Megan Munson-Warnken II

(Revised and extended for Monday February 5)

Getting back to my phone conversation Wednesday with Ward One's Progressive Megan Munson-Warnken, running in the special council election...

* Despite having been approached by the Progs late in the game, and despite having been whomped last weekend by the flu, Megan is undeterred and optimistic. She describes running for office as something she's "always wanted to do" and says this year is particularly exciting because "so much is coming up for Burlington."

* Munson-Warnken is 31 years old. She is married with two pre-school age children. Her husband is a physician at Community Health Center while Megan is a co-owner of Viva Espresso, a small cafe in the old end she help start in order to create a space where children were "not just tolerated, but really welcome." She claims an ancestral heritage in Vermont, but was raises herself in the Portland Oregon area. Munson-Warnken earned a masters degree in literature from the University of Washington and has held several jobs teaching under provisional licensure.

* She said that were she to win she would put a lot of focus on issues surrounding children and education. She said whereas the school board focuses on school policy, the city council could help out with budgeting and other support for the school district. Megan reports that Viva Espresso recently hosted a meeting of old north end parent with kids about to start school at either Barnes or Wheeler.

* On the topic of SEI (Socioeconomic Integration of schools) she's "not necessarily against it...but it needs to be approached thoughtfully and intentionally." On school redistricting, she said the lines that determine which school a child will go to doesn't always make sense.


...Ok I hate to do this, but I have to run to work again and Blogger.com is blocked there, so... I'll have to revise this post tonight. No sequel. I'll just revise and update this post, so stay tuned...

***

Monday Morning. Well really it's still Sunday night, just past midnight. But it's been a busy weekend and I know some of you would like me to finish typing out my notes on my phone call with Ward One special-election candidate Megan Munson-Warnken, so... more bullets and blurbs for y'all..

*Ok... She met her husband in Portland and moved here with him about three years ago when he got a job at Community Health Center. She's had a bunch of teaching experience including working at an inner city school in New Haven Connecticut, where they were "rationing toilet paper." She said sometimes the media unfairly portray Barnes and Wheeler schools as if they had problems as dire as she saw there.

* She started planning Viva Espresso in late 2005. Besides the its mission of welcoming children, Megan said Viva also focuses on reducing global warming by purchasing from local farms and suppliers.

*When I asked why she decided to join up with the Progressives instead of, say, the Dems she responded that she had been a Democrat her whole life, but was "not excited with where they have gone on a national level." Although she thinks the Dems have done some good things on health care and has hope for Barak Obama, she said it was "exciting to live in a place with a viable third party." "The more voices in the system," she said "the more accountable everyone is."

Yikes. That was basically the rest of my notes for that phone call. Sorry I made you wait all weekend for such a short update. I'll have some material from other candidates up shortly. In the meantime, check out the forums that Jeremy Ryan has set up.