School board candidates speak at League forum

The candidates in La Conner's only contested 2023 election shared their views and personal backgrounds at a Skagit County League of Women Voters forum in Mount Vernon Monday night.

John Agen, elected director in District 1 in 2019, is the La Conner school board's legislative liaison. Janie Beasley served a decade on the five-member governing body until 2019. Each shared prepared statements and answered a set of questions.

Candidates for seats on the Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon school boards preceded them in the 90-minute program at the Skagit PUD Building.

Agen and Beasley are running for District 2 director. District 2 includes the Swinomish Reservation and most of the eastern Fidalgo Island peninsula north of Shelter Bay and west of Reservation Road.

Loran James, appointed to the seat when Amanda Bourgeois resigned, did not file for election.

Agen, a longtime La Conner Community Scholarship Board member, moved into this district mid-term.

Both are La Conner High School alumni and stressed their strong ties to the school district and experience in leadership and managerial positions.

Beasley grew up in a family of 10 brothers and sisters – one of her siblings is Swinomish Tribal Senate Chairman Steve Edwards – and she has 78 family members who have attended La Conner Schools, she said. She mentioned her membership in multiple service, business and educational organizations as having provided a teamwork ethic that she carried over to her school board tenure.

"Servant leadership is the biggest thing for me," she said.

"We all have a role to play," Beasley added. "The important thing is to ask questions and get information and make sound decisions."

Agen, a descendant of the pioneer Tillinghast family, studied at Whitman College and the University of Washington following his 1974 graduation. As a senior he quarterbacked a Braves football team that won nine regular season games without a loss and advanced to the first round of the state playoffs.

He noted how his subsequent 30-year career in sales management and work as a youth and high school athletics coach helped prepare him for school board service, where financial moxie, relationship-building and policymaking are integral components.

"When serving on the board, collaboration is a key," he said.

"I've always been a strong advocate for the underdog and underprivileged," Agen offered, lauding the district's efforts during his term to address individual student learning styles through its equity-based long-range strategic plan and Universal Design for Learning program.

Agen lamented that the state legislature "is not adequately funding public education," creating financial strains for La Conner and other school districts across the state.

Beasley, a U.S. Navy veteran, stressed that serving on the board requires members to coalesce around common goals.

"We need to work as a team and come together for the students," she said.

"We need to listen to and hear the staff," insisted Beasley, who taught the Lushootseed language, among initiatives serving to strengthen bonds between Swinomish and La Conner Schools.

She alluded to enduring positive impacts made by paraeducators hired by Swinomish to work on the La Conner campus.

Agen saluted the decades-old relationship between La Conner Schools and Swinomish, describing it as an historic and much-valued connection.

He pointed out that board members aren't empowered to act upon daily work conducted at school, but rather are tasked with managerial oversight and providing clear, concise communication with the public.

"I think our board has done that quite well in the past four years," Agen said. "We must be focused on what's the best direction to take for our students as well as the financial health of the district."

Beasley struck a similar tone.

"Communication is very important," she said. "When I taught the language class, the biggest goal was to enhance respect. It's a matter of respect and listening.

"Being part of the Leadership Skagit class," she recalled, "led to many connections. I gleaned so much valuable information that gave me the opportunity to help."

Ballots will be mailed to voters by Oct. 20. Election Day is Nov. 7.