Vivian Song, 45, is a board director on the Seattle School Board, the governing body in charge of Seattle Public Schools. But she is also a mom to four children, one, who on a damp and cloudy Saturday morning, needed to find her son’s baseball bag for the start of the Little League season.
A school board director is in charge of establishing the district’s vision, mission, and goals. Song represents District 5 (there are seven total), which includes Garfield and other central area schools.
After Song finished making scrambled eggs for her kids, she sat down to prepare for the day ahead. First off was attending a 9 AM professional development session provided by the district.
The PD featured a panel of members of the Black Prisoners Caucus, a group founded by ex-inmates focused on ending the school to prison pipeline. Song went to learn more about the equity training SPS provides to teachers.
However, she had to leave the meeting early to be at the Douglass Truth library by 10 AM. There, she held one of her first community meetings since being reelected to the board in November.
At the meeting, there were parents from TOPS K-8 and Meany Middle School, who advocated for increased school safety and complained about the impersonal school culture, respectively.
During the meeting, Song listened thoughtfully and asked questions. Throughout the day, she was always curious as to what others were thinking and wanted to hear their experiences.
When the meeting concluded at 11 AM, Song rushed back home and shuttled her 4th grade daughter to Carkeek Park, where their shift selling Girl Scout cookies would start.
At Carkeek, Song shivered while she completed a transaction. Her daughter, however, was unfazed by the conditions, dancing and singing to try to attract more buyers and sell more cookies.
After a long shift, Song and her daughter took down the booth just after 2 PM. All in all, it was a success; nearly 100 boxes of cookies were sold!
After unloading the car and ushering her daughter inside, Song finally had an uninterrupted block of time to catch up on some board work. While preparing for the next meeting, Song shared her positions on key district issues.
Song isn’t too worried about the district’s financial situation. “I don’t think going into binding conditions is so bad,” she said, referring to the set of restrictions the state places on districts that go into debt.
She also raised what she recognized as an “unpopular opinion.” “I want to get rid of midwinter break,” she proclaimed. She argued the long break is inequitable because some families can’t afford childcare for an entire week in the middle of February.
Being a school board director is not easy. Directors get a lot of flack from the public, and not a lot of pay. Song, however, enjoys what she does, and recounts that her interactions with the public are more kind than many believe.
“I think people understand this is a hard job and are appreciative,” she said. “I never feel like this is a thankless job.”
