Their decades of service
Published 11:17 pm Monday, November 19, 2007
DARRINGTON — Peter Selvig joined the Darrington School Board in 1977, angry that a lunch ticket was taken from his son, Mark, in kindergarten. His boy came home from school with a rumbling tummy. Upset and eager for change, Selvig ran for the school board.
Linda McPherson joined after volunteering in her children’s classrooms. Her daughter, Kate, was 9 years old at the time.
Kate is now a 31-year-old student teacher at Darrington Elementary School. Mark, 38, weaves fiberglass in LaConner. He has a 15-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son.
Combined, Peter Selvig and Linda McPherson have nearly 50 years of experience on the Darrington School Board. They’ve hired superintendents, drafted budgets and listened to parents complain.
Now they’re retiring.
In December, they’ll attend their final school board meeting as members, then step aside so two new members can step up. Both are younger and have children in school.
“It’s kind of like a change of guard,” said Myra Lewis, the district’s business manager for 19 years. She was a student at Darrington High School when Selvig starting serving on the school board.
With their departure, the district loses a wealth of historical knowledge, said Superintendant Larry Johnson.
“People should come and shake their hands and say, ‘Thank you for all your efforts with our kids,’” he said. “It’s a thankless job. Who’s going to do that?”
Selvig and McPherson brought different perspectives to the school board. Selvig, 65, has been a forest technician with the U.S. Forest Service for 43 years. He plans to retire in January. An avid hunter and fisher, he helps with Darrington High School’s wrestling program and is in the stands or on the sidelines at most Logger home football games.
McPherson, 62, is an oceanographer by trade who has spent most of her working life at the Darrington Library, where she is currently branch manager. She is an advocate for higher education who doesn’t always support spending tax dollars on sports.
“We see things differently,” she said. “We don’t always agree on the decisions we make, but we always support them.”
Like the other school board members, McPherson and Selvig have gotten late-night phone calls from teachers wanting to share their thoughts on school board decisions. They’ve been stopped in the grocery store by parents asking why a certain field trip wasn’t funded. And they’ve been called on by Johnson and previous administrators for their insights.
Though both have taken a few years off during their tenure on the school board, McPherson has served for nearly 19 years and Selvig for 30.
“He’s like a veteran coach,” Johnson said of Selvig. “He brings in so much knowledge.”
Selvig fondly remembers buying Darrington’s first computer and lobbying with McPherson for nearly 25 years for school improvements and the construction of the new Darrington Elementary School.
With 515 kids, the Darrington School District may not be the biggest or the wealthiest district in the region, Selvig said, but it has heart. The people who live in the mountain community have always been willing to reach into their pockets or give their free time, for the children.
“The community has been very supportive when they see the need,” he said. “It’s like one big family here.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
