Allycea Weil Runs for School Board in District 5
“I bring the perspective of someone who's been on the front lines. I am going to be a fierce advocate and protector of my community.” - Allycea Weil (Photo courtesy of Weil)
By Mead Gill
Allycea Weil is a gigworker, a filmmaker, a single mom of two teens in Seattle Public Schools (SPS), and a candidate for School Board in District 5. Leading with a community-minded perspective, Weil is pushing hard for affordable housing for families, finding SPS a lasting superintendent, and fighting for educational justice in diverse neighborhoods including Capitol Hill, the Central District, and Chinatown International District.
Who is Allycea Weil?
Raised by a single mother, Weil brings firsthand experience navigating economic hardship and public education to her campaign. She relied on free school lunch programs and public libraries growing up, and now works part-time in the Ingraham High School library. Her story is the foundation of her campaign for school board and commitment to the communities she hopes build up and protect as a board member.
“Rich people try as much as they can, but they just can't write effective policy for poor people,” she said, emphasizing her dedication to “families struggling with putting enough food on the table and keeping the power on.”
As a member of SPS’s Equity and Race Advisory Committee, Weil sees untapped potential to invest in resources that directly support District 5’s historically underserved families. Already engaged in SPS equity work, she is committed to holding the administration accountable and ensuring transparency with the communities they serve.
Youth Empowerment and Safety
Weil supports replacing the presence of Seattle Police Department (SPD) in schools with community interventionists, highlighting the success of programs like Community Passageways in District 5 that prevent youth incarceration and promote community-building.
“The fact that SPD has multiple harassment cases coming from within their own ranks…I don't feel comfortable having that culture in the schools,” she said, referencing multiple female officers who sued the City of Seattle over alleged sexual harassment and discrimination last year.
District 5 continues to grapple with the trauma of gun violence in schools, following the one year anniversary of Amarr Murphy-Painne’s death in June 2024. Weil believes that by investing more resources in community interventionists and organizations that provide much-needed mental health support, the District can move toward preventing future tragedies.
She also wants to invest more funding to programs like Kingmakers that directly empower children of color toward potential career paths. “The District talks about… focusing on Black and brown kiddos and their literacy rate and yet it seems like hardly any funds are really going there,” she said.
Mental Health and Special Education Support
Weil draws a direct connection between youth gun violence and the lack of adequate mental health support, calling for an education system properly adjusted to the needs of students forced to learn in lockdown beginning in 2020.
“Emotionally, mentally–what were the repercussions of the pandemic? The ripple effects that still may be pervasive and affecting our youth and their mental health?” she said, hoping to keep answering those questions with more SPS funding.
She also called for more inclusive policies and programs, advocating for clearer pathways for students in special education. Her goal: to ensure resources reach all children, not just those tagged as highly capable.
VIDEO: Allycea Weil on The Day With Trae
An Advocate for Affordable Housing
Citing the lack of affordable housing in neighborhoods like the Central District, Weil hopes to make it possible for both families and educators to live in the communities they serve.
“We all need to be a little bit more holistic in how we govern the city,” she said, pushing for stronger collaboration between the school board and affordable housing developers. She suggested leveraging existing programs like McKinney-Vento to maximize the number of low-income families aware and actively taking advantage of the resources available to them.
A Call for Budget Transparency
As student enrollment declines and SPS faces an estimated $100 million budget deficit, Weil is calling for greater financial transparency and accountability from the school system's central office.
“If the district office was a person, it'd be the most toxic boyfriend girlfriend relationship on the planet,” she said, criticizing Superintendent Brent Jones’ steadily increasing salary amid an extremely tight budget that she says already fails youth and families.
From a parent’s perspective, Weil pointed to dramatic disparities in private fundraising between schools, arguing that the current system perpetuates historical inequities that favor the wealthiest while leaving the most vulnerable behind.
“I think private fundraising at school sites is the modern-day redlining,” she said, describing school fundraisers where “art projects are going for thousands of dollars as if they’re Rodins.”
Weil advocated for districtwide fundraising instead of school site-based efforts, regardless of the racial and economic makeup of individual schools. “Distribution should be weighted in equity so that we can start to actually fix and undo the effects of Seattle's racist housing practices,” she said.
The Road Toward the Primaries
With less than a week until the primary election on August 5, Weil is running against Landon Labosky, Julissa Sanchez, Vivian Song, and Janis White. Weil’s platform is rooted in her personal experiences as an equity representative and parent in SPS and her strong dedication to educational justice, which she sees missing in Seattle and District 5.
“I bring the perspective of someone who's been on the front lines,” she said. “I am going to be a fierce advocate and protector of my community.”
Learn more about Weil and her campaign at allyceaweilforschools.com
