talking about ah issues and challenges of which there've been many. So I think it's appropriate to spend a lot of time on that in this discussion, but I wanna finish out on a high note.
00:42:04
Speaker
and And that is, I wanna ask you about what you see as the biggest opportunity ah for our students over the next four years. i had The great pleasure of attending the Mercer Island Schools Foundation Denim and Diamonds fundraiser on Saturday night, which was a ton of fun.
00:42:19
Speaker
I think the best part of our community is our community. It is full of amazing people. And that has been one of the best parts of getting to run for office on Mercer Island is you get to meet any number of amazing Mercer Island residents.
00:42:38
Speaker
And, you know, I think that we want our kids to be able to tap in to the incredible assets of this community and be able to go on to have incredibly successful lives that they feel proud of.
00:42:53
Speaker
And we want them to learn to work hard. We want them to learn to laugh, to enjoy life, um to be able to take advantage of all of the incredible things that are out there.
00:43:05
Speaker
And that is largely why I have run for the school board, is to continue to support other people in doing a good job for our kids. And I think that they have so many incredible opportunities in our school district.
00:43:20
Speaker
Whether it is participating in our athletic program, which is one of the 25 best athletic programs in the entire country. And there are lots of high schools in the country. So to have one of the 25 best is something to be proud of.
00:43:36
Speaker
Whether that's participating in something like our music program, which is fantastic and has provided a place for my son in high school to find a sense of belonging. um So it's all of those things that I hope to support and just want our kids to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. Because I think one of the most frustrating things in life is having access to these amazing opportunities and not taking advantage of them.
00:44:04
Speaker
Well, thank you very much ah for that. it's very inspiring. ah I appreciate you taking the time spent with me today ah to to talk through all these issues. um Julie, where can folks go to get more information about you and your candidacy for school board?
00:44:19
Speaker
Absolutely. ah The easiest place to do is go check out my website, bradleyforboard.com. Or if they're interested specifically in hearing more, I will take a meeting with absolutely anyone who gets in touch with me. So my email is on the website. If you want to hear more and you want ah have coffee, I'm happy to meet with anyone. But the website is a great place to start. Awesome. Well, thank you very much. And I would encourage people to do that, to take you up on your offer. um I started doing that three or four years ago.
00:44:48
Speaker
after being sort of an anonymous participant in the process. And now I'm hosting a podcast. So it's a slipper slope, but at least and least get started and engage with one another. Well, thank you very, ah very much for having me on. I really appreciate the opportunity they need to speak with you, to speak with voters.
00:45:04
Speaker
um It's just so incredibly helpful to our democratic process. Julian, thanks. Thanks very much for being on. It was a pleasure talking to you.