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Spokane Public Schools board member Rocky Treppiedi told the local teachers union it harmed the trust of the community, and the union endorsed his opponent. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
RO C KY RE L AT I O NS H I P S Amid the aftermath of an averted teachers strike, the most veteran Spokane school board member seeks another term BY DANIEL WALTERS
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ore than a month has passed since Spokane Public Schools barely averted a strike, but the fallout from the settlement still lingers as the school board election approaches. Last Wednesday, the school board struggled to fix a $5.6 million budget gap created after the district agreed to an expensive deal with the Spokane Education Association. The administration offered a plan that, among dozens of different cuts and fee increases, would delay by another year the addition of fourth-grade classes to the Odyssey Program, a magnet school for gifted students. Several board members objected to the delay, but none so strenuously as Rocky Treppiedi. He warned that if there’s another delay, students would go elsewhere. “I’m not interested in driving students out of HAYNES our district over this issue,” Treppiedi says. Treppiedi’s complaints fit his philosophy. As a board member, Treppiedi doesn’t just want the district to focus on helping struggling students. “We should be raising a bar for every kid
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in every class,” he says. So he’s pushed for all-day kindergarten in every school, instead of just low-income schools. He fought to add an extra half-hour for the elementary school day. He supported weighted grading to push students toward honors classes. And if he’s re-elected, he wants to pursue ability-based grouping in younger grades, so kids who learn faster can learn more. Treppiedi was a central figure in the election four years ago, but not on the school board. His highly criticized role as assistant city attorney advising the Spokane Police Department in the death of mentally disabled janitor Otto Zehm had become a flashpoint. Mayor David Condon campaigned on firing Treppiedi; when Condon was elected, he kept his KIENHOLZ promise. “He had never met me, he had never spoken to me,” Treppiedi says. “I had been doing my job as an attorney and I had been doing it well.” While Treppiedi’s role on the school
board has been comparatively nonkane Falls Community College. controversial, the Spokane Education There’s a clear divide between Association has endorsed Treppiedi’s Haynes and Treppiedi over how they opponent, Jerrall Haynes, arguing that he view the local union. Treppiedi wants the brings a fresh, young viewpoint. legislature to clarify state law to penalize Haynes is so young that when Trepillegal teacher strikes. He agrees with the piedi first joined the school board in union’s complaints about the lawmakers 1996, Haynes was a third-grader. While underfunding schools, but calls the teachserving on the local NAACP’s political ers’ one-day walkout back in the spring to action committee in Spokane, he said he protest the legislature “unlawful.” was encouraged to run for office. The “If you’re going to take unlawful acschool board position stood out. tions and breach contracts, you’re breachWhile Haynes is currently an aircraft ing trust with the board and breaching maintenance craftsman in the Air Force, trust with the community,” Treppiedi says. he does not have a college degree. That Haynes, by contrast, was there during detail sticks out amid the district’s the walkout, shaking hands and suppush to send more graduporting the teachers who showed ates to two-year, up. “They felt their voices four-year or weren’t being heard,” Haynes technical says. “Sometimes you have colleges. to do something drastic.” But that’s But Haynes says his an asset, not biggest disagreement with a weakness, the current board comes SCHNEIDER Haynes says. down to charter schools. “I would definiteSpokane was the only district ly be able to relate to the to become a charter school authostudents pursuing a technical certificate or rizer, guiding local charter school efforts an associate’s degree,” Haynes says. After like Spokane International Academy and the campaign is over, he says he’ll return PRIDE Prep. As existing charter schools to pursuing his associate’s degree at Sposeek ways to stay open after the state