Election 2025: Q&A with Edmonds School Board candidate Jason Moore

To help voters in their decision-making process for the Nov. 4 general election, My Neighborhood News Network sent a list of questions to candidates for various races. We are posting them as we receive them.

Jason Moore is running for the District 4 director seat on the Edmonds School Board. Moore is a U.S. Navy veteran who had two deployments on an aircraft carrier as a flight deck trouble-shooter. He is currently a small-business owner in the carpentry industry.

His opponent is District 4 appointed incumbent Thom Garrard.

Q: Why are you running to be an Edmonds School Board Director? What do you hope to accomplish during your time as a board director?

A: I decided to run for the Edmonds School District school board director position 4 because the board is in desperate need of some diversity of thought. My opponent has the same opinions and views as all the other board members. This is why they vote yes on everything that comes across their desk from the superintendent and or her executives. The board and the district like to shout from the rooftops to promote diversity and equity, however when it they are challenged with differing views or opinions by the community, parents, or teachers, they are uninterested in considering diverse views or opinions. I will entertain all views or opinions, even if I disagree with them. I also choose to run against my opponent because I was sick of seeing so many school board positions go unopposed, If no one else will run against them, then choose me, I will go. The board selected my opponent for his position, but the people have selected me for it.

One of my first goals to accomplish as school board director would be to reform the “secret society” study sessions. A study session is another form of public meeting that the board uses to discuss policy, question district executives, and receive presentations from staff. I call them secret society because they are structured in a way to keep the information hidden from the public. For example, the meetings are earlier before the main business meetings at an inconvenient time. And, if you miss the meetings and want to catch up later good luck, because study sessions are not recorded like regular business meetings for some reason??? Unless you attend the meeting, you have no way to learn what happened there. This is unacceptable for a government agency with a nearly $500 million budget!

Q: What experience would you bring as a board director and how is it relevant to the position?

A: First of all, we need to change our thinking about what “qualifies” a person to be a school board member. I will admit, I have no professional school experience. I was not a teacher for 40 years, I have never been a teacher’s union executive, actually I think the teacher’s union hates me. My opponent has done all of these things and more. He has been a professional school person longer than I have been alive! I will be 44 in December. As amazing as all of that experience is, good for him, it will not help him conduct proper oversight over the Edmonds School District and related unions. Conducting proper oversight over all of his friends and buddies in the union will not be easy for him. This could actually be considered a conflict of interest in a way, how will he regulate, or write policy for the groups that he was or is still a part of?

My experience is from outside of the school system, so I have an open mind and am free from bias or conflicts of interest. I was in the US Navy for five years in NAS Whidbey Island and served honorably. The military is one of the most diverse places you can be. Most of my friends were from other countries and we worked together to accomplish our goals daily. I am able to collaborate with others that I agree with and do not agree with in order to get the project completed on schedule. I have also been a tradesman most of my life, learning carpentry, drywall and other skills along the way. Not everyone fits into the same cookie cutter shapes, some people are better at working with their hands, or working with others in groups, some people are better working by themselves. Education should work for individual people, not attempt to place everyone in a cookie cutter shape. This is not working and needs to be addressed. I have the will and fortitude to tackle this problem. A grading practices task force is not the solution.

Q: What would be your top priority, if elected?

A: According to the Edmonds Police Department leadership, violent crime and gang activity are on the rise among our youth in the area of the Edmonds School District. This is my top priority, and I have already been working on ways to solve this problem. Unlike my opponent, who along with the rest of the board members refuse to acknowledge that this is an actual problem. I have been out in the streets at community safety meetings, and city council meetings reaching out to the heads of the police departments, councilmembers and community leaders in order to address the rise of gangs and youth violent crime, and how to best tackle this problem. One of the answers could be to bring back the SROs (school resource officers) to our schools. The problem is the board is not willing to do this because they voted unanimously to have them removed after the BLM riots. The board needs to come clean and admit it was a mistake to go against the will of the people and remove SROs. Time to bring them back!

Q: What ideas do you have for improving the district’s high school graduation rates?

A: This is a perfect question to examine how simple, common-sense solutions can be over shadowed by big government solutions that over complicate the situation, and somehow actually make the situation even worse. This is what I suspect the Grading Practices Task Force will accomplish. Even if the task force is able to graduate more students once it is established, or the recommendations are implemented, this does not mean the students will be learning more, or doing better on their assessment test. And let all of us never forget, even the OSPI has graded the Edmonds School District and showed all of us that less than 42% of our students can test at grade level for mathematics! This is the real problem that needs to be addressed, not graduation rates. If more students were proficient at Math, English and Science, then more students would be graduating on time, which would boost graduation rates! An excellent common sense solution that solves multiple problems at once. Manipulating graduation requirements or relaxing requirements for students to make it “easier” to graduate is not the best solution, and will possibly even hurt students more. If we get back to focus on the common core subjects, then this will improve all other areas of student performance and graduation rates as a consequence.

Q: Where can readers go to learn more about your campaign? 

The best place for your readers to go will be our website Moore4Students.com and we have many social media to share.

Youtube @WTP17762 and @Moore4Students

Tiktok @Moore4Students

Instagram Moore4Students.com

x @JSMforESD