MONROE — Both candidates in the Monroe School Board’s lone contested race Nov. 6 have long-standing but different perspectives on the community’s public schools.
Carlos 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.
Debra 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. Over the years, she also has been a watchdog of district operations.
Martinez spent nine years visiting the schools as a drug prevention officer. In some cases, he would see a student by day and have to arrest one of their parents at night. That experience gave him a perspective other board members aren’t likely to get and reminds him of the need for schools to serve all students, he said.
“You start to realize the complexity that goes into a child’s perception of the world,” he said.
His time in the schools also made him realize that as a board member, he needs to understand each school individually.
“I realized that every school has its different culture and different personality,” he said.
Martinez said he supports the district’s efforts to be open with its finances.
The district worked hard to involve residents and staff in tough budget decisions that had to be made last year. A committee identified $750,000 in cuts and $400,000 in revenue that could be raised in areas such as fees for community use of school buildings and in student programs.
“We tried to make it as transparent and as participatory as possible,” he said.
Kolrud said she would push for fiscal responsibility and look for solutions to other issues, such as increasing the district’s on-time graduation rate and test scores.
She wants to see the district help immigrant students in the English language learners program become proficient in English quicker so they don’t fall behind in other academic areas.
She also wants the district to cut down on nonstudent waiver days that are used for teacher training and collaboration, but chip away at the traditional 180-day school year. She would look to find money to pay teachers for days worked beyond the traditional school year calendar, she said.
Kolrud also said she would keep a critical eye on a future school construction bond proposal to make sure everything taxpayers are asked to support is necessary and can be financially justified.
That would start with using district-owned land before buying new land.
“First, we should look at the property we own,” she said. “There is a lot of property we can utilize instead of buying property.”
The candidates are running in District 2, which represents the east end of the district.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
