The Northshore School District is fortunate to have John Hammond running for School Board, position No.  2.

Hammond is a retired firefighter and currently a special education teacher in another school district. He brings with him a career in public service and expertise in special education, but maybe even more important, he is a good listener, a reasoned and collaborative decision maker and is committed to closing the student achievement gap. He is not interested in using the school board position to launch a political career. His background and personality will be strong assets to the Northshore School District Board.

In our view, Hammond’s opponent, Ken Smith, brings up red flags. Most troubling is that Smith actively opposed the last Northshore School District’s capital projects bond; fortunately voters saw differently and overwhelmingly approved the capital bond project. In Smith’s unsuccessful campaign for Kenmore City Council, he appeared to give voters the feeling that something may be hidden or wrong with the city budget. Nothing was found. Now he seems to point fingers at the NSD budget and requests more and more information, but nothing appears irregular. Smith has a history of searching for accounting problems that don’t exist.

We hope NSD community members will join with us and vote for John Hammond for Northshore School Board, position No. 2.

Jayne and Christopher J. Tracy, Kenmore