Progressive Majority looking for Federal Way School Board candidates

[eridani]

I am sending you the following letter. Federal Way has 3 school board positions coming up for election next November. As you can
see from this letter, there are organizations out there willing to assist more progressive candidates. Please take a moment to read
the letter and cull through the Rolodex in your mind for possible candidates (including yourself). *


Dear Potential Candidates & Concerned Parents:

We here at Progressive Majority are very interested in recruiting, training and electing some progressive people for the Federal Way School Board. As you probably know, there are five conservative
that make up the five member board. This is highlighted not just by
their recent attempt to put a moratorium on “An Inconvenient Truth”
but also by their support of charter schools and other conservative stances.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to locate any good prospective candidates who live in the right districts yet. Three of the five members are up for election in 2007, and while candidates run district-wide in the general, they run within their district in the primary. A map of the districts is located here:

http://maps.fwps.org/board/viewer.htm

Districts 2 (Hoff), 3 (Castellar) and 5 (Larson) are up this year. It’s also important to note that the FW School District is about
1/3 larger than the city of Federal Way and takes in a lot of the surrounding area. Teachers, if you are interested in running, you have to live in the district, but *NOT* work in the Federal Way
Schools.

*Do you know of people who are looking at the race, or people who would make great candidates? *
*ARE YOU INTERESTED?*

We would love to be able to work with candidates for this race THIS year. I attached to this email the email alert that we sent to our members (that generated over 18,000 emails to the board!) Please, if you or someone is interested, have them call or email us!

Best~~Edie

Edie Gilliss
**Progressive Majority**, Washington State Political Director
615 2nd Avenue, Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: [phone], Cell: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
www.ProgressiveMajorityWashington.org

[Ookie]

1. I hope Federal Way comes up with some good people

Though, it appears difficult to do much worse than the current group. It's not surprising that there are parents out there like Frosty Hardison, what is a crime is that anyone gave him the time of day. He should have simply been told that if he didn't want his kids to see the movie, they could spend a couple hours in the library.

[eridani]

2. They're still looking--

The Federal Way School Board's attempt to ban Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth caught the attention of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week. The Daily Show even interviewed the Federal Way conservative whose complaint lead to the temporary banning of the documentary. Back in January, Frosty Hardison said:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher… The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

Frosty had a lot more to say on The Daily Show. Click here to watch the clip. (Warning: this clip is from late-night cable television and contains strong language, so it may not be appropriate for younger audiences.) http://www.progressivemajority.org/wa/DailyShow-FederalWay-042507/?lk=6370117-6370117-0-26565-qR5v8irfgzEa1A0VO7F-bs7YXHHiNftS

Immediately upon hearing about the school board's decision, Progressive Majority notified its supporter and you deluged them with your reaction! Nearly 3,500 of you sent emails to the Federal Way School Board protesting their decision and they reversed the decision within a week as a result.

Your actions were critical to causing the board to reverse its decision and allow An Inconvenient Truth to be shown in the district. Now, Progressive Majority is acting and recruiting candidates to run in this area and get rid of so-called representatives like Frosty for good.

This episode is a stark example of how important and influential school boards are. This school board is currently completely composed of conservatives, while the district is not. A single complaint by one conservative led to one of the largest school districts in Washington banning an acclaimed, scientifically-based documentary. That is unacceptable.

Three of the five school board positions are up for re-election this fall, and we at Progressive Majority will be doing everything we can to create a progressive majority on the presently entirely conservative Federal Way School Board.

Please help us with our fight to build progressive majorities all over the state and in Federal Way! If you or any of your progressive friends are interested in running for the Federal Way School Board, please contact Edie Gilliss at egilliss {at} progressivemajority.org.

Thank you again for you assistance,

Dean M. Nielsen
Washington State Director
Progressive Majority