Edmonds School Board member Gary Noble faces challengers Mark Norton and Mary Murphy on the Aug. 3 primary-election ballot.
The Edmonds School District includes Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas of southwest Snohomish County, unincorporated areas north of Edmonds and Lynnwood and northeast of Lynnwood and part of Brier.
Murphy, Noble and Norton are running for a four-year term representing director district 3 including parts of the city of Edmonds and most of the city of Lynnwood on both sides of Highway 99. It includes Edmonds-Woodway High School, College Place elementary and middle schools and Lynnwood Elementary School.
Candidates must live in the director districts they represent, but voters throughout the School District vote for each position.
Positions representing three of the other four director districts also are on the Nov. 3 general-election ballot but aren’t on the primary ballot because none has more than two candidates.
Here are issue statements from Noble, Norton and Murphy in the order they will appear on the August ballot:
Edmonds School District Director Position 3
Gary Noble: Student achievement is my constant focus, and the two biggest issues affecting student achievement are class sizes and teacher and staff training. Over the last couple years, the state has provided funding to reduce class size in grades K-3, but class sizes in other grades remain unacceptably high. For many years we have used local maintenance-and-operations levy money to hire extra teachers to reduce class size, and next year we are adding extra funds to strategically reduce the size of individual large classes.
Highly skilled teachers and staff are keys to improved student achievement. New state standards and an ever-changing standardized testing environment have required significant teacher professional development. Unfortunately, the state has eliminated almost all teacher training funding. We are therefore using significant amounts from our local maintenance-and-operations levy monies to fund teacher and staff training to meet new state-mandated requirements.
Mark L. Norton: I’m simultaneously surprised and delighted to find myself asking for your support in the upcoming election. As the father of two children enrolled in the district, I’ve seen what makes these schools wonderful: the staff, who truly love and care about our kids, the schools themselves, with their history that I can recall from my own childhood. I’m grateful for the foresight of prior school boards, who worked to position Edmonds School District on decent financial ground. I worry, though, about over-dependence on portable classrooms, shortsighted decisions on issues like potentially hazardous track surfaces, and graduation and achievement metrics that leave much room for improvement. As the state works to fund education properly, we need to ensure our school board is ready to act in order to guarantee the best investment of new and existing taxes for the benefit of our children and their eventual entry into a global economy.
Mary Murphy: I would like to congratulate the current Board for keeping a balanced budget these past years and their decisions to look to the future, in refurbishing and building our schools.
I believe the issues today are, for the future, we need to keep a vision of growth and inspiration for our young people. I would like to see our students more involved in community and city officials. When students understand community and community involvement they will make our future community a great place to live. As our community grows we need our new families to feel welcome.
Many details make up a successful school district from balanced budgets, graduation ratios, retaining excellent teachers and a healthy work environment; all of these are crucial for the success of our students, our school board. I look forward to being part of the team and having the opportunity to being a team player.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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