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SPS board president pushing back after group of parents file petition to recall

Liza Rankin was reelected in November 2023 after her first four-year term, according to her SPS bio.

SEATTLE — A group of parents has petitioned to recall Seattle Public Schools Board President Liza Rankin from her position.

The petition was filed Friday, and a release from the group said a King County judge must sign off on the recall before the petition can be circulated to voters. If the effort gets enough signatures from voters, it could appear on a future ballot, the group said.

The group cites "numerous acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, and violations of her oath of office, including improprieties in the effort to close nearly two dozen public schools" as the rationale for recalling Rankin. 

“As Board President, Liza Rankin must uphold the highest standards in public office, especially in a time of urgent crisis like that which Seattle Public Schools now faces. Instead, Rankin has committed violations that have worsened our district’s crisis. Rankin has advanced an unjust and unfair school closure process. She has closed down community engagement and transparency. She has failed to provide basic oversight of the district. And she has failed to ensure students meet goals for math and reading. Now more than ever, it is necessary to recall Rankin in order to save our students and Seattle Public Schools from her poor leadership,” said Ben Gitenstein, parent of a student in SPS and a petitioner on the recall in a release.

SPS has delivered several proposals for school closures recently to address a nearly $100 million budget gap spurred by decreasing student enrollment and less federal funding. Initially, two options were proposed that would have saved $31.5 million and $25.5 million, respectively. One of the initial plans would have closed 17 schools and the other would have shut down 21.

After significant pushback from parents and community members, a new proposal that would close just five schools was delivered in early November. According to SPS, enrollment has dropped by 4,000 students and officials don't expect it to rebound any time soon.

Superintendent Brent Jones identified Sacajawea, Sanislo, Stevens and North Beach elementary schools as the four slated to close. The district has labeled the potential closures as "consolidations."

Students at Sacajawea would attend John Rogers, Sanislo students would move to Highland Park, kids at Stevens would attend Montlake and North Beach students would move to Viewlands.

The recall group says new polling from the Northwest Progressive Institute shows 41% of Seattle voters would like to recall the school board and just 27% would vote against a recall, while 33% were not sure.

“I wish I didn't have to submit a recall petition to force President Rankin and the District to actually engage with the community, but it has come to this. President Rankin can't keep ignoring our families. I'm here for all the voices that have been strategically ignored and undervalued, for the folks who are so damn busy and tired, who are anxious about what is happening to their children and in their schools yet cannot make it down to John Stanford at 4:15 on a weekday in rush hour with no childcare, for the folks whose emails get ignored, whose "Let's Talk" submissions get regurgitated cut and paste answers. We need somebody to be held accountable, and as the head of SPS, that person is President Rankin,” said Rebekah Binns, a parent at Graham Hill Elementary School in Southeast Seattle and a petitioner on the recall, in a release.

The group says it will need 48,659 valid signatures from legal voters to get the recall on the ballot. 

President Rankin responds

On Wednesday night, Rankin responded to the grievances in the petition filed against her.

"I completely understand that people are frustrated. I share a lot of those frustrations. I completely understand that this last year and even prior has been frustrating and hard for people to understand. Why is this happening? Why my school? Who are we talking to about closures? It’s hard,” Rankin said.

However, she pushed back on the petition that blamed her for the board's decisions.

“My role is to run the meetings. Any direction from the board to the superintendent is only about the majority vote of the board. The vote was taken in public,” she said.

In May, Rankin said the board voted to accept the reality that school closures could be on the table to close the budget gap but didn't green-light a particular plan. She said the board pushed back on recommendations from the superintendent.

"Just because we said we understood it could be up to 20 doesn't mean we're going to accept this. We also expected a certain level of analysis to move forward with this type of large-scale change and we didn’t see that,” she said.

Rankin pointed out that one of the petitioners behind the recall, Ben Gitenstein, ran for the school board in 2023. He lost. She alluded to this recall effort being personal for him. 

"You can't recall somebody because you don't like the way they vote. The remedy for that is to vote for somebody else next time,” she said.

As the petition waits for a judge to sign off on it, Rankin said she will continue focusing on SPS students and their families.

“What I dream of and what I heard from the broader community is what we really want is a system that no matter what school kids attend, their needs will be met and they will receive a high-quality education. That, to me, is much more important than how many buildings happen to open at the time,” she said.

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