Seattle City Council candidate has residency conflict in School Board role

Seattle School Board member Vivian Song, who is a finalist to fill the vacant seat on the Seattle City Council, has another reason to leave the School Board: She no longer lives in the part of Seattle she represents. 

Song has been serving as the city of Seattle liaison for the School Board and says she wants to be on the council to work directly on some of the greatest issues affecting kids: gun violence, housing insecurity and mental health. 

She says she’s passionate about creating affordable family housing in Seattle, noting that she believes the fallout from expensive housing is causing enrollment declines in the school district. 

But there’s another reason why she might stop serving on the School Board. She moved from Ballard to Capitol Hill, which is outside of her director area, after she was elected, which appears to violate state residency requirements.

Song serves in what’s known as “director area four,” which includes schools in Ballard, Magnolia, Queen Anne and Belltown. In 2021, when Song ran for the School Board, she had recently moved into an apartment in Ballard. She also owned a house on Capitol Hill. The issue of her residency came up during the campaign, and Song addressed it by saying she spent a “significant amount of time” at her Ballard residence. After the election, she said, she and her family would figure out their living situation. 

She moved back to Capitol Hill in 2022. She said it was a “gradual process” but she notified Seattle Public Schools and updated her voter registration in March, then consulted the district, which said she could lawfully keep serving. 

Capitol Hill is in director area five, which is represented by Michelle Sarju. According to board policy, “School Board Directors are responsible for serving all schools in SPS, not only those located in their represented [director area].” Board directors are elected citywide in the general election, not only by those living in their director area.

“The laws and policies governing director residences provide that directors may continue to serve on the board even if they relocate to another [director area],” wrote Bev Redmond, assistant superintendent of public affairs and interim chief of staff at SPS, in a statement. “The duration of that board service depends on the individual circumstances presented, as spelled out in policy.”

“SPS is not commenting on the circumstances of any individual director,” Redmond added.

According to School Board member policy, a director must resign if he or she moves outside the school district. The issue is more nuanced if the board member moves outside of their director area but still lives within the district. Like Song, they can continue serving on the board until the next regular school district election; in Song’s case, that would have been November 2023.

So even though Song’s term wasn’t up yet, the election in November should have included her position. 

The policy also spells out that if the move happens after the filing period for the election but before the election itself, and the director is in the first two years of their term, they can keep serving until the end of their term. 

The filing period for the November 2023 election ended in May 2023. Song’s move happened before then, in early 2022. Although Song was still serving within the first two years of her term when the move was made, the move was before the filing period.

State law specifies that if the move happens before the opening of the regular filing period for the upcoming election “in the year two years after the director was elected to office,” the director should remain until “a successor assumes office who has been elected to serve the remainder of the unexpired term of office at the school district general election held in that year.”

Song’s financial affairs disclosure form shows she owns two properties on Capitol Hill, but when she signed at the county recorder’s office when taking the oath of office, she used a Ballard address. Her voter registration records now show her address on Capitol Hill.

Council members will vote on the new member Jan. 23. If selected to serve on the City Council, Song said she isn’t sure if she would remain on the School Board.

“It’s likely going to be difficult to do a full-time job as a council member and effectively serve the School Board at the same time, but I will make the right decision when I reach that point,” Song said.