Candidates forum tonight is for ALL school district residents

Ken Stern | Oct 02, 20190

This corrects and updates the Sept. 25 editorial: “School board candidates.”

All people living in the La Conner school district are invited to attend tonight’s candidates forum featuring District 1 candidates John Agen and Kate Szurek and District 2 candidates Marlys Baker and Janie Beasley. All school district residents will be voting for the four director positions on the ballot. District 4 Director Lynette Cram and District 5 Director Susan Deyo are unopposed.

The Sept. 25 Weekly News editorial stating that tonight’s forum was for residents in District 1 and District 2 and that only those residents would cast ballots for those positions was incorrect. The Revised Code of Washington mandates all residents of the school district vote for candidates for all director positions on the ballot. Directors are assigned a geographic district but represent the entire school district and are elected by all residents in the district.

Last week’s editorial relied on experience gained in other states, which use the term “at large” for candidates chosen by all residents, contrasted with numbered districts, where the candidate’s constituency come from within the district boundaries.

Tonight residents have the opportunity to hear from and question the District 1 and District 2 candidates. Skagit League of Women Voters volunteers have structured the evening for voters to observe and interact with Agen, Szurek, Baker and Beasley for 90 minutes.

The candidates

Agen volunteers as vice president on the La Conner Community Scholarship Foundation board of directors. He was territory manager for the Thrifty Supply Company. He is a 1974 La Conner High School graduate and has a granddaughter in ninth grade there.

Szurek was appointed to the board in 2014, elected in 2015 and board chair in 2018. She is a lawyer specializing in estate and tax law at the Skagit Law Group. She has three grandchildren in La Conner schools.

Marlys Baker is a registered nurse at the Swinomish Indian Health Clinic, serving as community health representative. She has five sons; four are in La Conner schools and one has graduated.

Janie Beasley is chair of the school board. She was appointed in 2004 and has served since. She is an enrollment assistance with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Her two children graduated from La Conner schools. She graduated from there in 1970.

The forum is at 7 p.m. tonight at 17337 Reservation Road on the Swinomish Reservation, next to the Swinomish Youth Center/Recreation Gym.

See, call candidates to get answers From the editor —

Today’s front page headline urging ALL La Conner School District resident

Wrong: In Washington all voters in a school district vote for all directors. That is an at large voting system placed on top of geographical representation by distributing directors throughout the district.

I mistakenly assumed that directors located in a district were voted on by residents of that district. In Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota, in close to 50 years of electoral participation, that is how I have experienced the structure and language of districts and representatives. Candidates seeking votes from all residents are called at large directors. In those states I never experienced at large voting with a candidate confined to living in a portion of the district.

This Washington system provides everyone the opportunity to vote for someone who will come from on or near the Swinomish Reservation, Shelter Bay, La Conner and the surrounding farmlands. The directors represent the entire school district while each section has a director tied to a street address.

One conclusion from this: voting is not to be assumed as an easy exercise. A second lesson: high voter intelligence has to extend beyond learning about, assessing and deciding on candidates. A third lesson: there is no spoon-fed support for citizenship.

Like so much else in our culture, individuals have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and take the initiative to learn the rules and get the information they need to vote responsibly. Newspaper editors may be familiar with the RCW, the Revised Code of Washington, and thus search out a defining section. Newspaper editors go to the county elections office website to get summary information on candidates. But what do any of us do when candidates self-introduce and summarize themselves and some don’t provide any information at all? The information they do offer is partial and all positive.

Attending candidate forums is a start to the solution. Tonight’s is at 17337 Reservation Road on the Swinomish Reservation, next to the Swinomish Youth Center/Recreation Gym. Short notice, I know.

Below is the candidates’ contact information. Call them.

Between now and when you cast your vote by Nov. 5 call them, introduce yourself and grill them on issues important to you. It’s a good way to get educated on the two contested races in greater La Conner.

John T. Agen, (360) 503-4049, [email protected]

Kate Szurek, (360) 466-9149, [email protected]

Marlys Baker, (254) 383-0642, [email protected]

Janie Beasley, (360) 770-8075, [email protected]

– ken stern