MLSD candidates swap perspectives at forum

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake voters had the opportunity to hear from 14 candidates for local offices Oct. 24.

The forum, hosted by the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, The Columbia Basin Herald and KWIQ, allowed hopefuls for the Moses Lake City Council, the Moses Lake School Board and Grant County Hospital District No. 1 to speak a little bit about themselves and their visions for the positions they sought, and to answer pre-selected questions relating to those offices. The moderator was Alan Heroux, an ambassador with the Chamber, and the timekeeper was Karisti Cox of Summer Wood. Each candidate was asked two questions which were alternated, so each candidate had a chance to answer one of the questions first and one second.

The six school board candidates went first. For Position 1, which represents the portions of the district north of SR 17 and west of Stratford Road, including the Larson area, Amy Breitenstein is challenging incumbent Shannon Hintz. For position 3, representing the rural area east of Stratford Road and north of I-90, as well as most of the city neighborhoods east of Pioneer Way, Carla Mayberry Urias is challenging Susan Freeman. For Position 5, which includes all of the district south of I-90 as well as the Montlake neighborhood and the area around Moses Lake High School, Kirryn Jensen is challenging incumbent Alana DeGooyer.

The first question went to Jensen.

“What can you and the school district do to mitigate the negative impact on students that the pandemic had?” Heroux asked.

“I feel like this would be an opportunity to reach out to the community, the parents, teachers and staff and even students and find out how we can best help them and thus serve them to improve their quality of student life,” Jensen replied.

“Just like every school in the country, and every school around the world, we know that we have had negative effects from the pandemic,” DeGooyer said when presented with the same question. “As far as learning goes. I think one of the best things that we have implemented and are continuing to see growing is our professional learning teams. The teachers, their dedication to catch these students up, it's very wonderful to see that and it's part of their job; it's part of what they commit to do every day when they come to teach. I think another component that we don't talk about as much but it should be talked about is parental involvement. A lot of the issues that have been brought up tonight, stemmed back to parental involvement, how much do parents want to see their child succeed? What are the obstacles, whether it's a learning disorder, or a family tragedy, or a pandemic? You have to think about all the components. It's not strictly up to the school district to teach children. A lot of this starts in the home. And a lot of this comes from the parents and their desire to help their child. So the teams that we have in place and the programs that we have in place right now, that will continue to grow and hopefully help these kids over the next year or two catch up to where they need to be, and hopefully they will have help from their families.”

The second question went first to DeGooyer.

“It is the public perception that Vanguard Academy is not meeting the needs of students,” Heroux said. “Do you agree or disagree? Please explain.”

“With any new business, organization (or) group, there's always going to be little hiccups and kinks to work out. And we have noticed and have worked through some of those challenges that we had. We hired an amazing new principal to sort of come in and see what the needs are and help with the issues that were going on. I think sometimes people have extremely high expectations for anything that's new and exciting, and they don't realize that it's still a normal procedure to have kinks and to have issues that need to be worked out. And so I just hope that parents can rest at ease knowing that those things are being worked through. We have amazing staff, amazing leadership, now that are really trying to make Vanguard what the vision was to begin with. So hopefully that will continue.”

“I personally have heard a few different comments from parents that are negative,” Jensen said. “But I also have had very positive feedback from some. So I think there's a positive way to look at it at this point. And that would be that anything new takes some time to get used to. I think that it's definitely a very specific school with very specifically designed programs to meet the needs of a different type of environment and if that is a good thing for some students, then I feel like that's a positive thing. I feel like it has benefited some students. And so my personal opinion, I don't exactly have one yet because I have not been inside that school, although I will be going to that school.”

Mayberry Urias and Freeman were asked about their plans to improve plummeting math and language arts scores.

“I'd like to sit down with principals and staff and go for a plan on what we can do to help get these numbers up,” Mayberry Urias said. “I have been touring schools and meeting with principals and I see the need that the principals and staff are bringing to the table, and I'm hoping that we can work, once we're elected, with them.”

“Just about the time COVID hit we had just adopted a new math curriculum,” Freeman said.  “And it is really an amazing curriculum. It has the capacity for the teachers to develop an individualized plan for the kids that are slipping. And it doesn't just assess math; it also has a section because, remember the story problems? It assesses the literature part of their struggles, as well, and successes. And so it really is a great tool for the teachers to utilize to individually help the student do what they need to do. The fact that we sort of lost a year, we didn't totally because I don't know if people realize we were the only school district in the state that was ready to roll out online learning. We had a Chromebook for every student within a week, and we said, 'We're ready to teach.’ And we got this mandate back from the state, 'Wait, you can't do that, because nobody else is prepared to do that.' So yeah. With these tools in place, and as the staff teams that meet on Mondays to develop a plan to work together to help the students overcome the gap— we'll call it the COVID gap — I think we'll see those scores skyrocket.”

“What do you believe is your role in the educational process?” Heroux asked Mayberry Urias and Freeman.

“It's really pretty simple, because the RCWs (Revised Code of Washington) outline what our roles are,” Freeman said. “We do budget, buildings, curriculum, policy, and we oversee the superintendent. So within those parameters, there are multiple guidelines that we're required to follow. For instance, 85% of the budget is salary, and that's pretty much driven by the state; we don't have a whole lot to say about that. So with the 15% of our budget that's left, then, you know, that's where we get nurses, secretaries, security officers, sports, drama, art, all the things that make school fun and safe and a good place to be comes out of that 15%. So we like to do what we can with that. Policy is very much driven by the RCWs. Usually, the only times we make changes is when the RCWs change. And we don't have a whole lot of leeway for that. We've hired a wonderful superintendent, and he’s a joy to oversee, and I'm just really pleased to see that the team is working really well together right now. (It) hasn't been for a while. And that's a good thing. But our role is limited to overseeing him. We don't talk to other staff members. So we stay in our lane, but we have a very definite lane that we have to follow.”

“Our role is to make sure that all students have what they need, safety- (and) educational-wise, to make sure that they're secure, and that we work with all principals and staff to do our part on the board to encourage a positive learning for our kids,” Mayberry Urias said.

“What is your personal vision for Moses Lake to stand out in recruiting quality educators for our district,” Heroux asked Hintz and Breitenstein.

“We've already started doing that,” Hintz said. “We hired an amazing superintendent that had a great reputation throughout the state. And he has been able to bring in extreme quality administration, people that have invested in our community, who have bought houses here, who live here, who are in other kinds of organizations, Rotary and Chamber, in the community to understand what our community is about. When you have great leadership, that brings in great staff. They want to be part of that momentum, that great leadership, and that's what we have going on.”

“I think a large sell, because you have to be a salesman, you have to show why somebody is wanting to make such a life choice, especially if they're coming into our community specifically to do that job,” Breitenstein said. “You have to have facilities; you have to have the supplies, the things that they need to be successful. In one of our visits — when I say ‘our’ there's not a mouse in my pocket; I've been visiting several schools over the last few weeks with Kirryn Jensen with Carla Urias — and in one of our school visits with staff, we got teachers that are teaching off of carts. They're having to move a portable cart around to whatever classroom was available during that time so they can teach the class. That's going to be a hard sell to people that have to make a choice as to where they're going to set their roots and build their family. So we really need to work hard on trying to provide a better facility, a greater facility, a new facility, whatever that looks like; over time, I understand. But there's a lot that we can do now to try to encourage those great candidates to come and be a part of our already amazing staff, amazing teachers, amazing principals and the like. We start with giving them a good place that they can be comfortable and proud.”

The last school board question went first to Breitenstein, then to Hintz.

“To be able to pass a bond or levy in the future, the Moses Lake School District needs to earn back the trust of voters,” Heroux said. “How will you accomplish this?”

“I think the only way that you can (show) the need and the reason to our community members, to our taxpayers, who are also partners in this is giving them a voice, bringing transparency to the decisions that are being made with their money,” Breitenstein said. “And the only way that we're going to be able to build that trust back, after the few conversations that I've had, regarding bonds that have been passed and how the monies have been utilized, is to show progress. A lot of the progress we're going to have to try to show, and try to find, is going to be in the successes that we're going to be able to provide and show with what we have. So what we have moving forward needs to be successful; it needs to show successes so that we can get that trust and that support back from our community, so when it is time to reach into our pockets, there won't be a lot of questions as to ‘Why? What for? What are we going to do with it?’”

“I think first it starts with the school board,” Hintz said. “The school board has to be transparent about what is going on. We have to know, with the community, exactly what we're going to do. We are in the process of starting planning work right now. We want to get together a community forum to have people come together to look at our schools and see what needs to happen. I think most people know that we have a lot of aging elementary schools that need to be fixed. We have California-style entries with wings that are not energy-efficient. They're not safe for students. So we have to do something that will upgrade these facilities for kids. We'll be transparent. And I as a school board member have made this comment to many people, that I know the trust has been taken away. I was not on board at the time when all of that happened. But I am willing to make a commitment to the community, even if I have to sign a commitment, that what we put in front of you and what you vote for, we will stick to. I'm willing to do that.”

In her closing remarks, Freeman spoke a little about the school district and its facilities. The first Moses Lake High School was built in 1947 with public trust money rather than a bond, she said.

“Then just half a dozen years later, that airbase had come in and the dam was being built up north and they passed (The Impact Aid law) back in Congress … and they dropped 10 schools on us in a matter of three years. Those schools are now 60 years old, and they are sorely outdated. They were built like barracks, where every door opens to the outside. There's no efficiency for heating and cooling. There's no safety and security in those buildings. And I think our community is probably unique, a community this size with that many schools of the same age.”

“I just want to make sure, in closing, to point out a few things,” Breitenstein said. “The answer is, it sounds like a lot of excuses. (It) sounds like there's reason why and there's reasons why not and administration is amazing. Good administration is amazing, yes. But what makes a great school district is the amazing people on the ground, your boots on the ground: your teachers, your staff, your students, and being a presence in those schools and having those conversations with those wonderful people, it's a thankless job on any given day … What I'm hoping for and what I hope to see … is a fresher perspective, maybe better answers and work done, successes made, starting with the things that we have currently in place.”