Seattle School Board member Sharon Peaslee will become the third incumbent not to seek re-election this fall.
Seattle School Board member Sharon Peaslee announced Tuesday she is not seeking re-election in the fall, a move that will open three seats on the seven-member board.
Board President Sherry Carr and member Harium Martin-Morris also are not seeking re-election. Marty McLaren, the fourth board member whose term expires this year, said Tuesday that she will seek re-election.
Peaslee, who produces video and web-based programs through her production company, Flying Lula Productions, said in her announcement that she wants to spend more time supporting her two children through college.
She unseated incumbent Peter Maier in 2011 and has successfully championed several causes during her tenure.
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Peaslee led the effort to preserve Seattle’s first alternative-education program (Pinehurst K-8), which had been recommended for elimination. Instead, it was combined with the Indian Heritage program and has since been renamed Licton Springs K-8.
She also helped muster enough votes on the board to select a different math textbook for elementary schools than the one an advisory committee recommended.
And she advocated successfully for the district to figure out what it would take to start school at a later time for teens.
Peaslee was elected board president in 2013 and served one year.
Correction: Originally published April 21, 2015, this story was corrected on April 22, 2015. An earlier version misspelled Marty McLaren’s name.