Candidates face issues: Seven running for Moses Lake School Board talk about local control, communication at forum

MOSES LAKE — Improving the way the Moses Lake School District communicates with the community and how the district should respond to state mandates regarding gender and race were the primary topics discussed during a school board candidate forum on Monday.

Organized by the MLSD and held at the Moses Lake High School auditorium, the forum featured all seven candidates for the two board positions up for election this fall: in Director District 2, incumbent Vickey Melcher and challengers Paul Hill and Noah Zemke; and in Director District 4, Kevin Fuhr, James Liebrecht, Rachel Roylance Gallacci and Matt Paluch.

The two-hour forum was moderated by board member Elliott Goodrich, who currently represents Director District 4 and decided not to run for re-election.

Most of the candidates said they believed it would be necessary to resist any demands from the state to teach critical race theory (CRT), or anything derived from CRT, or comprehensive sex ed in the local schools.

“This is the topic of the day,” said Fuhr, who is also the Moses Lake police chief. “The district needs school board members that will fight, to fight anything that will come down.”

Calling CRT negative and divisive, Gallacci — a mother of three small children — said she was “100% open to legal action” if that’s what it took to protect the community and promote its values.

“If we need to take legal action, I’m 100% willing to look into that,” she said.

James Liebrecht, a business owner who has lived in Moses Lake for more than 60 years, said he was willing to go to jail to ensure CRT is not taught in the district.

“I have only one master, and it’s not the state,” he said. “If they want to come get me, come get me.”

Melcher, a retired teacher who is seeking re-election to the board position she has held since 2017, said the district’s current sex ed curriculum meets even the revised state standards and the MLSD is also free to define words like “inclusion” and “equity” in ways that work for the community, giving the local community control.

She also said there would be consequences if the MLSD decided to defy the state, since the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) can withhold funding from districts under certain circumstances.

“That would put the whole district at risk,” Melcher said.

“Everybody is against CRT, no one is pushing it, there’s no law, no mandate, and it’s not happening,” said Paluch, a father of three, a former fishing guide and lobbyist.

Paluch also noted the MLSD already paid enough in legal bills without fighting the state “out of fear” — a sentiment Zemke said he agreed with.

Fuhr said the MLSD should do a much better job of engaging district residents on social media, noting while the district’s Facebook page has 8,300 followers, the Moses Lake Police Department’s has 20,000. He even said the MLSD needs a full-time public information officer to push information out to the public.

“Social media is a full-time job,” agreed Gallacci.

However, Melcher said many people don’t trust social media, and attempts by the school board during her tenure to hold town halls across the district drew scant attendance.

“The most we ever had (to one event) was 20 people,” she said.