Parents and paraeducators press Edmonds School Board on kindergarten lottery fairness and low pay

Several public commenters used the board's public comment period to raise equity and compensation concerns.

David Franklin, an Edmonds resident, presented a six‑year analysis of the Maplewood kindergarten lottery and told the board the current practice of dividing seats equally across the district’s four quadrants yields unequal odds. Franklin said the Southwest and Northwest quadrants account for roughly 72% of applicants but receive a similar number of seats as the Northeast and Southeast, producing substantially different winning odds. He described Southeast families as having averaged a 27.6% chance of winning a seat in past years while Northwest and Southwest applicants had about a 9% chance; he proposed allocating lottery seats proportionally to each quadrant’s share of applicants to equalize odds while preserving geographic diversity and random selection.

Two district employees, Cheryl Passarge and paraeducator Jeanette Kuo, described low pay and housing challenges. Passarge said she is able to afford an apartment because of participation in the multifamily tax exemption (MFTE) program and framed pay as a matter of dignity; Kuo, a paraeducator at Edmonds Heights K–12, described paraeducators as essential to student learning and urged the board to support a living wage, citing statements from state education leaders and union representatives on the importance of paraeducator pay.

Board members thanked commenters and noted written comments will be posted on board documents. No formal policy action was taken during the meeting; Franklin said district leadership had told him the issue must be addressed by the board directly.