Follow-Up: LWV School Board Forum Video & Questions

[Previous Article about the Forum can be found here]

A video of the Sept 30, 2025 candidate forum recorded by the Highline Special Needs PTSA is now posted on YouTube, and is linked to from the League of Women Voters website, for those interested in watching the forum.

After an introduction by volunteer Meg Van Wyk and moderator Vicci Rudin, the candidates introduced themselves Meg Van Wyk read a statement by Dir. Alvarez, who could not attend. Questions started from the League of Women around the 28-minute mark, with questions from the audience started at 42-minute mark.

(The following are lightly edited to make the questions more readable. You can advance the video to the timing for a specific question.)

LWV:What would you do to increase family involvement or develop family relationships with the schools? (0:28 min in the Youtube timeline)

LWV: What are your opinions on the school district levy that’s on the November ballot? (:37 min)

Community Member: 50% of students are three or more years behind academically. What to do about this and discipline, and about teachers and students being assaulted? (:42 min)

Former Teacher: Mission statement is not being met, students are not at grade level for reading yet graduating, do you support changing the mission statement to include traditional academics - reading, writing, and arithmetic, and bringing the students up to grade level so seniors are not graduating when they are at a 9th grade level? (:54 min)

Parent:How to handle immigration customs enforcement? Reference to the Des Moines, Iowa Superintendent. How would you support Dr Duran when he says he would not allow Immigration Customs Enforcement, how would you support him and how would you support our families? (1 hr mark)

Highline Education Association President: What is your position on school vouchers? (1hr:06 mark )

Community Member: Given that there was a previous proven violation at the district top level of FERPA, a federal law that is supposed to protect students’information and educational records, what specific steps would you take to insure that private student and parent communication are not improperly shared again, and that the individuals protected by the FERPA violation are lawfully notified, and how would you enforce accountability were such a breach to occur again? (1hr:10 min)

Former teacher: What is your position on who runs the classroom? (1hr:15 min )

Parent:(A parent told a story about her daughter’s reading. She’s tired of being told her daughter is not reading at grade level, being 300 yards off shore then getting to 100 yards still doesn’t mean she’s on the shore, she wants her daughter to be at grade level before starting middle school.) The administration makes it increasingly hard to get real data about how the school is doing, it is almost as though they don’t want to admit what’s going on. How are you going to help with transparency? (1hr:20 min)

Parent: What should cell phone policies be for students at school? (1 hr:26 min)

Community Member: Taxes have been going up like crazy. The product of the Highline School District is going down. Will you as an elected board member tie the entire staff salary and wage increases to the student body increasing proficiency in every grade, starting with the superintendent? (1 hr :31 min)

Community Member: A question for Damarys Espinoza: the student success measure embraces the appearance of success and also exposes that 50% of students are failing. You were appointed to this position by Alvarez and Van who have overseen this failure for 25 years combined. How will you be different from them? (1 hr:36 min )

Closing statements: 1 hr :39 min