This election season, newcomer Eric Warwick will compete against incumbent Steve McConnell for the District 1 seat on the Bellevue School Board.

The District 1 seat is the only with opposition this year. Although Sharon Taubel had originally filed to run against Carolyn Watson (who was appointed to fill a vacancy earlier this year), Taubel withdrew her candidacy for the district 2 seat. Christine Chew is running unopposed.

School board members meet multiple times a month to address all aspects of the district’s policies and goals, covering everything from courses to extracurriculars to financial matters. Their responsibilities fall into four major areas: vision, accountability, structure and advocacy.

The Reporter interviewed both candidates about their backgrounds and goals for the board and the district as a whole.

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Longtime Bellevue resident Steve McConnell is seeking re-election to the Bellevue School Board to complete the work he started four years ago.

When McConnell, 53, first ran for the board, it was not fully complying with the Washington Public Meetings Act – not for any sinister reasons, but due to a lack of knowledge, he said. During his tenure, McConnell says he has worked to increase community engagement and openness, starting with the proceeding leading to Superintendent Dr. Tim Mills’ hire.

Coming off of his first term on the board and his efforts to increase the board’s openness and accountability, McConnell says he plans to focus on each and every student and their needs in his next term.

“The college prep. and Advanced Placement programs are the crown jewel of the district, but it is one dimensional,” he said, noting that while 93 percent of enrolled students graduate, only about 80 percent of them go on to college.

The district has also really fallen down in terms of special education, said McConnell, who has a son who qualifies for special education services. Bellevue has one of the lowest rates of identifying children who need those services and has a long way to go in staffing, he said.

That is not to say that the district has not made progress, McConnell said, noting that the district has added at least 25 certified special education staffers in the last four years and recently hiring a new Executive Director of Special Education. “That’s not to say that solves the problem… We have dug ourselves a really deep hole, and have been doing so for a long time,” he said.

While he agrees that LGBTQ issues are important, McConnell said that it is also important for the school board members to focus on a wide array of issues.

“I have immediate family members that are in that community. I am very sensitive to these issues as well,” he said. “But, there are 75 topics a year that we need to focus on. We can’t lose sight of everything else we’re doing. We’ve got low-income kids, special education kids…There are an awful lot of moving parts.”

In his four years on board, McConnell served two years as vice president and the last year as president.

McConnell said that with the district’s top notch programs, it is poised to rise in the national rankings.

“I think the Bellevue School District has every opportunity to literally become the best public school district in the country,” he said.

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Eric Warwick, a disabled transgender Bellevue resident and a Sammamish High School alum, is hoping to bring better inclusion and change to some district programs as a member of the Bellevue School Board.

Warwick, 18, decided to run against incumbent Steve McConnell after she* felt her voice wasn’t being heard on issues such as special education, LGBTQ issues and different district programs.

“I think my experiences as a student and as an autistic, transgender student has given me some insight and knowledge into how things work and how they can be solved,” she said.

As a disabled student, Warwick said she saw teachers who did not seem to understand what the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act means and how to follow it.

Instead, Warwick said she saw or heard of teachers who were not following the federal mandates, withholding extra time on tests for good behavior and sometimes discriminating against disabled students.

The district does conduct implicit bias training, but Warwick said there needs to be more aggressive actions taken to address the issue.

“Implicit bias training only goes so far,” she said.

Warwick also finds flaws with the district’s Pacific Program, which the district says provides specially-designed instruction to target goals and objectives in the specific qualifying areas as described in each student’s special education evaluation, but Warwick says segregates disabled children.

“What has been shown over the past two decades is that an inclusive environment is the best environment for students,” she said.

Warwick wants to focus on a few big issues as a school board member, but that that would not inhibit her on the board, she said.

“There’s only five members, so we’re not going to have the most intense knowledge of every subject,” she said.

While she isn’t expecting change over night, Warwick believes she can set the stage for longterm change.

“In the next four years, there’s not going to be a lot of really clear structural change, but I want to set up that change… I want to make sure the district makes their policies in ways that include more people with more personal experiences,” she said.

*Warwick identifies as transgender and prefers to use female pronouns