SPS takes another look at how board members are elected

The Spokane Public Schools board will take another look Wednesday night at how its members are elected.

No action will be taken, but board members will revisit their longstanding practice of electing all five members on an at-large basis instead of by districts.

The topic will be covered during a special Zoom meeting, which means the public may listen in but not comment.

“We’ve talked about it in the past, but we have a new board,” President Jerrall Haynes said Tuesday. “It will be interesting to see where this board lands on the issue.”

The issue came up last year at the instigation of director Mike Wiser, who noted that a preponderance of members live on the South Hill.

A year later, the board has three new members, but the geographic balance is still askew.

Wiser and Nikki Lockwood live on the South Hill, as does new appointee Aryn Ziehnert.

Jenny Slagle, who like Lockwood was elected last year, lives downtown but sent all four of her children to Ferris High School.

Their predecessors – Sue Chapin, Kevin Morrison, and Deana Brower, respectively – also sent their children to South Hill Schools.

Haynes is the only board member who doesn’t live downtown or on the South Hill.

Haynes, who is Black, notes that diversity comes in several forms. With the election last year of Lockwood, who is Latinx, and Slagle, who’s Native American, the SPS board is among the most diverse in the Pacific Northwest.

“I think that’s 100% right,” Haynes said. “There are pros and cons to either system, but the community might already feel like we’re much more representative of the whole community already.”

One alternative would be a five-district model, with all board members required to live in their respective districts.

The Spokane city council divides the city into three districts, with two other members elected at-large.