First and last, Dave and Lynette Cram take roles supporting La Conner Schools

David and Lynette Cram are united in both marriage and their shared love of La Conner Schools, where they first forged career plans and were taught the value of public service.

The Crams, both La Conner alumni, have since college taken on various leadership roles with their hometown school district, he twice on the administrative team and she as a coach, sports trainer and school board member.

David Cram began his second tour as the La Conner Schools finance chief in March, enlisted to stanch a bleeding budget pierced by successive years of declining student enrollment – the most critical factor driving state financial support– and the loss of federal COVID-19 emergency funds.

Due to 2023-24 budget cuts, Cram has had to add more duties to his workload here, including supervising transportation.

When he returned home after stints with the Lakewood, Anacortes and Marysville school systems, Lynette Cram vacated her long-held La Conner school board post to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

It wasn’t easy for her to step down from the five-member policy-making panel, for whom she served as liaison to the state legislature.

“Probably my biggest highlight on the board,” she reflected recently, “was watching students receive their diplomas on graduation day and knowing that in some small way I was a part of that process.”

Cram received her own La Conner diploma in 1990. Like her sister, La Conner Middle and High School Principal Christine Tripp, she was the definition of a student-athlete.

As a teen, she made her mark as a four-year student body officer, Key Club and Knowledge Bowl participant and volleyball, basketball and softball letter winner.

David Cram graduated in 1988 from the high school, where he played on basketball teams that placed third and fifth at the state tournament. He would parlay his baseball skills into the lineup at Skagit Valley College as a Cardinal outfielder.

After transferring from SVC to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, he pursued a degree in business.

“I started out thinking I would go into banking,” Cram told the Weekly News.

He ended up in school finance after having spoken with David Hedlin, then a La Conner school board member. Cram had worked for Hedlin while growing up. Cram said Hedlin encouraged him to apply for an opening in the district business office.

He got the job and stayed for 16 years.

“When I worked here before,” Cram remembered, “I had a great time. I worked with a lot of great people and many of them are still here.”

He later spent a decade divided between school finance jobs elsewhere and was glad to have the opportunity last spring to come full circle back to La Conner.

At that time, his wife had been on the board seven years and had supported the hiring of Dr. Will Nelson as the district’s new superintendent.

She yielded her board seat to make possible David Cram’s hiring.

“What I miss most about not being on the board,” she said, “is the camaraderie I shared with my fellow board members through the years. They’re all excellent individuals that I greatly respect.”

Like her husband, Cram took a somewhat circuitous path back to La Conner Schools. She did her undergraduate work at St. Martin’s University, near Olympia, playing on the school’s volleyball and women’s basketball teams while completing studies for a biology degree. From there, she enrolled in the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, securing a graduate degree in physical therapy.

Then it was on to the College of St. Scholastics in Duluth, Minnesota for a doctoral degree, again in physical therapy.

Her academic background led to ownership in the Balance Point Physical Therapy clinic on Morris Street and sports medicine and training stints at the high school and SVC. Serving on the local school board, when the opportunity presented itself, seemed a natural fit.

“I became a school board member to serve all students of the La Conner School District and to learn more about the challenges facing our public schools,” she said, “and hopefully be a part of some solutions moving forward.”

For now, it is David Cram seeking solutions, focusing on the district’s ailing budget. None have been easy. The personnel cutbacks have been painful.

“We’ve had to make a lot of adjustments,” he said, “and a lot of people are taking on a lot of duties. Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of people willing to step up and take on added responsibilities.”

Cram had to craft what he has termed a “bare-bones budget” to flip a deficit into a modest positive cash reserve balance by the end of the year – taking into account surplus earmarked state “mascot money” the district will likely have to return. He is optimistic the district can again realize a healthy cash reserve within two or three years.

“I really think we’re headed in the right direction,” Cram said.

Upon leaving the board, some hoped Lynette Cram would explore a new direction – one guiding her to Town Hall.

“She got some phone calls from people asking if she’d be interested in running for mayor,” David Cram said.

Ultimately, she opted to bypass that route, standing aside for her neighbor, Marna Hanneman, to succeed retiring four-term mayor Ramon Hayes. Even so, Cram’s days are full enough.

“Right now, a couple other sports medicine professionals and I cover all the sports medicine and games at Skagit Valley College,” she said. “So, I’m very involved in the training room and on game days there.

“I don’t think I will ever stop coaching, whether it’s high school, middle school or club sports,” she added. “I love to teach and watch young people learn and grow physically, mentally and emotionally through their participation in sports.”

Meanwhile, being active participants in their community continues to motivate them both.

“The hours are pretty intense right now,” David Cram said shortly after the new school year began. “It’s been hectic. But I’m glad to be here. We have a good group of people that want to do what’s best for the district and our students.”