Four candidates vie for two Everett school board seats

EVERETT — Two seats on the board of directors for Everett Public Schools are being contested. The stakes are high going into next year, when the district will likely try again to pass a capital levy and/or a bond, two years after a bond measure failed twice at the polls.

In Position 3, Mill Creek parent Kathleen Estabrook is challenging Caroline Mason, who was appointed to her seat in January 2014. For Position 4, board member Traci Mitchell, who was appointed in February 2014, is being challenged by Derek Ogle, a 2014 graduate of Cascade High School.

Both positions are at-large seats, and the directors serve six-year terms.

Caroline Mason said the district has made some good progress with test scores and graduation rates continuing to rise, but that more work needs to be done.

She said that the board needs to do more community outreach so more people can be involved in decision-making.

Another major issue is trying to ensure there is equity among all students as far as opportunity, something that will become an issue as technology becomes more integral to learning.

“We know that students need technology to succeed in the world today, and we want to make sure every student is afforded that opportunity,” Mason said.

She emphasized that the board is still discussing what will go before the voters next February. Even while uncertainty remains about what level of funding will be provided by the state, there is a general recognition of the need to relieve crowding in the south end of the district and replacing aging facilities in the north end, in addition to providing more technology to students, she said.

“They’re still working it out and we’re hoping for the best, but we’re also recognized that we still need to do what is best for the students,” she said.

Kathleen Estabrook said that as a parent in the district, she wants to see the district use taxpayer money wisely.

“I see the district doing that in some ways and not in other ways,” she said.

The possibility that the board might decide to put off a capital bond for two more years is not addressing critical needs in the district.

“I know that’s not a done deal that they’re going to put that off, but to even consider putting that off because they’re concerned that the levy money might be jeopardized is something the kids can’t risk,” Estabrook said.

Any funding measure needs to be transparent as to what the money will go toward, and not be “squishy” so that priorities could get shuffled after the fact.

“We as taxpayers want to know where our money is going,” she said.

Estabrook also favors making the board more accessible to the public, moving the regular board meetings from the current 4:30 p.m. start time to later in the evening so parents will be able to attend, and also limiting the terms of sitting board directors to four years like most of the other boards in the state.

Traci Mitchell said she thinks the district is making good progress in increasing student access to technology and raising graduation rates.

“I honestly do not have any complaints about what we’re doing right now,” she said.

However, the district’s need for more investment is apparent, she said, and her daughter currently attends crowded Gateway Middle School.

“We need to look at building new schools,” Mitchell said. “We also want to move toward getting the kids more technology so that kids are prepared for college and career.”

Mitchell has gone to Olympia to urge legislators to increase funding for free full-day kindergarten, which will finally be offered at every school in the district next year.

But the school board has not yet agreed to put a capital bond on next February’s ballot and there are still lingering issues with trust in the district.

“The reason we are somewhat hesitant to go for a bond is that we failed two of them,” she said. “We need to make sure the community is on board with them before putting them out.”

“It costs us in community trust if one of them fails again,” she said.

Derek Ogle is a 2014 graduate of Cascade High School who is studying electrical engineering at the University of Washington-Bothell.

He said he jumped into the race to make sure Mitchell’s race wouldn’t go uncontested, but stayed in because he wanted to change a few things, such as making board meetings start earlier, allowing more public comments at meetings, and limiting director terms to four years.

He also said that the district ought to focus more on maintenance rather than new spending.

“The current leadership seems to be interested in buying new stuff instead of fixing things, take for example the administration building, or the plan for new laptops for every student,” Ogle said.

“He said laptops for everyone would be underutilized, and the district should instead invest in more labs or mobile laptop carts.

When it comes to issuing a bond, critical needs, such as new schools, should be separate from what he sees as less important, such as laptops.

Ogle also said he’d like to bring in more hands-on classes, such as robotics and shop, which he said he’s found have been more useful to him after high school.

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.

Position 3

Caroline Mason

Residence: Everett

Age: 49

Experience: Appointed to board in January 2014. She’s been active in the PTA and sits on the Everett Salary Commission Is self-employed with a marketing communications business. Has two sons in the district, one at Everett High School, one at Evergreen Middle School.

Website: caroline4schools.com

Funds raised: $8,000.46 as of Oct. 13 (spent $6,736.64)

Kathleen Estabrook

Residence: Mill Creek

Age: 48

Experience: Has volunteered in classrooms, at Casino Road Kids Ministries, and at Hope Worldwide. Has a son at Henry M. Jackson High School. Works as an administrative assistant for Microsoft.

Website: citizens4kathleen.com

Funds raised: none reported

Position 4

Traci Mitchell

Residence: Snohomish

Age: 45

Experience: Appointed to board in February 2014. Active in PTA since 2007 as a parent volunteer and treasurer at Gateway Middle School. Has worked with the Everett Schools Foundation since 2009 and volunteers with the Everett Rotary in school AVID programs. Works as a pharmacy manager at Evergreen Health in Monroe. Has a daughter at Gateway Middle.

Website: tracim4schools.org

Funds raised: $4,650.00 (spent $2,643.72)

Derek Ogle

Residence: Everett

Age: 20

Experience: Graduate of Cascade High School, where he was head of the robotics engineering team. Attending UW-Bothell in the computer science program and working at Z-Sport Automotive as the information technology and marketing director.

Website: facebook.com/DOgleforschoolboard

Funds raised: none reported

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