Sarah Clark. Joe Mizrahi. Vivian Song.
The team that will fix the mismanagement and poor leadership at Seattle Public Schools.
This election is a major turning point for Seattle Public Schools. Last fall’s mass closure plan died because only three board members supported it. If we don’t ensure we have at least four solid allies to form a majority of the board after the November election, that closure plan will come back. And all the other problems we’ve seen at SPS — bad governance, financial mismanagement, neglect of student needs, attacks on academic rigor, inequitable policies — will get worse.
That’s why we’re backing Sarah Clark, Joe Mizrahi, and Vivian Song in the August primary. This is the team that is already working to fix the mismanagement and poor leadership at SPS. With them on the board, alongside Gina Topp, we are confident we can turn the ship around and build a great school district for all our students.
That doesn’t come for free. Your donations will help make this work possible!
Please donate to these candidates, and support our work as well:
Read on to see why we’re endorsing these three great candidates:
Sarah Clark
District 2
This race has the strongest contrast between candidates and could be the one that decides whether we fix SPS or whether the district slides back into crisis. We’re endorsing Sarah Clark because she has proven she is a leader and a crucial ally in our work to save our school district — and because her main opponent, Kathleen Smith, appears to be aligning herself with Liza Rankin and her allies. A Smith victory would jeopardize the public’s efforts to fix SPS and could lead to a return of the mass school closure proposal.
Sarah Clark was the first school board member to speak out against the closure plan last fall. She worked behind the scenes to rally a majority of the board to oppose it, and worked with Superintendent Brent Jones to stop the closure plan entirely. She also worked with Joe Mizrahi to support option and alternative schools and move their waitlists. Together they wrote an op-ed explaining why SPS needs to move waitlists and come up with equitable student assignment policies.
Sarah Clark went to SPS schools and overcame a lot of adversity in her personal life, giving her first hand experience with what it’s like to be a student in our schools. That informs her commitment to change. A Black woman who grew up in foster care, Clark graduated from Garfield High School and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in education policy at UW.
Clark will chair a new ad hoc budget committee on the board to begin restoring the fiscal oversight and long term planning that Liza Rankin and her allies eliminated earlier this decade. She wants to replace the flawed “Student Outcomes Focused Governance” model (SOFG) with a governance model that actually works for Seattle and includes, rather than shuts out, families. All of this is crucially important work.
Her main opponent is Kathleen Smith. Smith does not have much experience with SPS and is new to public school issues. She does not have the policy expertise or insights that Clark does.
Smith’s public statements have been concerning. In an interview with the Rainy Day Recess podcast, she said she’s “looking forward to working with Liza Rankin.” She also did not commit to opposing school closures, only objecting to “how it was done.”
Some of her campaign rhetoric directly echoes Rankin’s approach to governance. In her Rainy Day Recess interview, Smith says “the board sets policy for the district. And, through supervision of the superintendent, the board is tasked with holding the district accountable for following the policies.” This is right out of the SOFG playbook, when we need board members to take a much more active role in reshaping SPS operations.
If Clark loses and Smith wins, Rankin could wind up back in the board majority again. If that happens, Rankin and her allies will likely attempt to close schools again and impose other policies that the public opposes. We have no assurance that Smith would resist a new round of school closures. Clark would.
We don’t know whether Smith is fully aligned with Rankin and her allies, or if she just doesn’t understand the issues. Either way, it’s clear that Smith lacks the awareness, expertise, and policy goals that we need in this urgent moment.
Clark can win this race, but we’re going to need to step up and provide real support to ensure she can get her message to voters.
Click here to donate to Sarah Clark’s campaign!
Joe Mizrahi
District 4
We’re excited to support Joe Mizrahi to be elected to a full term on the school board after being appointed last year, because in that time he has shown that he’s a leader in the work to fix SPS. Along with Clark and Gina Topp, he helped put a stop to the mass closure plan last fall.
Mizrahi is a parent of students in SPS, which has given him a firsthand understanding of the importance of providing and supporting neighborhood and alternative programs in SPS. He wants to protect and expand options in SPS, and knows that doing so is a key part of how SPS can provide truly an equitable education to our city’s kids.
He’s proven this on the board since he was appointed to it in April 2024. Not only did he help stop the school closure plan, he’s taken the lead in addressing SPS’s flawed mismanagement of student enrollment policy. Together with Sarah Clark he wrote an excellent op-ed in the Urbanist calling on SPS not only move waitlists, but to come up with a new and better student enrollment policy that facilitates choices within the public system in ways that are equitable and expand offerings across the city.
Mizrahi has also been digging into the numerous flaws with SPS’s budget and fiscal management, and is ready to work alongside Clark, Topp, and Vivian Song to bring the fundamental reforms to how SPS budgets and spends its money, restoring transparency and public trust that has been broken by years of bad faith by SPS administrators.
The other candidates in this race appear to have similar values. But Mizrahi stands out because we’ve already seen him prove on the school board that he stands with us in the larger effort to fix what has been broken at SPS. Now is not the time to take a chance. That’s why we’re backing Joe Mizrahi.
Vivian Song
District 5
Vivian Song was a co-founder of this PAC. She stepped down from it in the spring, and filed for school board a month later. We were overjoyed to see her do so, because Vivian Song is an indispensable ally in our work to fix SPS.
Song has years of familiarity with SPS. She’s been a PTA leader here, is a parent of kids in SPS, and of course, served on the school board from 2021 to 2024. When she was on the school board, Song pushed back against the elimination of key board committees and the reduction of board fiscal oversight. She opposed Rankin’s financial policy that limited the board’s role in budgeting and undermined union contracts. Song regularly pushed back against SPS administrators when they proposed flawed policies or failed to consult impacted communities.
During last year’s fight against closing schools, after Song had left the board, she provided invaluable insight to parent advocates as we fought to stop the closure plan. Song shared her knowledge of district budgets, district processes, and enrollment analysis that helped parents successfully make the case against closing schools.
Song has a detailed vision for how to fix SPS. She has the knowledge and skill to make it happen on the board — especially if she’s serving alongside Clark and Mizrahi.
The other candidates in this race do not bring the combination of Song’s knowledge, insight, and commitment to change. That’s why we’re strongly supporting Vivian Song.
You can donate to Vivian Song here!
Note: because there are only two candidates running for the District 7 seat, it will not appear on the August primary ballot. We’re not prepared to make an endorsement at this time, but stay tuned.
We’d also love your support to help fix SPS. Click here to donate to support our work!