Andre Helmstetter
Andre Helmstetter was a candidate for District 5 representative on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in Washington. Helmstetter was defeated in the by-district primary election on August 1, 2017.
Click here to read this candidate's 2017 campaign themes.
Although the school board is nonpartisan, Helmstetter identified himself as a Democrat on his CrowdPAC website.
Helmstetter was a candidate for the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in 2009.[1]
Biography
Helmstetter's professional experience includes working as a senior consultant for Matisia Consultants and working in process and policy improvement for the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, South Carolina Department of Social Services and Department of Health and Human Services, and San Mateo Human Services Agency. He also served in the U.S. Navy. Helmstetter earned his B.A. from Evergreen State College.[2]
Elections
2017
- See also: Seattle Public Schools elections (2017)
Three of the seven seats on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in Washington were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. A primary election for all three seats was held on August 1, 2017, because more than two candidates filed for each seat. Although the general election was held at large, the primary election was held by district.
Eden Mack was the District 4 winner, defeating fellow challenger Herbert Camet Jr. in the general. The two fended off Sean Champagne, Jennifer Crow, Megan Hyska, Lisa Melenyzer, and Darrell Toland in the primary. In District 5, Zachary DeWolf was victorious over Omar Vasquez. They both defeated Alec Cooper, Andre Helmstetter, and Candace Vaivadas in the primary. District 7 board member Betty Patu successfully defended her seat against challenger Chelsea Byers. They both defeated Tony Hemphill in the primary.[3]
Results
| Seattle Public Schools, District 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Zachary DeWolf |
47.36% | 11,493 |
| Omar Vasquez |
17.53% | 4,255 |
| Andre Helmstetter | 15.49% | 3,758 |
| Alec Cooper | 13.55% | 3,288 |
| Candace Vaivadas | 5.69% | 1,380 |
| Write-in votes | 0.38% | 93 |
| Total Votes | 24,267 | |
| Source: King County, "2017 Results," accessed August 15, 2017 | ||
Funding
Helmstetter reported $4,335.00 in contributions and $4,717.20 in expenditures to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, leaving his campaign with $382.20 in debt as of October 12, 2017.[4]
Endorsements
Helmstetter received official endorsements from Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors incumbents Rick Burke, Leslie Harris, Betty Patu, and Sue Peters, King County Council member Larry Gossett, the 36th, 37th, and 43rd District Democrats, King County Democrats, the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle, and Seattle Weekly.[5][6][7]
Campaign themes
2017
Helmstetter posted the following on his campaign website:[8]
| “ | Achievement and Inclusion for All Students
Currently, economically disadvantaged and minority students are still not attaining the strong learning outcomes of other students. I believe the gap, presumed and real, is a reflection of top-down standardized testing, ineffective curriculum and over discipline in our schools. Additionally, these and other families often do not feel comfortable or knowledgeable about navigating our public school system. We need to make all families feel more welcome in our schools by providing more cultural competency training to our teachers and administrators and building this competency into our schools' curriculum. We should also be supporting our teachers in providing more holistic evaluations of our students and reducing the amount of standardized testing. To better serve all students we can be doing more to utilize progressive curriculum focusing on interdisciplinary, project-based work that will help children have access to STEM education without sacrificing their arts, humanities, PE and civics education. Testing and Performance Data We need to re-think testing and evaluations of our students and our schools. The focus of testing should not be to determine school funding or to create punitive outcomes for teachers. Instead we need evaluations that support students and define the right placement/path for individual students and groups of students. There are many evaluative methods – aside from testing – and we should be exploring whether some of these will be helpful in evaluating student performance and schools’ delivery of services. When we do use testing we should ensure that it is developmentally appropriate, culturally competent and delivered in a way that is accessible to children with different challenges and abilities. We should be taking advantage of our teachers in the classrooms to provide relevant assessments of our students. Teacher Support Teachers should have what they need – from competitive pay to classroom resources – to provide engaging learning experiences for children. With reductions in standardized testing we can refocus dollars on better professional development for teachers so they can provide higher levels of support to our students. Charter Schools Public education is not a business. It is a service. Public services should be transparent and accountable to community oversight. Charter schools are neither. Corporate owned and run charters are businesses that will answer to their investors who expect a financial return. Our children will suffer as the demand for more return on investment grows. Traditional public schools also answer to their investors, the tax payers. We also expect a return on investment. A great education for our children and better citizens for our future communities.[9] |
” |
| —Andre Helmstetter (2017)[8] | ||
See also
External links
- Seattle Public Schools
- Andre Helmstetter 2017 campaign website
- Andre Helmstetter 2017 CrowdPAC website
- Andre Helmstetter 2017 Facebook campaign page
Footnotes
- ↑ Seattle Magazine, "Why Seattle Schools Can't Keep a Superintendent," accessed March 30, 2020
- ↑ Andre for Seattle Schools, "About Andre," accessed June 15, 2017
- ↑ King County, "Who Has Filed," accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ Washington Public Disclosure Commission, "Local Candidates," accessed October 12, 2017
- ↑ Andre for Seattle Schools, "Endorsements," accessed June 15, 2017
- ↑ Seattle Weekly, "Our Endorsements for Seattle’s August 1 Primary Election," July 12, 2017
- ↑ Elisabeth Moore, "Email exchange with Andre Helmstetter," July 31, 2017
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Andre for Seattle Schools, "On the Issues," accessed June 15, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| Seattle Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| King County, Washington | |
| Election date: | Primary: August 1, 2017 General: November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | District 4: Herbert Camet Jr. • Sean Champagne • Jennifer Crow • Megan Hyska • Eden Mack • Lisa Melenyzer • Darrell Toland District 5: Alec Cooper • Zachary DeWolf • Andre Helmstetter • Candace Vaivadas • Omar Vasquez |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
