E45 - Joe Mizrahi - D4 Seattle School Board Candidate (incumbent)

[00:00:05] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Rainy Day Recess, where we study and discuss Seattle Public Schools. This is our 2025 Seattle School Board candidate series ahead of the August 5 primary. Each conversation is short and focused. We start with a lightning round then ask the same two minute questions to each candidate. 

We know the candidates are doing lots of interviews. At Rainy Day Recess, we decided to focus on the role of the school board in leadership and governance. And what is the real impact these candidates believe the school board can have on Seattle Public Schools? 

Today we're releasing all of the interviews with District 4 candidates, which is roughly central Seattle. This week, we're also releasing our interviews with D2 and D5 school board candidates. And we'll cover D7 after the primary, since there's no primary race in that district. Transcripts are at rainydayrecess.org. 

This episode is our interview with Joe Mizrahi. Be sure to listen to our interviews with Bill Campbell and Laura Marie Rivera, which are also in your feed. We'll give a quick preview of those interviews at the end of this episode. Harsimran Kaur and Gloria Menchaca did not respond to interview requests. 

Hi everybody. I'm Christie Robertson, and today I am here with Joe Mizrahi And Joe, thanks for running for School Board after being appointed. And welcome to Rainy Day Recess. Back to Rainy Day Recess.

[00:01:31] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, hi, Christie. Thanks so much for the podcast you do, and all the advocacy that you do, and of course for talking to all us candidates. 

[00:01:37] Lightning Round

[00:01:37] Christie Robertson: Alright, we're gonna start off with a lightning round, and this section is meant to help listeners just get to know you quickly. A mix of quick-answer and yes/no, so keep your answers as brief as possible and then we'll get into the longer answers. 

[00:01:52] Joe Mizrahi: Great. 

[00:01:52] Christie Robertson: And so, what are your name and pronouns?

[00:01:55] Joe Mizrahi: Joe, Mizrahi. He/him pronouns.

[00:01:58] Christie Robertson: And how do you describe what you do?

[00:02:01] Joe Mizrahi: So in my day job, I'm the secretary treasurer of UFCW 3000, which represents frontline workers – about 60,000 folks across the state of Washington, mostly in the grocery and healthcare industry. And of course, I'm also a... I'm the current school board director for District 4.

[00:02:18] Christie Robertson: And what director district are you running for, and what neighborhoods does it encompass?

[00:02:22] Joe Mizrahi: Yep. Once again, district four, and that's the Queen Anne, Fremont, Belltown, South Lake Union area.

[00:02:29] Christie Robertson: Okay. Now some background questions. Answer yes/no where possible or a short explanation if something needs context.

[00:02:35] Joe Mizrahi: Great.

[00:02:36] Christie Robertson: Have you attended a school board meeting?

[00:02:38] Joe Mizrahi: Yes. I've attended many, especially in the last 14 months. Yeah.

[00:02:43] Christie Robertson: Have you testified at a school board meeting?

[00:02:45] Joe Mizrahi: I have! From the dias and from... not from the dias, from the floor.

[00:02:50] Christie Robertson: Have you testified to the state legislature

[00:02:53] Joe Mizrahi: I think I've testified to the state legislature every year since 2008 on at least one issue. Yes.

[00:03:00] Christie Robertson: And where did you go to school as a child?

[00:03:03] Joe Mizrahi: I am from San Diego, so in the Grossmont Union High School District. All public school.

[00:03:09] Christie Robertson: Do you have or have you had kids in Seattle Public Schools

[00:03:12] Joe Mizrahi: I have three daughters who are currently enrolled in public school. Two middle schoolers now that the school year's over and one still in elementary school.

[00:03:20] Christie Robertson: And any kids outside of Seattle Public schools?

[00:03:23] Joe Mizrahi: Nope. All public school.

[00:03:25] Christie Robertson: Okay. Have you worked in education?

[00:03:28] Joe Mizrahi: Not in public education. In my day job I've done a lot of labor and member education and apprenticeship work, but not K-12 education.

[00:03:37] Christie Robertson: Have you been in a union?

[00:03:39] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah. I have been in a union. I currently am in a union and I also am an officer of a union. 

[00:03:45] Christie Robertson: Have you been on a board?

[00:03:47] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I'm on the school board. I'm on my union's board and also the King County Labor Council, and I'm also serving on a board of multiple trusts, including massive pension and healthcare trusts.

[00:03:58] Christie Robertson: And have you ever worked with a large budget?

[00:04:01] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, so that as well. So our union being the largest union in the state has a huge budget. And then also the pension, we have a $2 billion pension, which I'm the co-chair of. Yeah.

[00:04:09] Christie Robertson: Okay, so here's some quick takes. These are rapid-fire questions. Keep your answers short and to the point. Who is an educational leader you admire? 

[00:04:18] Joe Mizrahi: I think there's a lot of people I admire, but I'm gonna say my mom, who is a lifelong special education teacher, retired now, but um, fought for inclusion, her whole career, even before inclusion was like the buzzword that it is now. But before inclusion was the thing, she was fighting for inclusion.

[00:04:32] Christie Robertson: Who is a school board director, you're looking forward to working with.

[00:04:36] Joe Mizrahi: I think the director I'm most aligned with and work with closest is school board president Topp.

[00:04:41] Christie Robertson: What's one education policy you strongly support?

[00:04:44] Joe Mizrahi: Well, I mean, I mentioned it earlier, but special education inclusion is something that I'm a big advocate for. And making sure that's done right in the Seattle School District and also dual language immersion. I'll also mention that.

[00:04:55] Christie Robertson: Do you see the school board role more as a trustee with a duty to the institution, or more like an elected representative who's accountable to voters?

[00:05:05] Joe Mizrahi: I think both. I think legislatively, under the actual RCW, there's actually rules in the legislation that we are accountable to voters, and that we communicate to voters and that we approve the budget. So, I have to say both.

[00:05:18] Christie Robertson: What's one thing that you would change about the school board immediately?

[00:05:21] Joe Mizrahi: Immediately, I think we need to bring back committee and committee structures for board members. I think that there's a need to deep dive on several issues. And I think one of the shortcomings of student outcomes focus governance. The governance model that we have is that you're not supposed to have permanent committees. And I think that for many issues we need deeper dives on things, and we need those committees. 

[00:05:43] Christie Robertson: Thanks. Okay. Last lightning round question is – what's one lightning round question you would add for other candidates?

[00:05:51] Joe Mizrahi: I think I would love to know from other candidates what endorsements they are most proud of that they've gotten so far.

[00:05:58] Christie Robertson: And what's your answer to that question?

[00:06:00] Joe Mizrahi: Fair. My, my answer is: I'm really proud, obviously for me, of the labor endorsements that I have. But mostly the labor endorsements around the folks who touch our school districts. So, like, the building trades, the folks who build the buildings, the operating engineers, who are the ones who clean the buildings and represent the folks who serve food. And then obviously the support of the educators who teach our kiddos.

[00:06:22] 2-minute questions

[00:06:22] Christie Robertson: Okay, so now onto the main interview questions, and we tried to focus on institutional change and the role of the school board. Up to two minutes to answer each one. Okay, you ready to start?

[00:06:33] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah. Let's go.

[00:06:34] Christie Robertson: All right. So what does a school board director actually do?

[00:06:39] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I think that it's a great question. Our job is to be a governance board and a policy board, which means that, first and foremost, we have to hold the district accountable to the values of our voters, the values of our constituents, what we lay out as our goals and as our strategic vision. And holding the district, and most importantly, the superintendent to that measure. 

And then, secondarily, we have to approve a budget. We have to make sure that the district is operating in a fiscally sound way. And I would add to that, not just a budget for the immediate term for this one year, but also thinking about how we build a sustainable school board and school district for the next decade, for the full generation of our kids in school. 

And then I think the third is to be that connective tissue with the general public. With not just students and families because our school system impacts more than just the kids in the school, more than just their families. Obviously impacts them a huge amount, but our whole community is impacted by the school system. And being accountable to people, listening to people being out in the community and not just bringing back their concerns to the district, but actually hearing what they're saying and helping that inform our policies, our goals, our strategic vision.

So I think it's those three prongs. It's holding the district accountable, it's that sort of fiduciary role that we play, and then the role we play with community.

[00:07:55] Christie Robertson: Okay. What should the school board focus on most when it comes to finding the next superintendent?

[00:08:00] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I think that the number one thing for me is someone who, I used that word before – accountability. Someone who can hold the system accountable. I think that there were a lot of strengths that Dr. Jones brought to the job. I think that something that our system really needs and where we have an opportunity is someone who can actually hold central office folks and then filtering down to the buildings to make sure that the things that we implement, the goals that we have, the curriculum that we adopt, that all the stuff that goes through that vetting process where we talk to community. It doesn't really matter if we say that it needs to happen at the board level, or even if the superintendent sitting at the John Stanford building in SoDo says that it should happen. If that's not filtering out, it doesn't really make a difference. So someone who can hold the whole system accountable is hugely important. 

The second thing I would say is someone who has a really strong core in communication and the ability to draw in community. Even the community engagement we're doing to hire the superintendent is woefully under-attended. We're not actually hearing from enough of the community. So someone who can bring a real vision for how to build community input and someone who has a track record of communicating well and having families feel like they're being listened to. 

And the third thing that I'll say is someone who brings a strong vision for the district. I think that there's a lot of areas where we've been operating halfway between worlds. We've been operating halfway between an option district and a neighborhood school district. Halfway between lots of autonomy versus being very centralized. And someone who brings that strong vision, even if I don't agree with every bullet point of that vision, I want someone who brings a real vision for what we wanna build. So then we can just go forward and build it. Because I think operating halfway in between multiple different systems is the worst choice of all.

[00:09:38] Christie Robertson: And what do you think is the right balance when it comes to centralized control versus school-based decision making? Which is what you were just referring to.

[00:09:46] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I just touched on this point. One, I'll just say again that I think that the worst thing we can be doing is operating halfway in between. Because if you have a super centralized district, which – my wife's a principal out in Bellevue, and I would describe it that way, that it's fairly centralized. There's a lot of value to that, right? That if you walk into any fifth grade classroom on any given week, they're gonna be doing roughly the same curriculum. Now there's leeway and choice there, and teachers have autonomy, but there's a lot of centralization. Versus a system that has a lot of autonomy, a lot of freedom. But within that autonomous system you need a sort of core of support coming from central office. 

And I think we really have neither right now. We're sort of operating in between. We have some things that are centralized, some things that are not. I like the idea of having schools that are not cookie cutter, schools that offer different program choices. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a big fan of dual language, but dual language isn't gonna work in every school. It's not gonna work for every kid. I am a big fan of expeditionary learning and that should be in certain schools. So I think in that regard, I like there to be autonomy, and I think that every building and neighborhood should have its own feel to it. 

However, I do think that we need more centralization when it comes to support and standards. What highly capable programs look like in a neighborhood school should be fairly consistent across the district. It's not really right to say that your mileage is gonna vary on what type of highly capable education you're gonna get at one school versus another school. And that's really a program that should be in the neighborhood schools as much as possible. And so we do need centralization on what that looks like. And then we need centralized support for teachers to make that happen.

[00:11:10] Christie Robertson: What should the board do if the district isn't meeting its goals for students?

[00:11:15] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I mean, I think that obviously the biggest, the biggest lever we have as a board is hiring and firing, or the evaluations that we give to the superintendent. I think we have to be careful with that tool because you also don't want the disruption of constantly turning over your superintendent. You want time for someone to develop a program. But I do think holding the superintendent accountable to goals and having goals that are both measurable and that are attainable and that you can say "look, we all agreed you could have met this goal. So what happened?" I think is super important.

But I also think that we have a real underutilized asset in the ability to set the agenda for meetings and call them forward and make them explain what's going on, bring things to the daylight and connect when certain topics or certain areas are not being met. To really highlight that and force them to have community engagement around it. Force them to bring what their plan is. 

And we also have the ability to say, “no, this plan you brought us for this program, for early literacy, for example, is not good enough. Go back and bring us a different plan.” Or, “you brought us a plan and now we're seeing after one year that it's not quite up to standard. So, you know, that we're not meeting these goals. So come back and bring it again.” 

I also think that we have to be careful about not over-relying on standardized tests which have their own batch of problems. So I think that really interrogating with the superintendent, with the staff who should be experts on this, why we're not meeting certain goals. And then daylighting it. 

But ultimately, I do think that we have to be clear that with the right amount of time, with the right support in place, if those goals aren't being met, we will hold people accountable. Which ultimately involves also replacing people.

[00:12:44] Christie Robertson: And what should the board do if the district isn't meeting community expectations? So this is like the guardrail question.

[00:12:53] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah, I think this is where it's even more important, this ability that we have, this, like, bully pulpit that we have, to bring them in front of us, to make them talk about things at meetings, to put things on the agenda. 

And I'll just give this example of – in the last year, I personally brought a lot of attention to this issue about waitlists and enrollment and what's happening with the enrollment declines and how that's related to these unending waitlists that families are on. And there was not a lot of great communication from the district. So no matter what you think should be happening with these waitlists, the district was not meeting their basic requirement of actually being clear about what was happening with families. We brought that on the agenda. We put it on the agenda multiple times. And we also basically forced the district to have a community engagement session and hopefully more community engagement sessions on this topic. 

And really, that was a tool that sort of existed outside of... I couldn't say, “oh, this is exactly related to guardrail number three or goal number two.” But as a fiduciary, one, I could say this was very related to our budget. Because anything that we do that has an impact on enrollment, obviously money follows students when you talk about our budget. So if we have declining enrollment, that impacts our budget. So I think it was fair game for us to talk about there. 

More to the point of your question, this was something that the community was deeply upset about. So I think it is our job as elected school board members to say, "Look, we're not gonna tell you necessarily how to answer this question, district, but you do have to come in front of us, explain it to us. And you do have to go out in community and explain it to the community."

[00:14:13] Christie Robertson: And then last question – what's something that you want voters to take away about your approach to being a school board director? So anything else you wanna share with people. Or just a summary.

[00:14:25] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah. No, I think that's a great question. Uh, you know, a few things. 

One, I got appointed to the board really first and foremost because I felt like there was a lot of community being left out of decision making. And low-wage workers who are deeply impacted by our system aren't able to come down and testify at 4:00pm at the John Stanford Center, but are deeply impacted by our system. 

So I hope folks see that I try and ask tough questions at the board about how this impacts families, how this impacts student learning, but also people's ability to get their kid to school on time and people's ability to have a thriving community with a neighborhood school. And hopefully folks see that I ask that question. I'm not much for grandstanding on the board, but I do like to ask key questions and then make my decision based on how the district presents answers on those questions. 

And then the last thing, I mean, we talked about the role of the board a lot. You know, I think that it's important to also talk about what the role of the board isn't. And I'm not someone who wants to go in and tell these lifelong educators how to do their jobs. I mean, I've... I have enough educators in my family, I've worked with educators long enough to have too much respect for the work that they do to go in and say "this is how you should do this." 

And also if you think about it, like, systemically, having seven board members who all have different opinions of, like, "I think we should have more kids on iPads in sixth grade." "I think less kids should be on iPads in sixth grade." It's just a terrible way to run a district. 

What we do is we hire experts, we set goals, we hold them to a community standard, and then we let them do the work to figure it out. So even on this waitlist issue, which I obviously have a lot of opinions about, I don't wanna come in and say, "This is how you solve the problem with waitlists and option schools." I want to say, "This is a community problem. You're not communicating it. Come and bring us a plan." But it's not really for me as the non lifelong educational expert, that these folks who work in our district are, to tell them what to do. It's my job to carry the community concerns and then give them feedback on that.

[00:16:07] Christie Robertson: Alright. Thanks for being with us here today. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us and with Seattle voters. 

[00:16:15] Joe Mizrahi: Yeah. Thank you so much. This has been fun. And happy to talk to the podcast anytime.

Be sure to listen to our other D4 candidates, Laura Marie Rivera. 

[00:16:24] Laura Marie Rivera: The school board directors have a very important, incredible, and often overlooked role. Our current board has set a goal of removing themselves from the day-to-day activities and working only on the policy level. Which is an interesting goal to have, but it doesn't translate to what is happening in our schools, what is happening in our students' lives, and even with the educators and staff.

[00:16:52] Christie Robertson: And Bill Campbell.

[00:16:53] Bill Campbell: My plan in the first 90 days of being on the school board is to return the board to two public traditional meetings a month, to create and found a Citizens Budget Review Committee so that the public can review, audit, and make recommendations on the annual budgets and control what goes out for the levies, and then to fire the Texas consultants who are currently telling Seattleites how to teach our kids.

[00:17:25] Christie Robertson: Ballots will be mailed Friday, July 18th, and the primary election is Tuesday, August 5. As always, stay curious, stay cozy, and thanks for listening to Rainy Day Recess.