Cynthia DeVictoria wants strong career tech program, preschools

MATTAWA — Cynthia DeVictoria does not see a need for changes in the Wahluke School District. All it needs, she said during a candidate interview, is a strengthening of programs.

“I would like to see a really strong CTE (career and technical education) that collaborates with the students to give them strong employability,” she said.

DeVictoria also wants special attention paid to the preschool program. She is certain that extra boost will help Wahluke students later in life.

“I’m glad we have four preschools in the district,” she said. “We’ve known several students who have gone to college and have had to use tutors for English and math and have started at a remedial level before taking college English.”

DeVictoria has school board experience. She was appointed by the Wahluke board around 2010. She served about two years and then lost the next election to Jay Scott. He left the district, and the position was filled with an appointment again.

“I’m familiar with the functions of a board and the responsibilities of a board member,” DeVictoria said.

DeVictoria would also like to see the board better connected to the students, staff and community.

“I’d actually like to see them in the schools once in a while,” she said.

And DeVictoria wants to see stronger accountability measures. The hundreds of thousands of lost funds reported during the start of teacher negotiations should not have happened, she said, and the public should have known about it when it happened.

“We need more parent engagement,” DeVictoria said. “The establishment of the PTO’s is good start toward that.”

DeVictoria was born in Moses Lake and raised in Warden, graduating from Warden High in 1981. She enjoyed the small, close-knit community. Her parents were eventually employed by the district.

After attending Big Bend for a year, DeVictoria moved on to Northwest University in Kirkland for an AA degree in 1986. During that time she met Arthur DeVictoria, a student from California who is now the soccer coach at Wahluke High School.

The DeVictorias married in 1986 and headed to California. Arthur attended Bethany College in Santa Cruz, acquiring his BA in 1990.

“I stopped going to college and was working on campus full time because that allowed Arthur to attend college without tuition,” DeVictoria said.

In 1992, DeVictoria enrolled at De Anza College in Los Altos to start early childhood development courses. Then she stopped again to move to Massachusetts, where Arthur was going to study theology so he could teach it.

Arthur studied one year and then had to give up that dream. Family needs came first. The Victorias went back to California, where she taught preschool and he worked at a software company.

“Then we were called and asked if we’d be interested ministering in Mattawa,” DeVictoria said.

DeVictoria was familiar with Mattawa, and yes, she and her husband were interested. They took on a home mission with the Assembly of God for three years. They did Young Life, too, and then Arthur started working for the schools.

“I didn’t have any kids at home. So I applied for a job as a parapro,” DeVictoria said.

DeVictoria worked in special education for seven years and then was an educational interpreter in sign language.

In 2006 she moved on to Big Bend as director of the early leaning program. It included parent training and English classes for adults.

In 2014, DeVictoria was employed by the Columbia Basin Health Association at its Othello and Mattawa clinics as a parent educator. She worked with pregnant teens and teen moms.

“I believe that, with all of my background, I am fully qualified to be a school board director,” DeVictoria said.