District 1 candidates talk financial priorities, student needs

EVERETT — Three candidates are vying for an open seat on the Northshore School Board as the district faces rapid growth and budget challenges.

Test proctor Carson Sanderson, Boeing Technical Fellow Arun Sharma and accountant Brian Travis are eyeing the vacancy.

School board member Jacqueline McGourty has represented District 1 since 2017.

Northshore School District straddles the border between Snohomish and King counties. About one-third of the geographic area lies in Snohomish County. District 1 covers the northern portion of Northshore, including parts of Bothell East and Clearview. Fernwood Elementary, Canyon Creek Elementary, Kokanee Elementary, Skyview Middle School and Innovation Lab High School are in the region’s boundary.

As of Friday, Arun Sharma had raised $15,075 for his campaign. Sanderson had raised $5,509. Travis had not raised any money for his campaign, according to state filings. Northshore school board members do not receive compensation.

The board of directors has three open seats this election cycle, and all three races will appear on the primary ballot.

The primary election is Aug. 5. The top two candidates will move on to the November general election.

Carson Sanderson

Sanderson’s journey to running for school board began when she was a young parent and her oldest child was in kindergarten. She’d volunteer in his classroom however she could, she said.

“It didn’t matter if it was sort of menial work,” she said. “It was stuff that freed up (the teacher’s) time and her brain space to be better present for the students in the classroom. That was a way I knew I could help. No job was too small.”

Since then, Sanderson, 47, has served on several PTAs and the parents council for the district’s highly capable program, which supports students who perform at advanced academic levels. Sanderson has four children. Her oldest graduated from North Creek High School, and her other children are still in the district.

“I love to know what was going on in the schools, and to help other parents not have to struggle the way I did, by sharing what I had learned,” she said. “This is the next natural step from where I’ve been helping to take on a larger role to help more families.”

One of the top issues facing the district right now, Sanderson said, is overcrowded schools, specifically in District 1. In 2024, the Snohomish County expanded the Southwest County Urban Growth area by about 378 acres within the Northshore School District boundary, according to the district’s 2025-31 capital facilities plan. While some areas in the district are overcrowded, others are underpopulated, and it’s difficult to bus students from one area to another, she said.

“I would love to come up with some creative ways, especially working with the Snohomish County Council and other parties, to plan for the expansion to make it easier for the schools to acquire land without getting into bidding wars with developers who can throw a lot of money at it because they’re going to sell a lot of houses.”

While Northshore faced an estimated budget shortfall of $6 million in October 2024, the school board passed a balanced 2025-26 budget Monday.

In the coming years, the board will continue to work to balance its budget and replenish its reserves, while making the changes “invisible to students,” Sanderson said. She stressed the importance of keeping extracurricular activities, including music, arts and sports, along with mental health support. She would look to bring in community partners to help fund essential programs and keep lobbying at the state level.

“It’s heartbreaking that with all of the lobbying work that went on by current board members and parents and staff that it still is that way, but we need to work within the system and the boundaries that we have for now,” she said.

Sanderson is endorsed by 15 elected officials, including McGourty, State Sen. Derek Stanford, State Rep. Davina Duerr, Bothell Mayor Mason Thompson and Bothell City Council member Jenne Alderks. She also has endorsements from the Northshore Education Association, Northshore Office Professionals and the Washington Education Association political action committee, among other organizations.

Arun Sharma

Sharma, 61, has worked at Boeing for more than 33 years and currently works as a technical fellow. He’s also taught at the University of Washington School of Business in Bothell and founded multiple nonprofits, including UTSAV, a South Asian community service organization.

“A combination of my private corporate experience, my public education experience, my leadership in the corporate world and in the nonprofit world, and my lived experiences will help me shape school board decision making,” he said.

Sharma has two children who graduated from Northshore School District. He said it’s important to support all types of learning, including special education; highly capable programs; technical education; and science, technology, engineering and math education.

“My number one priority is that we need to develop a child as a whole child, a child who is not only able to navigate life readiness, college readiness and career readiness, but also be happy along the way and be able to smile and be productive,” he said.

When tackling the budget, Sharma said developing that “whole child” is a priority, and every dollar should go toward that purpose.

“Every dollar spent has to add value in certain ways,” Sharma said. “It has to be accountable and measurable, and you need to parse out the voices, the emotions that come in the way and make data-based decisions.”

About half of Northshore students are students of color, according to data from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Sharma supports inclusive and culturally responsible teaching, and making sure district policies accommodate students of all cultural backgrounds and religions.

Sharma works with state legislators for his nonprofits and said he would advocate on the state level for equitable funding and fair pay for educators.

“If our frontline professionals are not happy, if they’re not able to happily live in the community where they’re teaching the kids, then however good our programming is, the execution of the programming will fail,” he said.

Sharma is endorsed by 29 elected officials, including State Sens. Derek Stanford and John Lovick, State Reps. Shelley Kloba and April Berg, and all five Snohomish County Council members, among others. He also has endorsements from the 1st Legislative District Democrats and the International Fire Fighters Foundation, along with a number of community leaders.

Brian Travis

Travis, 50, works as an accountant and was born in Florida. He does not have children and was homeschooled until college. He attended Edmonds Community College and Central Washington University.

One of Travis’ priorities is offering students practical education, such as financial literacy.

“The district should simply be a neutral place of education where everybody comes to learn the necessary skills,” he said. “I think the necessary skills are how to not commit crime, earn more than you spend, obey the law of life and be a good contribution citizen.”

Travis would address concerns about large class sizes and would work to provide a “better environment” for students, he said. The district should take a neutral stance on “adult issues,” he said, including LGBTQ+ education and diversity, equity and inclusion. He said he’d like to see funding for DEI and social justice programs reallocated toward “special needs access” and infrastructure improvements.

“In referring to things such as adult sexuality, adult sexual preferences, all of these so-called social justice issues, you’re putting big weights upon small shoulders,” he said. “For children who are in middle school or high school, that time period should be reserved for developing brain tools. … When it comes to hoisting upon them the adult issues, the best thing that the school district could do is to take a neutrality position.”

He does not support raising property taxes to help balance the budget, he said. The district has historically relied on levies and bonds to fund capital projects, technology, and educational programs and operations.

“I would like to see that, hopefully, the school district can work itself out without providing any tax increases,” he said, “because truly people are chafing under the burden of the myriad of taxes and inflation.”

Travis also ran for the position in 2017 against McGourty. In 2012 and 2016, he ran as a Republican for a seat in the Washington House of Representatives.

Travis does not have a campaign website and does not appear to have any endorsements.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Brian Travis was born in Washington. He was born in Florida.

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.