Janis White
Janis White is running for election to the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors to represent District 5 in Washington. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. She advanced from the primary on August 5, 2025.
White completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Janis White was born in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from John L. Miller Great Neck North High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1978 and a law degree from Boston University in 1982. Her career experience includes working as an attorney. She has been affiliated with All Youth Belong.[1]
Elections
2025
See also: Seattle Public Schools, Washington, elections (2025)
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 5
Vivian Song and Janis White are running in the general election for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 5 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Vivian Song (Nonpartisan)  | |
 | Janis White (Nonpartisan) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 5
The following candidates ran in the primary for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 5 on August 5, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Vivian Song (Nonpartisan) | 74.0 | 21,545 |
| ✔ | | Janis White (Nonpartisan) | 15.2 | 4,437 |
| Julissa Sanchez (Nonpartisan) | 3.6 | 1,056 | ||
| Landon Labosky (Nonpartisan) | 2.4 | 704 | ||
| Allycea Weil (Nonpartisan) | 2.4 | 703 | ||
| Vivian van Gelder (Nonpartisan) | 2.0 | 576 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 91 | ||
| Total votes: 29,112 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
White received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
- Seattle Public Schools Pres. Gina Topp (Nonpartisan)
- Frmr. Seattle School Board Dir. Sherry Carr
- Frmr. Seattle School Board Dir. Leslie Harris
- Alliance for Gun Responsibility
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587
- Democrats for Diversity and Inclusion, Wash.
- King County, Wash., Young Democrats
- NWPC-WA
- National Women's Political Caucus of Washington
- The Seattle Times
- The Washington Bus
Pledges
White signed the following pledges. To send us additional pledges, click here.
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Janis White completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by White's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I've been involved in our public schools and our school district as a parent advocate for almost 20 years. I've served as President of the TOPS K-8 Site Council, helped organize a city-wide Alternative Schools Coalition, served as a parent representative on a district task force about transportation and served as President of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.
I believe that to be an effective School Board Director, you need strong community roots, you need direct connection to the school district and an understanding of how it works, and you need to care about building a system to ensure that every student receives the education they need to meet their full potential.- Our school district has a structural budget deficit. We can't continue to apply band aids to balance the budget.
My opponent testified in June 2024 and told the School Board to vote no on the 2024-25 budget and instead ask the State to take over financial oversight of the district.
I disagree. I think budget decisions should be based on the values and needs of our community.
We need to bring back the School Board Budget/Finance Committee and include ex officio community members with financial expertise and time to review data. We also need regular reporting from district departments so we can be sure that we are spending the money we have wisely to support the needs of students. - According to an analysis by Children's Alliance, more than 1 in every 5 students in our K-12 schools suffer from major depression or anxiety. Students have told us that they need more support in schools -- more counselors and therapists. We need to support student advocacy to get more funding from the State and the City to meet these needs. Along with that, we need to protect our programming and initiatives for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students, which are under threat.
- We need a separate strategic plan to overhaul our District's delivery of special education instruction and services to students with disabilities. The special education system is very confusing and difficult for families to navigate and has not caught up to current research and evidence about best practices., Too many of our disabled students are in segregated classes instead of learning alongside their non-disabled peers. I have deeper knowledge of special education than any other School Board candidate. Recent reports have shown that special education costs and spending are one of the primary causes of the structural budget deficit. We need someone on the School Board with a deep background in these issues.
I think that's important because often you hear that the School Board has three roles -- write and adopt policy, hire the Superintendent and approve the budget. But, I believe the job is much broader than that.
It doesn't mean that the School Board should be involved in day to day decisions. To be clear, the School Board should not. But, the School Board has a role to play when decisions are made that have an adverse impact on student or staff experience. When that happens, the School Board should step in, engage with community to understand the issue, ask staff to revisit if warranted and make sure that staff communication to the community is clear.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires White completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 5, 2025
