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      • Art Swannack, County Commissioner (Dist. 1, incumbent/uncontested)
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      • Francis A. Benjamin, Pullman City Council (At-large – Challenger)
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      • Beth Ficklin, Pullman School Board (Dist. 1, challenger)
      • Susan S. Weed, Pullman School Board (Dist. 1, incumbent)
      • Allison Munch-Rotolo, Pullman School Board (Dist. 2, uncontested)
    • Voters Guide – Fall 2018
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Allison Munch-Rotolo, Pullman School Board (Dist. 2, uncontested)

For our 2019 Voters Guide, we emailed school board candidates a set of 18 questions on professional experience, local priorities and general issues. We have included those questions and the unedited responses. We have noted when candidates left questions unanswered. We have also provided links to candidate websites, campaign funding reports and other local media coverage when available.

Any questions or suggestions should be sent to: whitmancowatch@gmail.com

CANDIDATE BACKGROUND

Website: None

PDC campaign funding: Munch-Rotolo 2019

League of Women Voters survey: No response listed

Other recent coverage: 

Daily Evergreen: Workshop highlights green living

Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Pullman School board hears more concerns

QUESTIONNAIRE

What is your current occupation or job title?

Curriculum specialist, community volunteer

What other memberships or affiliations would you like to list for voters?

Pullman School Board (President)
College Hill Association (Chair)
Town-Gown Collaborative (founding member)
WSU Center for Civic Engagement Advisory Committee

What professional effort or accomplishment are you most proud of and why?

Adding 3 sites in the NE quadrant of Pullman to the National Register of Historic Places (an official listing of historically significant sites and properties throughout the country) is significant to me because these projects contribute to long-term College Hill neighborhood revitalization and because they were a fun challenge, requiring scholarship, teamwork, and a lot of perseverance.

What is your overall vision for the school district?

As a team, members of the Pullman School Board spent the last year developing The Pullman Promise, a vision based on our district’s six cultural beliefs. Per our Board Operating Principles, I support this vision.

What do you think your district does well?

Many things! Top of mind I would say: student achievement in all areas (academics, athletics, and activities); fiscal oversight; facilities planning; and job-embedded professional development.

How would you encourage recruitment and retention of quality teachers and staff?

Mainly through board policies that govern recruitment, hiring, evaluation, and professional development of teachers and staff. Holistically, these policies encourage staff retention because they ensure that employees—especially our new employees—are supported in the ever-changing field of public education. The Pullman School Board also takes time each year to recognize a few of its many outstanding employees.

What are your highest priorities for capital or infrastructure investments?

Addressing capacity/safety issues at Lincoln Middle School, constructing a cooperative transportation maintenance facility for Whitman County, and securing land for potential future schools.

What programs or initiatives do you think need improvement or additional support? Why?

In public education, the highest moral imperative is communicating the expectation that all students can succeed. We can always to more to address the opportunity gap.

Many regional school districts have had to make significant budget cuts in recent years. If you had to make similar cuts, where would you encourage administrators to start and why?

Fortunately, this has not happened in the Pullman School District. If-and-when that day comes, I would encourage administrators to meet with employee groups to learn how cuts could best be absorbed by their respective departments. Philosophically, I would prefer cuts that are imperceptible to students (e.g., delaying a planned purchase such as a curriculum adoption or new school bus).

Do you feel the school board is responsive to staff and community concerns? What, if anything, would you change?

There is an important difference between being responsive (campaigning) and building responsive systems (governing). The board is working on ways to encourage more authentic two-way communication as a way to understand and address concerns that may arise.

How would your rank your expectations for the school district’s transparency on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating a discrete approach and 5 indicating a proactively open approach?

Four

Do you think the state should remove the cap for local school levies? How would you personally balance the district’s funding demands against the community tax burden?

Not at this time. The current system is more equitable than the previous one, but it will need to be continually adjusted. Personally, I’m concerned that funding be equitable throughout the state, so I would continually review information and experiences with our legislators.

What is your position on charter schools?

We don’t yet have a local example that would inform my personal experience and opinion. Academic achievement data for charter school students show mixed results.

Would you support making union negotiations open to the public? Why or why not?

By school board resolution, union negotiations are already open to the public in the Pullman school district. I support a continuation of this practice.

What steps do you think should be taken to improve student safety? What is your position on active shooter drills and other similar exercises?

Student safety is an exceedingly broad term (encompassing natural disasters, chemical spills, cyber-security, bullying, and myriad other areas) but in general, improving school climate (vs. “hardening” a school) appears to be an effort that pays dividends in safer, happier, and more high-achieving students—regardless of whether a safety incident ever occurs.

A variety of drills (including evacuation, shelter-in-place, and lockdown) should be rehearsed and reviewed regularly, but they should not be referred to as “active shooter drills”.

How do you think public education has changed most since you were a student?

Technology is an obvious difference, but I think teachers are more pedagogically sophisticated than ever before, and better able to connect with a variety of learning styles and needs.

If you could wave a magic wand and instantly change one thing about your district, what would it be and why?

I’d love to see more green behaviors and technologies throughout the district.

Local news lights the way
This is a journalistic experiment in public transparency — intended to expand access to information on government policies and practices through the use of reporting, records and community dialogue. Stories will be limited going forward as I focus on a new full-time investigative position at Crosscut. You can reach me there.

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