Submitted by John Arbeeny.
Director Anthony Veliz was first elected as the Board’s Legislative Representative on 13 December 2021 and re-elected 12 December 2022 by Directors Pearson, Jacobs and Veliz, with Directors Anderson and Wagemann opposed. To date Director Veliz and the Board have failed to address legislative matters since the beginning of the 2023/2024 legislative session on 9 January 2023. Board Policy 1225, “School Director Legislative Program”, stipulates Director Veliz’s Legislative Representative responsibilities as follows:
“Monitor proposed education legislation; inform the board of pending legislative issues and existing or proposed WSSDA legislative positions; and promote the board’s legislative priorities.”
Director Veliz failed to bring any of the 182 education related Senate or House bills before the Board nor has the Board requested information on any of these bills. The Board has not brought any of these bills to the public’s attention. Yet many of these bills will have direct impacts on the District, students, parents and tax payers.
Lakewood CARES researched these 182 bills and came up with their own “top 20” Senate and House bills shown below. CARES members have already testified in person, via ZOOM and email with a careful eye on the legislative daily hearings. That’s what it takes!
SB=Senate Bill, HB=House Bill
SB5009, SB5020, SB 5024, SB5029, SB5072, SB5237, SB5441, SB5489, SB5559, SB5599
HB1013, HB1071, HB1093, HB1239, HB1244, HB1273, HB1308, HB1333, HB 1353, HB 1601
The legislature is a “fast moving train” with bills rapidly coming up for testimony in committees before being brought before the House or Senate for approval. The period for committee testimony ends on 17 February 2023 with many bills considered long before that deadline.
Director Wagemann brought up these issues at the 13 February 2023 Board’s regular meeting during revisions to Policy 1225. Director Wagemann argued that the proposed Legislative Representative’s once-a-month briefing during Board workshops was far too little to keep current with the rapid progress of these bills. Rather, Legislative Representative briefings during every Board regular and workshop meetings are required during the legislative session. Director Wagemann’s motion to this effect failed for lack of a second (Director Anderson was absent due to a serious family matter).
Apparently Directors Pearson, Jacobs and Veliz don’t understand the legislative process or appreciate the timely rapid response required to put CPSD legislative priorities into Board discussion, decision making and then as legislative testimony. As of the Board’s 13 February 2023 regular meeting, 36 days after the legislative session began and just 4 days before committee testimony ends, this Board has yet to discuss or vote in support of, or in opposition to, a single bill before the Legislature. Thus the Board has foregone the opportunity to influence legislation and thereby represent the voters of this District.
Is it too much to ask that Board members show a little initiative, follow their own policy and represent those who elected them?
The minimum tasks of a legislative representative, including tracking bills of interest to any school board, explaining them to the board and advising them when action is needed IS NOT THAT TOUGH!
All it takes is a bit of competence, character, and caring: the “3 C’s” of trust.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/head-strong/201605/the-3-cs-of-trust
It’s not a new idea but one that is overdue.
Many of these kids should be put into trade school in their freshman year.
The disruptive behavior would be removed from the regular classroom.
The kids would have an opportunity for a marketable skill.
And it would keep them from running for public office or a position in government bureaucracy.
We all win.
Do I understand correctly that School Board policies, which are created by the board directors themselves, are not meant to be arbitrary nor followed on random choice or personal whim? Do not the policies compose the job description, the responsibilities, of the directors who are elected with the expectation that they will fulfill those duties? During the last several months Directors Wagemann and Anderson have brought noncompliance of policies to the attention of the other directors. This is the most recent example. Failure of the majority of the School Board Directors to comply makes one wonder if they take their elected positions seriously.
The coordinated comments of the cares members are hilarious. How many times did Wagemann represent the 3 C’s as the legislative rep? This post is laughable tell Wagemann to leave Veliz alone it was not the board who did not want home to be the leg. Rep. But his WSSDA peers who couldn’t wait to vote him out and they did. Wagemann never reported back on the bills or how he voted. This bullying tatic because Veliz refused to join ranks with the likes of Lakewood Cares is disgusting.
“Hilarious”, “laughable” and “disgusting” all at the same time? All emotional responses, none of which are a rational argument dealing with the subject at hand and so wrong on so much.
It is the CPSD Board that elects its own Legislative Representative not WSSDA. WSSDA has nothing to do with voting out any school district’s legislative representative.
Here are the facts regarding CPSD Board elections of their Legislative Representative back to 2016. You can find this in the Board’s own meeting minutes.
12/12/16 Director Kellcy nominated Director Wagemann for Legislative Representative. Approved 5-0
VP Jacobs…”thanked Director Wagemann for continuing to serve as Legislative
Representative.” https://app.eduportal.com/documents/view/612893
This would indicate that Director Wagemann served for years prior to 2016.
12/11/17 Director Jacobs nominated Director Wagemann for Legislative Representative. Approved 5-0
12/10/18 Director Jacobs nominated Director Wagemann for Legislative Representative. Approved 5-0
12/9/19 Director Pearson nominated Director Wagemann for Legislative Representative. Approved 5-0
12/14/20 Director Wagemann nominated Veliz for Legislative Representative. Approved 5-0
12/13/21 Director Jacobs nominated Veliz for Legislative Representative. Approved 3-2
12/12/ 22 Director Jacobs nominated Veliz for Legislative Representative. Approved 3-2
There is a long history of Director Wagemann’s service as Legislative Representative or are you questioning the judgement of those who nominated and voted for him? Check out Director Veliz’s performance as Legislative Representative to see how many times he’s been missing in action.
Hmm. So you are mad at Anthony Veliz because he didn’t lobby on behalf of Lakewood Cares interests. Lakewood Cares is a far right MAGA Christian Nationalist group, so what they think are important are not necessarily what’s good for our school district and our kids.
Very petty, and contributing nothing to the well-being of a child’s education.
Your anger and distain for things you choose to hate should have no bearing on a publicly-funded system to educate children.
The kids I know who are going through Christian school systems are doing exceptionally well, personally and academically.
Nothing is perfect, but on average it’s a whole lot better than what I see the public school industrial complex cranking out around here.
This has nothing to do with being “mad” or “on behalf of….CARES interests”. It is a logical conclusion on behalf of this community’s interests. We elect Board members to represent us. Part of that representation includes weighing in on bills before the Legislature. That is part of CPSD Board policy and that policy wasn’t followed. As a result we, the public, wasn’t represented by our representatives. Here’s a question for you Elizabeth: how many of the educational related bills in this article have your read and commented on?
No. As the Clover Park School Board Legislative Representative, Anthony Veliz is accountable to CPSB and it’s constituents, not CARES. Have YOU benefitted from any legislative advice from Mr. Veliz?
Huh?
The point is not that Director Veliz did not “lobby on behalf of Lakewood CARES interests”. The point is that he did nothing, nothing to fulfill the responsibilities of his position as legislative representative; and if for some reason he was not able to fulfill the responsibilities, board leadership did nothing to fill the gap. Why? School Board policy 1225 requires it.
No Elizabeth Scott it is not about labeling people as extreme left or right it is about reviewing and discussing the merits of legislation which may have an impact on the education of our students. When a school board encourages and participates in open public comment then we can as a community hopefully find the common good. The work is hard it takes investigation, reviewing and discussing in challenging conversations of the facts and consequences of proposed legislation at all level’s government. Please encourage your board and representatives to participate in open public dialogue before implementing policy.