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Stephanie Burnett - Candidate for Mercer Island School Board Position 4
174 Plays1 month ago
I sit down with Stephanie Burnett, longtime Mercer Island resident and MISD alum, to discuss her path from systems engineer on the F-35 program to aviation attorney and school volunteer (room parent, PTA president at Lakeridge, and most recently IMS PTSA president). With three children—one MIHS grad, one at IMS, and one at Hamlin Robinson—Stephanie outlines priorities shaped by both parent and board-room perspectives: restoring trust and civility, clearer communication and transparency, and steady fiscal stewardship through tight budgets.
We cover her focus on meeting students where they are: strengthening math pathways and appropriate acceleration, taking a hard look at how tools like i-Ready are used and supplemented, and expanding supports for language-based learning differences (including the dyslexia pilot). She shares views on right-sizing future bond proposals, setting clear safety protocols and expectations following the Twombly case, and calibrating technology (cell phones, iPads, AI) by grade with consistent guidance. Stephanie closes on opportunities ahead—especially in math, literacy supports, and thriving arts/music—while emphasizing community engagement and data-informed decisions.
stephanieformischools.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mercer Matters and Podcast Origin
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.
Introducing School Board Candidate Stephanie Burnett
00:00:28
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Mercer Matters podcast. I'm Ben Sharp and your host for today's discussion with Stephanie Burnett, who is running for school board position for against Rob O'Callaghan, who I've also interviewed, and you can listen to that in another episode.
00:00:43
Speaker
um Stephanie, I'd like to start off by thanking you as I do all the candidates for stepping up and running for school board. I know it's just a ton of effort ah putting yourself out there and running for office. And so I want to say thank you on behalf of our whole community for running.
00:00:59
Speaker
The goal for today's discussion is to give Mercer Island voters an opportunity to hear it directly from you, ah get to know you a bit and learn more about how you think about different issues facing our school district and our kids.
Stephanie Burnett's Background and Career Path
00:01:10
Speaker
So to start, Stephanie, I'd love to have you introduce yourself, your background, your experience with Mercer Island schools, so we can get to know you a little better. Thank you, Ben. I'm happy to be here. ah So I am a longtime Mercer Island resident. I moved here in 1981 with my parents and am proud graduate of Island Park Elementary and graduated from the high school 1998.
00:01:37
Speaker
And I think I'll go all the way back education wise, starting in college, because I think it applies to how I show up um today what I'm doing. i got picked by the aviation bug early on.
00:01:50
Speaker
I went to space camp six times. and That was sort of my passion. And so I ah for college, I went to a school called Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
00:02:02
Speaker
and following college, i I went on to be a systems engineer for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas. I worked on the F-35 program for a couple of years and ultimately decided that ah the law was calling. And so i and went to law school in Virginia.
00:02:21
Speaker
And then after that, I decided it was time to return home. So I was gone for several years there in my early 20s. And when I moved home, I started my legal career you know here.
00:02:33
Speaker
um i moved back to Mercer Island immediately and started working for a law firm in Bellevue. And i have a very specialized kind of legal practice. It's ah transactional aviation law.
00:02:47
Speaker
And so I essentially help people with the purchase and sale and ownership considerations of private planes. And so that involves a lot of negotiations and deal management and regulatory issues, tax planning, risk management.
00:03:07
Speaker
It's pretty broad, um but only so specialized in private aviation. And so um because of that, have a lot of experience and negotiating and bringing people from very different positions together.
Applying Legal Skills to School Board Role
00:03:24
Speaker
um One of the reasons I enjoy the kind of law i practice is because it's um at the end of the day, it's it's sort of a fun type of law. My clients want an airplane. And if the deal falls apart, they're not going to be happy without their plane.
00:03:38
Speaker
So I'm not starting out trying to fight for something on principle in these deals. I'm starting out trying to find a way to make things work. And I have a lot of experience with that. And it can be challenging. There can be people who are not very easy to get along with or who feel very strongly one way or another. And you not only have to bring them together, but keep them together for the length of a transaction, which can take weeks to even months sometimes.
00:04:06
Speaker
And so I feel like that experience directly translates to you know how I show up now and how I would show up as a school board director. On the school side of things, I have, my besides growing up in the district, I feel like I have ah all sides sort of ah experience of Mercer Island schools.
00:04:26
Speaker
I have three kids. My oldest just graduated from the high school last year and started at the University of Oregon a couple weeks ago. And i have an eighth grader at Islander Middle School.
00:04:40
Speaker
And all my kids started at Lake Ridge, but my fifth grader currently attends Hamlin Robinson School in Seattle. And I also have um a lot of experience on the volunteer side with the schools.
00:04:55
Speaker
I started volunteering as a room parent when my daughter was in kindergarten and just stuck with it and went to being a room parent to volunteering in the classroom, the library.
00:05:05
Speaker
various PTA roles and ultimately became PTA president at Lake Ridge. And then when we moved on to the middle school, i was involved there. And this past year i was PTSA president at IMS. Awesome. And as we were talking before we went live here, my wife and and you worked together in that role last year. So, well, thank you very much for for that background. it Sounds like we could do another podcast episode on on buying and selling airplanes.
00:05:34
Speaker
That's fine so fun. That's probably pretty fascinating. That's really cool. um Well, I think to start, ah the the first question I have for you is what are the top issues that that you see facing the Mercer Island School District as we sit here in 2025?
Priorities for Mercer Island Schools: Trust and Budget
00:05:51
Speaker
That is a great question. So I think that ah the top issues have sort of evolved in the past few months. There's been so many things going on.
00:06:01
Speaker
Um, but for me, the very top issue right now is how does the school board in particular restore the community's trust and confidence in it? Um, I think I see that as a pretty fundamental issue because if the community doesn't feel completely behind you, it's hard to make choices and to be effective.
00:06:20
Speaker
And think there are a lot of people that, that do feel great about our schools and personally love our schools. um But you know there's just this sort of overall, I think, sense of unease between the situation with Chris Twombly and just things are different now in this world of social media and people are sort of always at each other and um online. And then you know with the bond failing, I think my first priority is to really focus on restoring that trust and increasing community confidence.
00:06:52
Speaker
I think that means Setting a new tone also with regard to school board meetings. um There's been some tough meetings in the past couple of years. And I think it's really important that we you know really maintain civility in those meetings and respect and listen to people.
00:07:11
Speaker
Listening to people is something that's really important to me. And that means not just listening to the people who agree with you, but the people who disagree to people who are unhappy. And I think that level of listening could really be improved and and um increased at the school board um meetings.
00:07:29
Speaker
And i also think, you know, restoring that trust involves looking at transparency, making sure there are clear communications between the board and the um and the community.
00:07:40
Speaker
um So that's that's one of the top issues I see right now. Another is, you know, fiscal responsibility and maintaining our balanced budget. You know, I think, The district has done some really good things in the past couple of years with increasing you know the reserve funds and that kind of thing. But these are tough times for for public schools financially. And Washington State is not providing us with the funds they should be. And military decision, we're limited in what we can collect ah via levies. And so you know tough decisions have already been made and tough decisions will continue to be made.
00:08:15
Speaker
um I, as a not, not just practice this kind of specialized law, I've also been a business owner since 2008. And when I first opened a law firm, it was at the end of 2008 and it was right before the recession and literally like a week before the recession.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yeah. what timeing yeah And it was tough. It was, you know, it was, it was hard times for a lot of people back then. um But private aviation completely came to a standstill. And there was one month in 2009 where not one private jet was sold in the country.
00:08:49
Speaker
And so, you know, it was it was a tough time to be opening a law firm. and But it was actually ended up being the best thing because we we had to sit down and look at, okay, we've we've been spending a lot of money here and there. Where do we actually need to spend this money, right? What actually matters to us? And I think when you have a situation like that, and you you start to make smarter choices because you really have to focus on what you value and make sure you're your budget aligns with that. And so i have I have experience doing that, you know, and sometimes it's surprising where you can cut. And I'm not saying any choices will be easy, um you know, as we navigate the future of making
00:09:23
Speaker
solid choices for Mercer Island schools, but I think that is a it's certainly a big area and a big priority for me. And then The other big priority for me is making sure that our schools are meeting all students where they are currently.
Addressing Student Needs: Math and Dyslexia Support
00:09:39
Speaker
i think that is a an area for growth in the district and it reaches to different topics. And one of them is math, um especially if you're looking at the kindergarten through eighth grade math sort of evolution as kids move from grade to grade, you know,
00:09:57
Speaker
there There is room. We've got math pathways that have been established and are giving kids new on ramps to advance. um And our and on overall, our math program is strong. I mean, 60 percent of eighth graders at IMS this year are in algebra or higher.
00:10:14
Speaker
um But at the same time, there's still a need for change in some levels. And one of those is making sure that kids can get the acceleration they need and math, even if they're not high cap.
00:10:26
Speaker
I see that as a really important issue. i also think we need to look at <unk> curriculum for um for math. You know, iReady um is something that tends to rub a lot of people the wrong way.
00:10:38
Speaker
At the same time, it was a big investment for the district. And I think, you know, opposed to just saying we should throw it all out, I think we need to look at what works. And if there are things that don't work, then, you know, what are other ways that we can supplement it or strengthen it, whether by bringing in, you know, looking at old curriculum, other worksheets to strengthen fluency or other ways to make sure, you know, there's enough homework to make sure their kids are building their math schools and getting enough from the schools.
00:11:07
Speaker
um So I think that there's is a lot of room and math. I think that um When you're looking at meeting all kids where they're at in from it comes to reading, you know, especially dyslexic kids, um you know, how do we make sure the district is supporting them adequately is really important.
00:11:23
Speaker
I have a son who has dyslexia, has pretty severe level of it. And that's why we're at Hamlin. I would love more than anything to be able to enroll him at IMS next year. um And I don't know if that's possible right now. i'm I'm really excited about the pilot program the district launched last year ah to you know start providing kids at some of the elementary schools with services that you know can are designed for kids with dyslexia. And it sounds like the kids that were both needed those services and the kids that didn't have dyslexia all experienced pretty remarkable growth.
00:12:00
Speaker
um I can't wait to see that expand. um At the end of my ah role as president last year at IMS PTSA, the general membership approved a grant to fund a parapro at IMS who would just be there to support kids with language-based learning differences. And so, you know, i think the middle school seems excited about where they can, how they can grow.
00:12:27
Speaker
um So anyway, that's, you know, that's another big area I see as a focus. um And I also see that ah meeting all kids where they're at applies to things like technology making sure were being intentional and mindful about how much technology our kids are exposed to every day, and also special education as well. Well, awesome. I appreciate your response there. And actually, ah I'm worried that you might have stolen my my questions here because you literally have gone through every issue I've planned to talk. So I'm going to, that's great. I'm going to go in the order you raised it because... ah
00:13:03
Speaker
It seems like we're pretty well synced here. So the first issue you raised was restoring trust and confidence. And and
Handling Controversies: Chris Twombly Situation
00:13:09
Speaker
I'm glad to hear that. And I i completely agree personally. um But I'd like to ask you specifically about the Chris Twombly issue.
00:13:18
Speaker
and the resulting action or inaction sort of depending on your viewpoint as you're listening to this, but of the school administration and the school board. You know, there are many in the district who are upset about this happening, of course, but then also how the district manages the situation and perhaps a perception of lack of transparency throughout the process.
00:13:37
Speaker
So I'm curious, would you mind just going in a little bit more detail of sort of what you make of the situation and what you would have done different, if anything, had you been on the school board? Yeah, absolutely.
00:13:49
Speaker
So, you know, I think it's important when we're looking at this to separate what happened in 2016 and what happened starting in 2023. twenty twenty three um i've looked at the records.
00:14:00
Speaker
I've seen the police reports. I personally have a lot of concern about how the situation was handled in 2016. think... i think Mistakes were definitely made. i think they should have investigated Twombly, basically had a serious and conducted a serious investigation or found some way to do that in 2016.
00:14:20
Speaker
And I think that was a big, um a big miss by the people who were making decisions at that time. um As far as you know how things were handled in 2023, I look at it as you know two different issues. One is you know how it was handled with terminating Chris Twombly, and then also how it was handled from a transparency perspective.
00:14:43
Speaker
um As far as you know termination his termination, and I guess I would say sort of overarching how I feel about this is that the As a baseline, we need really clear protocols as a district for how to handle this in the future.
00:14:58
Speaker
So for example, in 2016, if that situation were to arise, what I think we need is to establish a clear line of ah action, basically, right, of how we how this would be approached.
00:15:13
Speaker
um Because, of course, I so understand that there might have been concerns at the time about falsely accusing it a teacher. um But if you have really clear protocols in place for how investigation should occur and when, it depersonalizes it, right?
00:15:27
Speaker
and Because everyone knows that's what you do. call the protocol. Yeah. And then and then then if the teacher is, you know, if they find nothing there, then the teacher is vindicated. So I think that that's an important starting point.
00:15:39
Speaker
um And then, you know, as far as 2023 goes, you know, my understanding, I mean, we have employment laws, right? So it took a lot longer than i think anyone would have wanted to officially terminate him. And it my understanding is that there was a a protocol where the district had to wait until the police finished their investigation and the King County prosecutor's office and then conduct their own.
00:16:05
Speaker
And if that's the case, and i I have no reason to think it's not, then, you know, the time took what it, it took the time that it took. But I do think when you're looking at going forward, you know, i think it ah it's worth it to look into whether you really have to wait for all those other investigations to finish. And maybe you do, but I i know I think that kind of thing needs to be involved in whatever um protocol the district adopts going forward to make sure that it's handled as quickly as as possible and while still following, you know, the relevant laws.
00:16:37
Speaker
um i I know some people are frustrated with the settlement um and the amount that he received while he was, because he received pay while he was um being investigated and,
00:16:48
Speaker
I think that's tough. um I think it was probably really tough for the district. I mean, what he did was, you know, one of the lowest things, if not the lowest thing someone can ever do is to you know cause our children to be unsafe and to violate them. And um we wish, you know I think everyone wishes he would have received, you know they could have taken taking money from him instead of paying him. But I do think you know at the end of it, when they paid about 50,000 for the settlement package, as a lawyer, I look at that and I think, well, a lawsuit would have easily been more than that if it had really gone somewhere. You can get to 50 grand and really fast and and then you risk you know not necessarily being successful and in having to pay more. you know You can lose lawsuits for all sorts of reasons. So um I don't have a problem with that final settlement payout.
00:17:36
Speaker
From a transparency perspective, I think that the district was in a really hard place. um i As a school board candidate, you know we're entitled to have a one-hour meeting with Fred Rendell.
00:17:49
Speaker
And I talked to him about this quite a bit when I met with him. And, you know, the student specifically asked that the district not communicate this to the community.
00:18:02
Speaker
And i think that's a tough place for for a district to be in because... they were I think they were looking at what was best for the victim. They didn't want re-traumatize the student, the person who was a student at the time.
00:18:16
Speaker
And, you know, that that's tough when this... You only know about this person, Chris Trombley, doing this bad thing because the student or the person came forward, and yet they're asking you not to do this.
00:18:29
Speaker
um So I do believe that they... were acting as best they could to protect the victim and to make the right decision. I think that they had the best of intentions for my conversations. That's the sense I have.
00:18:47
Speaker
um At the same time, I think that how that situation was handled and victims' rights need to be balanced with, you know, the need for the community to have transparency.
00:18:57
Speaker
And personally, I feel that in hindsight, um There was probably a higher need for the community to be aware ah because even though he had been removed as a teacher, he had been a pretty you know beloved teacher and there were still students or community members who may have interacted with him not knowing what had happened. i know that the students who were at the high school at the time had no idea what was happening and and just, I forgot.
00:19:27
Speaker
um were my According to my daughter, were under the impression that he was having a mental health crisis. And so that that doesn't tell them not to communicate with him. Right. um And I think that, you know, or if his ability to ever be involved in education anywhere else, I think that in hindsight, sort of Monday morning quarterbacking, that transparency would have been the better choice.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah. And I think I go back to what you said initially, which is, you know, I assume maybe they had, I don't know, did they have a protocol to follow? I guess that would be an interesting question for for Dr. Rundle. But I like what you said about having a protocol in place ah so that there's a playbook ah that that we can all, as parents with kids in the school district, know and understand, you know, kind of what what to expect in a situation like this.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that I think that that's really important. I think that, I think this is actually an opportunity for the school district to, you know, set an example for other districts um and really turn a corner with this kind of thing. Because, so I'm, my son, my eighth grader is involved with scouts and, you know, scouting,
00:20:31
Speaker
Boy Scouts of America, now Scouting America, has had its own sex scandals in the past. And ah they have implemented something called youth protection rules, which I think are a great example, a great model. And you know the way they work is that every adult who is involved with a kid or any kind of volunteer um role with the troop has to take annual training and understand the rules very clearly.
00:20:56
Speaker
and Everyone knows what the rules are. So for example, you can never text a kid, a youth, without having their parent be on the text chain or email. You can't be, um you know, you have to have certain boundaries when it comes to one-on-one communications. You have to have, you know, other people have to be able to interrupt you or that kind of thing, right?
00:21:16
Speaker
And it's really worked. And the nice thing about it is that Everyone in the troop knows about it. The kids know about it. The adults know about it. Right. And so it's a culture of of valuing, protecting our kids and looking out for it. And I think if we can also employ protocols when it comes to how what our student teacher relationships like and what our baseline boundaries that need to be in place that our kids know about, too, I think that's how we make sure this doesn't happen again.
00:21:41
Speaker
Awesome, well thank you very much for for your thoughts on that and and for spending time.
School Bond Failure and Future Strategies
00:21:46
Speaker
wanna switch subjects a little bit here um and talk about you know another a significant issue, which is the school bond failure.
00:21:55
Speaker
And you mentioned that kind of in your opening remarks. um I wanted to get your impression about why you thought the the ah school bond failed for Island Middle School upgrades and Mercer Round High School upgrades.
00:22:08
Speaker
um And what, if anything, you would do differently for the next attempt at an improvement a bond for the district? So it's a great question. And, um you know, ultimately it didn't fail by a lot. It failed by, I think about 324 votes or something around there.
00:22:27
Speaker
um But to me, from my perspective as a school board candidate, um which I think is different than, you know, I had a PTA hat on for a long time.
00:22:37
Speaker
And part of this is taking your PTA hat off and put your school board hat on, right? Which is a different perspective. And i think that there were quite a few people in the community who didn't feel comfortable with it.
00:22:50
Speaker
And i think that happened for a variety of reasons. I think, you know, taxes, the increase in taxes was a big reason. We have pretty low, relatively speaking, our, the tax property taxes on Mercer Island that go to schools um are the lowest on the east side, other than Skykomish, which is a very different district. um You know, we don't have really high taxes that go to education right now, but just the idea of increasing the property taxes by a meaningful amount was really stressful to a lot of families.
00:23:22
Speaker
And that's understandable. you know Property values are high here and that that's it's a real impact. And you know i i do think at that time there was also you know some volatility and uncertainty around you know economic circumstances that also increased that to a certain extent. But I also think that concern about taxes is is going to be there in the future.
00:23:45
Speaker
um i think that there was the people who had concerns about the bond felt like it included too much. and that a more conservative or careful approach with what was included could have been taken.
00:23:59
Speaker
um i personally do feel that some of that was, um there was some miscommunication about what actually was included because I had, I've talked to a number of people who told me that certain things were included in the bond that weren't included in the bond. So I think, you know, going forward,
00:24:16
Speaker
I think we need to, as a school board, consider that you take the input the community provided and look at what can be scaled down, what really matters, and focus on that.
00:24:26
Speaker
you know Our buildings, our school buildings buildings are old, and the longer we wait to fix them, the more it's going to cost. And so, you know, but I think that we need to put a bond together that, you know, doesn't just scoop by at 60%, but hopefully is one that more of the community can really feel good about.
00:24:49
Speaker
And so I think that involves, you know, talking to people. um i know they they they actually did quite a bit of talking to the community when they put this bond together, but we need to look at talking to the people who didn't feel comfortable with it and,
00:25:02
Speaker
really getting their feedback and moving forward with that in mind also. Great. Thank you for your thoughts on that. I appreciate it. um I wanted to also, you touch base ah again on kind of your opening remarks, you mentioned the um the financial position the district's in.
00:25:22
Speaker
And in previous discussions I've had with school board members and candidates and Dr. Rundle, um It's pretty clear that the the district is in a tight financial situation. you know We've all received the emails about layoffs and sort of difficult decisions that have been made, and I'm sure there'll be others that need to be made.
00:25:40
Speaker
But I'm curious, how do you view the financial situation the district is in? What are the challenges and opportunities? And then what adjustments do you see needed to be made on a go-forward basis? And what will the ultimate impact be on on the kids?
00:25:53
Speaker
Well, I think the challenge is you know we have high expectations as a Mercer Island community for our schools. There's a lot of really important, meaningful programs and benefits that we have here that other districts don't have, like a seven-period ah Like, you know, we have our we have school bus service. We have, um you know, all kinds of other wonderful programs. And so the challenge is how do we maintain the quality of the education that we've come, I'll expect and should continue to expect at Mercer Island Schools while still, you know, making these smart financial decisions and ensuring that we're, you know,
00:26:30
Speaker
taking care of our district in the future, right? By planning and and being careful. And so i think, you know, as far as opportunities go, I think that we have a lot of opportunities and ability if we, i see I believe that if we are, take a creative approach and really focus on what matters most, you know, I think we have the ability to to maintain our schools. I'm not worried that everything is going to fall apart and we're not going to um be able to continue to offer our services. I think we just, I think we need to really focus on what matters and and and look at, like, for example, last year when we were talking about librarians and nurses, which was a whole, you know, really hard to cope with the you know the loss of our certified librarians from my perspective, you know, but on the nurses, they were able to to get creative and find a way to make that work.
00:27:18
Speaker
And so as far as, you know, what happens in the future, I think, sort of as I said earlier, we just need to really make sure that any cuts that we make, we're looking at that there aren't any other areas that they could be taken from instead, and that we prioritize the services that most impact the kids.
00:27:39
Speaker
Basically that, right, that we that we're we're really making choices that are really going to impact the kids on a more day-to-day basis. I mean, we have to have other services in place, of course, but, you know, you know making sure that we're doing everything we can to prioritize those expenses.
00:27:55
Speaker
Does that answer your question? Yeah, it does. and And listen, as a candidate, I appreciate that you don't have, you know, a full set of knowledge having, ah you've you know, attended the meetings and and getting, you know, getting all the data. So I appreciate you speaking on that, get given the limited information that you do have.
00:28:11
Speaker
um So I think my next question is you touched on technology, you touched on math curriculum with iReady. And the the question I want to ask is is sort of about technology as a whole.
00:28:25
Speaker
um As many people know, the school district banned cell phones in school last year, which I think most would agree has been really beneficial. But you know we've got AI entering, you know potentially entering the education space um and then just sort of the technology with all the iPads post-COVID.
00:28:43
Speaker
you know How do you see AI potentially being a valuable tool in education, if at all?
Balancing AI and Technology in Education
00:28:49
Speaker
and And then more broadly, looking at how we're using technology in the district, have we hit the mark, in your opinion?
00:28:57
Speaker
That was a really good question. i had a booth at Summer Celebration, and a high school ah kid came up to me and and said, what is your position on cell phones in schools? of course, right? The most important thing.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I said, i I think we may disagree on this one. I know a lot of the kids feel resistance to that. But yeah, I think it's a really important a question. And I personally think, feel that the best course um for order would be to set up some sort of committee to examine sort of from a big picture perspective, what level of technology we need. And i I've actually been thinking about the cell phones as an example.
00:29:36
Speaker
You know, it's very easy to say, well, we've We've got the iPads. Everything should continue as it is. You can't take that technology out of the schools. um But a few years ago, we didn't think you could take phones out of the schools either.
00:29:48
Speaker
And that happened. And it's been great. Right. So I'm not saying that I actually think we should get rid of iPads. I do think that technology is here in one form or another. Right. to stay, but I do think we should, you know, have community voices speak up and really try to learn as a district what level of technology is healthy ah based on the age of the kids.
00:30:10
Speaker
It looks very different at the elementary schools. It looks very different probably even in kindergarten and the lower grades, right, compared to a fourth and fifth. And then at the middle school, um it looks very different. So first of all, should our how much should our kids in the elementary schools be involved with it at all?
00:30:27
Speaker
um And I know, for example, at at Hamlin Robinson, they only have it a couple of times a week for an hour or so, like a PE type class, right? And then do you, at the middle school, you know, these kids are on iPads all the time for for learning and for their homework.
00:30:43
Speaker
um You know, is that is that really the best option for these kids who are working on building their executive functioning skills? You know, that kind of thing. I think the high school is a little different because they're on laptops, right?
00:30:55
Speaker
And that seems to me like probably makes sense for kids that age as they get ready to move into college and um are, you know, turning out higher levels of work. But I think, so I think first of all, big picture, we need to look at that.
00:31:07
Speaker
And then when it comes to, you know, AI, I think that's another really big question. And from what I have seen, the middle school and the high school tend to take different perspectives. I think the middle school has embraced it more as a positive and the high school has really shied away from it.
00:31:22
Speaker
And so I think, you know, Probably, ultimately, some level of consistency would be good as these kids go forward. um I think, you know, AI is evolving so quickly right now. And there are so many exciting things. i think even as adults, we're learning that we can do with it, too.
00:31:38
Speaker
um But my biggest priority is that kids are learning as they're developing their creativity and their ability to write and communicate, know, You know, that that they don't rely on AI to the extent that they're not building those skills that they need. And I think that's something that needs to be watched ah really carefully.
00:31:56
Speaker
Well, great. Well, thanks for your perspective on that.
Optimism and Opportunities in Education
00:31:59
Speaker
You know, we've we've spent quite a bit of time talking about ah various issues um and challenges, which I think, you know, is appropriate, ah given as as you mentioned, it's been a turbulent a couple of months ah in the in the schools here.
00:32:14
Speaker
um But looking more optimistically for the future, um what do you see as kind of the biggest opportunities for our students over the next four or five years? I think that there's a lot of opportunity in the area of math. If we can, you know, I think that with the math pathways, if we can really focus on that as a strength and how do we expand it to really benefit all kids when they need it, if we can look at, you know, also, I think when we're condensing, and or when we're accelerating kids at what ages, I think that we could really, there's a lot of opportunity to strengthen that program because we have so much going for us already.
00:32:51
Speaker
um And so I think that there's a lot of opportunity there. I'm super excited about this dyslexia pilot program, as I mentioned, because that kind of ah teaching works so well for all kids.
00:33:03
Speaker
And we have a really big need for it on the island. um So I think that is just, I mean, the fact that we are doing it as a public school district is a really big deal. And I think that's just a really um exciting path forward. I think that, you know, our music programs are growing despite, you know, having to pay now in fifth grade and that kind of thing. They're expanding and doing all kinds of impressive things in our arts, you know. So I think there's a lot ah to look forward to. There's a lot to value. I think Mercer Island, if you look at our academic data, um test scores, if you look at our ah enrollment, it's recovered since COVID.
00:33:39
Speaker
you know We need to look at you know why people do leave the district. We need to be really clear and I think willing to confront what isn't working. But I think there's a lot that's working. um And i I think that the I'm excited about the future for Mercy Island schools. I'm excited about what could happen if I, if I and elected to school board. I think, um I think there's a lot of good that can come in the next few years. And I think our community is ready for that.
00:34:04
Speaker
Well, awesome. Stephanie, I listen, I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today and for sharing your insights. Um, To wrap up here, where can folks go if they want to learn more about you or or get in touch with you?
00:34:17
Speaker
Thank you for asking that. My website is stephanieformieschools.com. And so it's F-O-R. And that has information about me and my priorities and...
00:34:30
Speaker
the information about people who are believe in me and are supporting me, and also how you can get involved. So I'd love for people to check out my website. And I will put a ah ah link in the show notes here to your website as well, so people can find that easily.
00:34:43
Speaker
All right, Stephanie. Well, thanks very much for joining, and I wish you the best of luck in your campaign here November.