Accountant leads race for Everett’s Position 2 seat

Published 11:24 pm Tuesday, November 6, 2007

An accountant who has served as treasurer for school levy and bond campaigns was leading in the race to replace longtime Everett School Board member Roy Yates in early general election returns Tuesday night.

Carol Andrews was well ahead of Susan Kaftanski for the chance to represent Position 2 on the school board. The winner will take over for Yates, who has served on the board for 19 years.

Andrews, a certified public accountant, was cautious about interpreting the early returns.

“I was really excited when I saw the initial results, but there are a lot of votes to be counted,” she said.

During the campaign, Andrews said it could be helpful to Mill Creek residents to have a board member from the growing south end of the district.

Kaftanski is a veterinarian with her own business, House Call Veterinary Services.

The Everett School District is one of a few districts in the state with six-year terms. The position pays $50 a meeting and for other district-related commitments up to $4,800 a year.

Here’s a look at other races:

Arlington

In Arlington, incumbent Jim Weiss was leading former school board member Glen Reid by a wide margin in early returns.

The race was a rematch from four years ago when Weiss, 41, a manufacturing engineer for the Boeing Co., beat Reid to win his current seat on the board.

“I feel good,” Weiss said. “I’m not surprised that the outcome was pretty close to what it was four years ago.”

Reid served a single term on the board between 1991 and 1995. He lost a re-election bid. In the past dozen years, he has sought every opportunity to get re-elected without success.

Reid, 79, was highly critical of the Arlington School District and the general state of education in the United States. He referred to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test as “a fraud and failure” and said the district’s math textbooks are “silly nonsense.”

Weiss sees a brighter picture and looks forward to his second term. “I don’t have one set priority, but academics, of course, is big,” Weiss said.

Edmonds

Both incumbents — Pat Shields and Gary Noble — were leading handily in early returns.

Noble appeared headed for a second term with a commanding lead over Joe Howeiler, a program officer in the Education Program at the University of Washington’s Bothell campus.

“I want to thank the voters who supported me,” Noble said. “You never know until the votes are in.”

Noble said he looks forward to watching school construction projects continue to move forward along with balanced budgets and greater student achievement.

In the other contested race, Shields was leading Alan Weiss, a retired Edmonds-Woodway High School principal.

Lake Stevens

John Boerger was leading Joe Heineck and Richard Blumhagen in a three-candidate general election.

The trio are vying for the seat vacated earlier this year by Gail Manahan, who stepped down when her husband, Rob, went to work for the school district.

“I’m encouraged, but we have to wait and see what the rest of the voters out there have to say,” Boerger said.

Boerger, who is married with two small children and a 15-year-old stepson, said he and his wife moved to the Lake Stevens area partly because of the reputation of the school district.

Monroe

Challenger Debra Kolrud, a longtime watchdog of the Monroe School District, appears to have won a seat on the board.

She was leading incumbent Carlos Martinez by a wide margin in early returns Tuesday night. “I am ready,” she said. ” I am definitely ready. I know I have a lot of homework to do to make sure I’m knowledgeable of all the issues.”

Kolrud, a retired businesswoman, is a 1975 Monroe High School graduate and has three children who graduated from Monroe schools. She was co-founder and an eight-year board member of The Bearcat Pride, Monroe High School’s parent group.

Martinez, a Monroe police sergeant, was appointed to the school board in 2006. He spent years visiting the district’s elementary and middle schools as a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer and has two children of his own in the schools.