Rick Burke

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Rick Burke

Prior offices

Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 2

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Education

High school

Ballard High School

Bachelor's

University of Washington

Personal

Profession

Engineer

Contact

Personal website

Rick Burke was a member of the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in Washington, representing District 2. Burke left office on December 2, 2019.

Burke ran for re-election to the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors to represent District 2 in Washington. Burke won in the general election on November 3, 2015.

Burke did not file to run for re-election in 2019.

Biography

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Burke was born in Seattle and graduated from Ballard High School. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington. Burke is the president and engineering manager at Thermetrics, LLC. He is married and has three children who have all attended or are attending district schools.

Elections

2019

See also: Seattle Public Schools, Washington, elections (2019)

Rick Burke did not file to run for re-election.

2015

See also: Seattle Public Schools elections (2015)

Four of the seven seats on the Seattle Board of Directors were up for election in 2015. Because more than two candidates filed for the District 3 and 6 seats, a primary election was held on August 4, 2015. The top two vote recipients in those races and the candidates for District 1 and 2 appeared on the general election ballot on November 3, 2015.

District 1 incumbent Sharon Peaslee, District 2 incumbent Sherry Carr, District 3 incumbent Harium Martin-Morris and District 6 incumbent Marty McLaren were up for re-election, but only McLaren filed to run for another term.

The race for District 6 was the most competitive in 2015. Incumbent Marty McLaren faced challengers Leslie Harris and Nick Esparza in the primary. Harris and McLaren advanced to the general election, but the primary election results and campaign finance indicated a difficult general election race for the incumbent. McLaren placed second in the primary, more than 10 points behind Harris. As of campaign finance reports available on October 21, 2015, Harris had raised more than four times McLaren's campaign contributions and outspent her by a factor of almost seven. Harris defeated McLaren in the general election.

District 3 saw four candidates seeking the open seat: Lauren McGuire, David Blomstrom, Stephen Clayton and Jill Geary. Geary and McGuire advanced to the general election, garnering over $100,000 in combined campaign contributions as of October 21, 2015. Geary won the general election.

The District 1 and 2 seats saw just two candidates advance to the ballot each. Michael Christophersen and Scott Pinkham vied for the District 1 seat, while Laura Obara Gramer and Rick Burke ran for the District 2 seat. Pinkham and Burke won election to the board.

Multiple candidates withdrew from their races prior to the deadline. Therefore, they did not appear on the ballot. Arik Korman withdrew from the District 1 race, Julie McCleery and Deborah Leblang withdrew from the District 2 race and Suzanne Sutton withdrew from the District 6 race.

Results

Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Rick Burke	80.7%	124,381
Laura Obara Gramer	18.9%	29,112
Write-in votes	0.36%	554
Total Votes		154,047
Source: King County Elections, "Election Results: General and Special Elections November 4, 2015," November 24, 2015

Funding

Burke reported $9,572.00 in contributions and $3,500.87 in expenditures to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, which left his campaign with $6,071.13 on hand as of October 21, 2015. He also reported $500 of debt at that time.

Endorsements

Board of director members

Burke was endorsed by the following sitting and former school board of director members:

• Sharon Peaslee, SPS Board President
• Sue Peters, SPS Board Director
• Marty McLaren, SPS Board Director
• Kay Smith-Blum, Former SPS Board President
• Dave Myerson, Mercer Island Board Director
• Chris Carlson, Lake Washington Board Director
• Charles Hoff, Former Federal Way Board Director

Unions

He was endorsed by the Seattle Education Association and the Washington Education Association (WEA). The Martin Luther King County Labor Council and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 609, AFL-CIO, also supported Burke.

Partisan groups

Burke was endorsed by the following Democratic organizations:

• Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle
• King County Democrats
• King County Young Democrats
• 32nd LD Democrats
• 43rd LD Democrats
• 36th LD Democrats
• 46th LD Democrats
• 34th LD Democrats
• 37th LD Democrats

Media endorsements

The Seattle Times editorial board endorsed Burke for the District 2 seat, saying, "He brings experience as an executive and has specific ideas for how to improve the district." The Stranger also endorsed Burke.

Campaign themes

2015

King County voters' pamphlet

Burke provided the following statement for the King County voters' pamphlet:

“	As your School Board Director, I will keep student learning our highest priority by focusing on classroom-based tools and strategies with proven track records, and limiting excessive high-stakes testing. I have over 20 years of firsthand experience with the district. Born and raised in Seattle, I attended Seattle Public Schools, which provided me with the skills to follow my dream of becoming an engineer. Now, as a parent of three SPS students and husband of a teacher, I’d like to give back to the community and help all of our diverse 53,000 students reach their potential. As a high-tech small business manager, I set strategic targets, negotiate with clients, develop and enforce company policies, and oversee HR and financial functions. I’ll bring this discipline, an analytical approach, and quality commitment to the school board. I co-founded the Seattle Math Coalition, served as executive chair of Where's The Math? and as PTA co-president of my children’s school. I served on the Washington State Board of Education Math Panel to craft learning standards and evaluate instructional materials. I’ve consistently listened and collaborated with parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and superintendents to identify problems and solutions. My priorities include: Direct any new funding directly into classrooms / Replace the inadequate middle school math textbooks / Implement a sensible assessment policy / Establish transparent, long-term capacity planning / Transform district culture to deliver more responsive customer service to families / Revitalize vocational-technical education opportunities like shop classes.	”
—Rick Burke, King County Local Voters' Pamphlet (2015)

Campaign website

Burke provided the following statements on his campaign website:

“	We have lots of work to do for Seattle Public Schools to become a national model for urban public education system. We also need enough money to make this happen. Here are some of my top priorities which include both strategic ideas and specific tactics I strongly believe will improve educational outcomes and family satisfaction in SPS. Follow the links below to read my replies to candidate questionnaires requested by a wide cross-section of organizations. Focus on the Classrooms: To me, the whole idea of “getting back to learning” is priority number one. This means we need to look at all the factors contributing to student success, and focus funding and attention to support them. This includes recruiting, training, and retaining dedicated and effective educators, and paying them appropriately. This includes choosing effective, family-friendly instructional materials and getting them into the hands of students and teachers. This includes effective classroom supports, staff and resources, to address the wide range of student needs in our classrooms today. Simply calling for “more training” for classroom teachers isn’t the right approach. SPS needs to protect and reclaim the eroding instructional time and limit the impact of overtesting. We should identify and replicate home grown successes from our schools, not standardized educational models. Specifically, as a school board director, I would prioritize replacing the middle school math textbooks, pare down time-intensive assessments to the minimum legal requirement, favoring tests which have immediate feedback for students and teachers. I would advocate relentlessly for availability of engaging & relevant vocational classes such as wood shop, which increase student engagement and provide hands-on skills and experiences which can’t be learned from a book. Empower our Buildings: Seattle has struggled with a persistent opportunity gap, resulting from educational, socio-economic, and racial disparities. Centralized efforts to close that gap have not achieved the success we would hope for. We need to put the expertise in the buildings and provide schools with the resources and flexibility to meet the unique needs of their communities. With our school buildings each as centers of educational excellence, the role of central administration becomes one of support, providing shared services and resources to support the unique vision at each school. Successful schools and programs become peer role models, rather than “rogues” which aren’t following the centralized mandates. Follow our Rules: As adults, we expect our students to follow district, building, and classroom rules. We even provide them with a student handbook outlining these rules and specific discipline consequences for breaking them. It’s imperative that we hold the district to the same standard. This will require a culture shift for the district to identify and document district policy violations. Only by understanding our existing deficiencies can we drive continuous improvement. SPS provides an extremely high-value education service to Seattle families, but does not fully recognize the potential value that families can bring to the education system. By embracing a more explicit customer service model and creating more genuine family participation opportunities, we can leverage the expertise and shared commitment of our community. Plan for the Future: Seattle Public Schools has a capacity crisis. Some buildings are below capacity, and others are significantly above capacity. Schools are being built, re-opened, and expanded to serve Seattle’s population growth, but we are playing catch-up. Existing facilities have a maintenance backlog which puts our infrastructure at risk. There isn’t enough money to do everything so we need to have clear priorities. SPS needs to update the Facilities Master Plan, working with City of Seattle demographers to align with city growth, transporation, and urban village projections. We also need to prioritize BTA IV projects towards shared spaces at capacity-impacted school buildings.	”
—Rick Burke's campaign website (2015)

See also

• Seattle Public Schools, Washington
• Seattle Public Schools elections (2015)

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Seattle Public Schools
• Campaign website
• Campaign Facebook page