On Tuesday, Nov. 7, two seats on each of the island’s three major taxing district boards — school, park and fire — will be up for election.

Candidates had until Friday, May 19, to declare their run for a position. The Beachcomber spoke to each candidate and has compiled the following guide to get to know those running to represent islanders.

Vashon Park District

Two commissioner seats on the Vashon Park District board will be up for election in the November general election: vice-chair Doug Ostrom’s position two and longtime commissioner Lu-Ann Branch’s position four.

Ostrom, who is serving his first four-year term on the board, will run for reelection against newcomer Nick Keenan.

Ostrom is a former economics professor and when reached last week, said he would like to continue the current board’s work of digging the district out of its financial hole — the Vashon Park District just this year has decided not to renew the tax anticipation notice (TAN) it has been relying on for many years. He said he would also like to focus on bringing back programming and “things islanders are actually interested in, not just putting out fires all the time.”

But he acknowledged the two issues are inherently linked.

“In an ideal world, you have enough money put away and you don’t have to borrow money. Borrowing has been our situation and we’ve been trying to get rid of that. We’ve borrowed for the VES Fields and Fern Cove and other things and

those are big. They limit the number of new things we can do.”

He said this limitation has been maddening and that the pace of change has been much slower than what he expected or hoped.

“I did agonize over this decision to run for re-election or not because I’m somewhat frustrated at the pace of change,” he said. “I didn’t expect to be doing finances for four years. I had hoped for new initiatives, and that’s proven hard. I wonder if it’s even possible.”

The board recently approved a plan to cover the Vashon Pool that was brought to the board by the Seals swim team in November. Ostrom was one of two commissioners who voted “no.” Reached Friday, he said the decision represents a major commitment and he had hoped for more conversation and research to back up the proposal.

“We got a proposal from advocates of it (the pool bubble). It wasn’t ever really a full-blown discussion. That made me a bit uneasy,” he said.

Ostrom’s opponent, Nick Keenan, expressed the same concerns as Ostrom about the speed of change and said he feels the park board is in “preservation mode” and not fully serving the island population.

“I think there’s opportunity on the board right now to focus on the equity piece of the parks mission. I’m a user of everything from Point Robinson, to soccer (fields), to pushing my son on the swing at Ober Park,” he said. “The use of parks facilities is diverse, and we should listen to each group and do what we can in a fiscally responsible matter.”

Keenan is vice-president of the island’s soccer club and works as a senior financial analyst for the City of Seattle. He also has three children under the age of 12 and said parents of young children are not represented on the current park board.

“I just think the board right now is not representative of the island and island priorities,” he said.

His goals are to ensure that access and services do not continue to decline due to finances and that the board be more transparent.

“Something I need to get a better handle on is the current board’s practice of cutting operating expenses to address capital needs,” he said. “I’m not running on the position to bring a bond to voters for the park district, but roof repairs, septic fixes and the building of bathrooms don’t seem to fit into a budget of roughly $1 million.”

Meanwhile, in the race for the district’s other seat, islander Abby Antonelis is running uncontested as Branch is not seeking reelection.

Antonelis said she was inspired to run for a local board after the presidential election and wants to contribute positively to the community. She has two young children, ages 6 and 2, and owns Limping Duck Farm. Like Keenan, she said she wants young families to be represented on the board.

“I have the time and the energy and the skill level to contribute positively to the community,” she said. “I looked at what was up for election, and I like the parks. I think they’re excellent, so I thought if I could help bring a new perspective of young families, that will be helpful.”

Besides being a farmer and mother, she holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and has a history of working in outdoor exploration camps.

“I just generally like being outdoors, but my background also includes creative ways to solve problems,” she said. “I’m a pretty good troubleshooter and feel that will be useful. Bringing pre-conceived ideas isn’t going to work. Learning about what the resources are and thinking about ways to go from there, that will be helpful.”

Vashon Island School District

The seats on the Vashon Island School District board up for election in November will be longtime board member Bob Hennessey’s Position Two and board chair Steve Ellison’s Position Four.

Islanders Rheagan Sparks and Jake Jacobovitch are running for Hennessey’s seat.

Sparks is a mother who has two children at McMurray Middle School and is herself a Vashon High School graduate. She was instrumental in the school district’s recent bond campaign and did much of the social media outreach. She said she is committed to seeing the bond-funded projects come to fruition.

“I’m committed to continuing to have the schools spend money on facilities,” she said. “I also want to see more transparency in the board, communicating with the public directly instead of through a superintendent or someone else.”

She also said she hopes to add another woman to the board to “balance out decision making,” but ultimately wants to keep up the quality of Vashon’s educational system.

“Education is very prominent and Vashon has a unique, special and high-quality system. I want to work on maintaining and sustaining,” she said.

Jacobovitch is running against Sparks. He ran most recently in 2015 against current board member Zabette Macomber, but lost, receiving 37.5 percent of the votes.

He currently works as a facilities maintenance manager for King County Metro and has a history on the island as he has served on various boards, including the school board, park board, now-defunct community council and many others during his more than 30 years of being an island resident.

Reached Monday, he said this experience and his ability “to get things done” is why he is running again. He spoke at length about his experience in obtaining grants and being an advocate for the district, as well as being accountable. He said he was behind many island projects, including advocating for the current ferry-loading configuration where cars wait on the east side of Vashon Highway at the north end, securing $35,000 for the Village Green acquisition and securing sports grants for Agren Park and the Jensen Point boathouse, as well as grants for the high school’s Mariner’s Field and many more.

He also said that he can bring more professional diversity to the board as someone who has experience in a variety of areas.

“Five identical strands of fabric running in the same direction afford you a weak fabric. You need diversity. I bring that piece,” he said. “I have experience with labor and facilities that most don’t bring to the table. I have connections with those both on- and off-island who can make things happen for our district, as well as four decades of service to our island children as a sports coach and mentor.”

Meanwhile, current board member Ellison is seeking reelection for his seat, but is being challenged by islander Spring Hecht.

Ellison is nearing the end of his second term on the school board. Reached Monday, he said being on the board has been “a surprising education” and he has enjoyed learning not just about the district, but about himself and his own points of view. He also said that in his seven and a half years as a board member, he feels he has helped contribute to the financial picture of the district by restructuring debt to keep property taxes from skyrocketing, as well as helping to update the mission statement to continue to measure student success. He wants those things to continue.

“We adopted it (the mission statement) four years ago and are now assessing how it’s working for us. Are we satisfied? What tweaks do we do to the initiatives to support it?” he said. “I’m interested to participate in those next steps.”

He also addressed the topic of racial equity, which has recently become a topic of discussion among the board and concerned community members who realize there is a nationwide gap in the success of white children and black and Hispanic children.

“I look at it (racial equity) through the lens of our mission statement,” he said. “I think there are specific things we can do for kids to equip them to thrive in the world that’s out there. We can’t change the world they will go into, but we can help them understand and equip them to not be discouraged.”

His opponent, Hecht, who works as a clinical social worker and therapist, also holds the school’s mission statement in high regard and said she is running to “ensure that each and every child in our school district is able to learn in a safe and supportive environment where their educational, social and emotional needs are met.”

Hecht has been leading the Parents and Friends for Racial Equity in the Vashon Schools, a group that seeks to get the school board to adopt a racial equity policy for the district. She said she has two young children who have attended Chautauqua and McMurray and have thrived. She wants that to continue for all students.

“I want to work together to create a district where our teachers have the resources and support they require, and all children have an equitable opportunity to succeed. I have worked for over 16 years on behalf of children and their families, and I am eager and ready to make a difference, and be of service to our schools and the families and students of Vashon,” she said.

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue

Over the last year, the island’s fire department has had a change of leadership and further changes are in store with the upcoming election.

Andy Johnson, a paramedic with South King County Medic One and a former firefighter and paramedic with VIFR, is running unopposed for Position One. Ron Turner is currently in that position; he has served two six-year terms and did not file to run again.

Johnson, who has worked in the fire service for 30 years, considers Vashon’s limited staffing a primary concern. He worked on the island from 2013 until the paramedic transition earlier this year and saw the limitations clearly.

“While I was working out here, it became clear how close to the edge we were operating. I do not think people understand that,” he said. “We have not had a bad outcome because of a lack of response by sheer luck.”

He started his career in the fire service at an all-volunteer department, and he said he believes there is a nostalgia for those fire departments, where neighbors helped neighbors. While that approach worked for decades, it does not work anymore. In part, that is because people are busier now, he said, and in part because there are more requirements, and the job itself is more complicated than it once was. The result is that fire districts like Vashon’s do not have an abundance of community volunteers, but instead have a succession of people trying to make their way into the field and volunteering as part of that.

“We are not keeping up with those changes,” he said. “We have not changed our budget situation in decades, and we have seen the loss of volunteers and way more use and abuse of our apparatus and facilities.”

He noted it has been more than 25 years since the fire district has asked to raise taxes, and its call volume has increased dramatically in that time, from hundreds of calls a year to 1,500 calls a year now.

“We are doing that with the same budget and fewer volunteers,” he said.

In the other commissioners’ seat, incumbent Candy McCullough is being challenged by Jan Milligan.

McCullough has served on the board of commissioners for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue since 2011. She is a Boeing fire inspector, has worked in the fire service since 1978 and has chaired the board three years out of the six she has served on it. She said she is running for a commissioner seat again to complete work that has been started.

“I want to see things to fruition, fix things that are broken and get the district to place where we are as good as we can be,” she said.

McCullough has a long history with VIFR, including serving as a volunteer there for 30 years. Her dream, she said, is to have a balanced combination department, with paid firefighters and a sufficient number of volunteers, especially those who live on the island.

“I do not know if that will come to fruition or not,” she said.

One of the strengths of people in the fire service is they adapt and overcome, she added, but that has its limits.

“We have been doing that for a long time, and now we are up against a wall,” she said.

The biggest challenges she believes the district is facing include limited staffing — both paid professionals and volunteers — as well as maintenance issues, specifically taking care of VIFR’s fire apparatus and facilities.

“We need to figure out the allocation of resources and the maintenance of those resources,” she said, speaking about the district overall.

McCullough’s opponent, Milligan, says she has considered running for a commissioner position for years and is doing so now because she believes she can help get the district out of its difficult financial situation, assist with making decisions on staffing and provide outreach to the community.

“Our district is in trouble,” she said. “I think I can add another layer of sound judgment to the decisions that need to be made.”

Milligan has over 30 years of leadership experience at nonprofit organizations, including Camp Sealth and the Vashon Park District, and says she has a solid understanding of finance, risk management, facility management and human resources. She also understands the fire service and emergency medical services well, she added, as her husband has been a paramedic and firefighter for more than 30 years.

Regarding VIFR, she said it is important that there be balance among public safety and the district’s finances, real estate, personnel and fleet. Now, she said, there are not enough paid firefighters or volunteers; there is not enough money and the district has a “huge” fleet.

“It is not in balance,” she said.

Moreover, she said, the commissioners have not had the community vote on raising taxes in more than 20 years.

“That is way too long to go to take the pulse of the community on what they want and what they will pay,” she said.

In addition to her professional work on Vashon, Milligan has served on Vashon’s Emergency Operations Center team and is the current head of the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program. She is also a member of Rotary.

This year’s general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Ballots will be mailed on Wednesday, Oct. 18.