Candidates vie for school board seat

MOSES LAKE — While this August’s primary ballot looks fairly tame, an interesting three-way race is under way for the Moses Lake School Board post currently held by board member and president Kevin Donovan.

Vying for Donovan’s seat are 63-year-old former Moses Lake planning commissioner and city council member James Liebrecht and 34-year-old specialty seed grower and farm consultant Elliott Goodrich.

“I was born and raised here in Moses Lake, fifth generation, farming here since a long time ago,” Goodrich said.

A married father of two daughter currently in the Moses Lake schools, Goodrich has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Washington. He explained he was prompted to run for the school board after the most recent school construction bond, a $135 million measure for a new high school and elementary school that passed by a mere two votes and is currently being challenged in the state appeals court.

“I think there’s a renewed interest in what goes on in the school district, and it was heavily affected by the new tax,” Goodrich said.

While Goodrich acknowledges the need for more space, more teachers, and more buildings, he’s not convinced the district is currently spending its money wisely or well.

“There are better ways to utilize our resources and get more bang for the buck,” he said. “It’s important to get the most cost-effective education for our kids that we can.”

Liebrecht, who owns Animal Crackers, Clipper, Kennel & Co. with his wife Karen, (who is also the deputy mayor of Moses Lake), said he was also prompted to run for the school board following last February’s contested school bond.

“I’m running for the school board because I have the time, the experience, and I have some concerns about how we are approaching this bond,” Liebrecht said.

Liebrecht is most concerned about making sure the district’s $100 million budget is well managed. Toward that end, he would push the district to hire a project management firm “without any vested interest in the project” to control costs and keep the new school under budget.

“We do a good job of asking for what we want, but I can’t give you everything you want,” Liebrecht said. “But I can give you what you need.”

Liebrecht said his biggest concern about the proposed second high school for Moses Lake is the site at West Valley and Paxson. It’s too uneven, and potentially too polluted, he said, that cleaning up and grading the site will prove too costly.

“It all comes down to our children,” he said. “If we don’t budget right, we’ll lose everything.”

Donovan, a 49-year-old married father of five kids aged 7 to 17 who are all in the Moses Lake schools, said he wants to continue in his position on the board because there’s a lot of unfinished business he believes he has the experience to help guide to completion.

“There’s entirely too much going to not have some solid experience, profound experience to tackle those issues,” he said.

Originally from Tennessee, Donovan said he’s called Moses Lake home since 2000, and became involved with schools over a decade ago when he got involved with the district’s long term planning committee and helped pass the 2007 school construction bond that built Sage Point and Park Orchard elementary schools as well as the district’s transportation building and refurbished Lions Field.

“I decided a child’s education was only as good as a parent or guardian’s involvement,” Donovan said. “I wasn’t going to sit by and not be involved.”

Donovan, who has served as a board member for eight years, has a finance degree from the University of Tennessee, has nearly 30 years experience in retail and financial management.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.