The Olympia School Board filled a vacancy in November by choosing Talauna Reed, a vocal activist and candidate for mayor last year city council last year. In this episode, we chat with just recently former school board President Maria Flores and recently appointed Reed. We talk about the school district's response coming out of the COVID pandemic, the pivot towards equity and the appointment process. We last spoke with Maria in 2019 in Episode #49.



You can download the episode here.

#96: Maria Flores, Talauna Reed and the Olympia School Board

News

Politics

We are joined by Senator Sam Hunt to review the legislative session just past and talk about what Olympia got from Olympia. We also delve into his political history and the history of our community as we look back on his year's of service.

#106: Sine Die with Sam Hunt

We have been slow rolling through a very large discussion on school closures since last summer. We sit down with three different community members on how we got here, where we've been before and what we need to do now.



Guests: Maria Flores, Olympia School Board



Kelcy Schaffer, OSD4ALL



Russ Lehman, former Olympia School Board



OSD School Efficiency Review page



OSD4All Closure Forum

#105: Do we want to close Madison and McKenny schools?

Robert Vanderpool just started his job on the Olympia City Council. So, to get to know Olympia's new policy-maker, we asked him some questions about himself, about where he's coming from and what he's been up to since joining the council. And about Baltimore and about why you shouldn't like the Orioles.



The really cool Olympia City Council meeting where Robert was elected to council using Ranked Choice Voting

#104: New City Council member Robert Vanderpool

We conducted a couple of interviews about how the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) impacts the city in terms of growth, housing affordability and finances. We sat down with Darian Lightfoot from the city in the first segment to go over recent changes in Olympia's MFTE. In our second segment, with talked to Robert Pantley and Angela Rozmyn from Natural and Built Environments to talk about their experiences statewide with the MFTE.



Natural and Built Environment: https://www.naturalandbuilt.com/



We discussed a specific kind of city landscape analysis that looks at city infrastructure costs and tax productivity. A good example in the Pacific Northwest is one conducted in Eugene, OR: https://www.urbanthree.com/case-study/eugene-or/



As a good, all-around, backgrounder on the MFTE, the state Department of Commerce is hard to beat: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/serving-communities/growth-management/growth-management-topics/planning-for-housing/multi-family-housing-property-tax-exemption-program/

#103: The Multifamily Tax Exemption and You

Today we hear from Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, a candidate for Olympia School board. Interviewing Jess is Howard Rosenfeld, an old friend of the podcast who is stepping in this season to do at least one candidate interview. Jess and Howard talk about her background, the recent history of the school board and how we can find a path forward.

#96: Maria Flores, Talauna Reed and the Olympia School Board

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