Voters in the Sausalito Marin City School District face a difficult choice, picking three people from a field of six qualified candidates to serve on the board of trustees.
The district is one of Marin’s smallest, but it faces one of the deepest divides. It is a divide that’s not new, but one that has separated most candidates into two camps — by their own choosing.
It is a divide that’s reflected in the district’s two schools — Bayside-Martin Luther King Academy in Marin City and the Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito.
In the last board election, voters elected a candidate from each faction.
This time, three Willow Creek parents — Josh Barrow, Kurt Weinsheimer and Jennifer Conway — are running as a slate. As are Marin City resident Ida Green and Sausalito resident Bonnie Hough.
Green and Barrow are the two incumbents in the race. There is one open seat.
Nathan Scripps of Sausalito, father of two preschoolers, is running as an independent voice. Peter Romanowsky, a perennial candidate for public offices, did not meet with the IJ editorial board.
The district’s 540 students are split between the two schools, with 411 pupils attending the charter school. While Willow Creek supporters stress that most of their students are minorities, most of the district’s African-American students — around 60 percent — attend Bayside-MLK, according to 2017-18 enrollment figures.
All but a handful of the district’s 175 white students attend Willow Creek, started by Sausalito parents displeased with the district’s traditional schools.
Candidates acknowledge there is an achievement gap among district pupils, but they disagree on solutions. They agree every child’s education should be the most important consideration, but there is a deep divide over public financing for the much-larger Willow Creek and fixing Bayside-MLK’s budget problems.
The district’s fiscal management has drawn criticism from one state agency and it is being monitored by the state Attorney General.
This is a contest where there shouldn’t be slates or factions.
There has been a call for merging the two schools into a single “community” school, but where would that school be located and which program — charter or traditional — would run it? That decision should be made by a balanced board.
Qualifications of the candidates are clear. Hough, a lawyer, has been an active member of Marin City’s St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. Green grew up in Marin City and works as a social worker.
Barrow, a technology executive, is also a Marin City resident. He has served on the Marin City Community Services District board and has been on the school board for six years. Conway, also a technology executive, lives in Marin City and is a Willow Creek board member; and Weinsheimer, also a technology executive, is president of the Willow Creek board.
Scripps is a senior director for Common Sense Media, a not-for-profit education firm. He has volunteered as a Bridge the Gap tutor working to help prepare Bayside-MLK students for classes at Tamalpais High School.
Scripps would provide the board with a fresh, independent perspective and his work with students gives him first-hand experience that would be helpful to the board. He says there needs to be “structural change” to solve the district’s problems.
Breaking up the long-standing Willow Creek majority on the board and providing a better public perspective of balance could be a first step.
Barrow says he can help bring the district community together to close the achievement gap that he says has been allowed to persist too long. Green’s re-election would strengthen the board’s balance. Her commitment to public schools and her community is clear.
Voters are fortunate that six qualified candidates have stepped forward. But slates are not what this board needs. Even if they are non-binding collaborations, they send a message of political leanings to a district that needs to be brought together.
On the Nov. 6 ballot, the IJ editorial board recommends retaining incumbents Josh Barrow and Ida Green and electing newcomer Nathan Scripps to the Sausalito Marin City School District board.
