Union leader brings an equity focus to Seattle School Board

Editor’s note: This is the first of two Q&As with Seattle Public Schools’ new board members. Up later this week: Sarah Clark.

Joe Mizrahi’s approach to education and equity was shaped by his public school experience in San Diego County, Calif., as the first-generation child of a refugee family.

But he’s also seen public schooling through the lens of his parents, both public school teachers, as well as his wife, the principal of a Bellevue school with a high percentage of low-income students. And he’s the parent of three children currently enrolled in Seattle Public Schools.

Mizrahi, one of the two new members appointed to the Seattle School Board last week, said he will bring all of those perspectives to his work as the District 4 representative.

Mizrahi, the secretary-treasurer of UFCW 3000, which represents grocery and retail workers, discussed what he’s hoping to accomplish on the School Board during his short term. The seat will be on the ballot in November 2025.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What is the first order of business for you as you settle into this new role?

The biggest challenge is the budget issue. So I think making sure that I get as much education as I can around the current cuts that are being made, what that looks like for the long-term future. 

They presented at the last meeting, for example, things that we’re doing to get in line with a budget that will keep us solvent for the next school year. I want to understand not just those choices, but also what choices were not made in favor of those. Because those are likely levers that they’re going to have to look at in future years. 

The second thing is, we are at the end of our current strategic plan. I’m really looking forward to digging into what the next re-upping of that three-year plan looks like. I think that when you’re faced with tough budgetary decisions, the best thing to do is to have a core vision, strategic goals, so that you can go back to that and say, “OK, well, if we have to make this tough decision and we’re faced with cutting X or cutting Y, which of those is going to be more impactful on the strategic goals.”

I’m curious about your thoughts and some of the budget proposals, particularly around the possibility of closures or consolidations in 2025-26?

I’m not going in with any fixed [idea], like, “Yes, this is definitely the path out.” 

I want to say this with humility. I want to go in and see the data and understand what the board members have [been] presented [with], at many, many more meetings than I’ve been to, and get my head around all that.

I do think that realistically you want long-term, sustainable fixes. I do think that it’s probably better to have fewer well-resourced schools, if what our determination is — and this is where I do want to understand the data — that the demographic trends that we have are not temporary, and that these are problems that are going to plague the district for a long time; I think you have to start looking at what are the smart consolidations that can happen, make sure that you are viewing that through an equity lens to understanding all the impacts, that one, closure or consolidation, might have over another. And then, I think make those hard decisions that in the long term will lead to better-resourced schools.

You’re not going in with the notion that closures or consolidations are necessarily bad things if they align with the district goals of having well-resourced schools?

There are definitely outcomes that are worse than school closures if cuts are so deep that you have all these schools that are open but you’re not providing the type of well-resourced education that you have to meet your goals. I do think that [school closures] needs to be on the table.

What are your priorities as you take on this role?

One of the things that definitely informs how I think about this, and even why I wanted to do this to begin with, is my day job and the fact that I am talking to really low-wage workers every day.

I really want to run [the changes] through the lens of how these workers that I talk to — these grocery workers and health care workers — how they would think about that, and how that would impact their lives. Because I’ve seen folks who are on a razor’s edge with their schedules at work, trying to get as many hours as they can, and then an after-school program gets cut, and then it messes with their whole ecosystem because they’re just right on that edge of financial survival. 

Parents, students and families are important stakeholders in K-12. How do you ensure that they are part of the process and that their voices are heard?

You hear there is real anger and frustration from a lot of parents, community. Anger is not necessarily a bad thing. The opposite of people feeling really great about something isn’t anger. In my experience, the opposite is actually apathy. There’s anger because people really care about this. There’s frustration because they want to be heard.

The fact that people are engaged is a positive sign. They have higher aspirations for the Seattle school district. 

That said, I think that so many times when you make a decision, what you decide is even less important sometimes than how you decide. I think that people do feel like they haven’t been engaged enough in the process. They feel like decisions are made, and they don’t necessarily understand why or how they’re made. 

I think that making sure that we’re finding ways to be out in the community where people are, [and] talking to them — whether that’s going to a school and hanging out at drop-off when the parents are all with their kids and talking to people.  

Do you think you might run to be the permanent representative?

I have no higher aspirations than anything other than a volunteer, part-time board, because I really like my job and don’t want to ever do anything else.

I am definitely doing this because I want to do what I can to improve Seattle schools and to be part of that process.

What I want to be doing is improving schools for the people who are most marginalized, and for low-wage workers, and for the people who need it most. If I feel like I’m on the School Board and I’m able to actually move the needle on that, through my voice, then I’ll totally run again, or run for the first time, I guess. 

Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?

I’m also approaching this as a parent of three kids. I think we focus so much on the challenges in the Seattle school district.

My middle school … was awful. And then I go visit my daughters’ middle school, and it’s great. The teachers are all very caring. My daughter has a 504 plan [which requires districts to provide students with disabilities accommodations to complete their education]. The teachers are all very accommodating, really aware of how to integrate that into their lesson planning. 

We live in North Seattle, and the education that we’re getting is not universal throughout the district. There are big problems that need to be solved, but there’s also just a lot of positives, too.