Seats on Vashon’s three major taxing district boards — school, park and fire — are up for election, and candidates running to fill those seats will answer questions from the public during two forums this month.
Ballots for the Nov. 7 general election will be sent out Oct. 18, and voters will be asked to choose candidates for two seats on each board, as well as decide whether to raise the Vashon fire department’s levy. Ahead of the ballots, candidates running for seats on the island’s park and school boards will answer questions from the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4. A forum for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue board candidates and for questions about the levy will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11. Both forums will take place at the Land Trust building on Bank Road, east of the fire station. The public is urged to attend.
At the school district, the seats up for election in November will be longtime board member Bob Hennessey’s Position Two — he has served 12 years on the board — and board chair Steve Ellison’s Position Four. Islanders Rheagan Sparks and Jake Jacobovitch are running for Hennessey’s seat. Ellison is seeking reelection for his seat, but is being challenged by islander Spring Hecht.
At the Vashon Park District, vice-chair Doug Ostrom’s Position Two and longtime commissioner Lu-Ann Branch’s Position Four are up for election. Ostrom, who is serving his first four-year term on the board, is running for reelection against newcomer Nick Keenan. Meanwhile, in the race for the district’s other seat, island mother and farmer Abby Antonelis is running uncontested as Branch is not seeking reelection.
Vashon Island Fire & Rescue also has two seats up for election: Ron Turner’s Position One and Candy McCullough’s Position Four. Andy Johnson, a paramedic with South King County Medic One and a former firefighter and paramedic with VIFR, is running unopposed for Position One. At Position 4, incumbent McCullough is running against islander Jan Milligan. Islanders both for and against the levy will also make statements and take questions about the measure.
See below for statements from each park and school board candidate. Statements from candidates running for the Vashon Island Fire & Rescue board will run next week.
Vashon Island School District-Position Two
Rheagan Sparks
I believe that Vashon public schools offer an educational experience that is comparable to many private schools. My intention in joining the school board is to help sustain the incredible program we already have for future generations, while continually seeking ways to improve the educational outcome for all children enrolled.
Public education on Vashon should recognize and embrace the variety of backgrounds, ability levels and personal aspirations students represent. Every graduate from our district must have a strong primary school education as a foundation whether they choose to go on to college or a career in industry, trade or self-employment.
My husband and I are the parents of two students enrolled at McMurray Middle School. My family has lived on Vashon for 38 years, and I am a Vashon High School graduate. I’m also the daughter of a public school teacher and have several family members currently working as teachers or administrators in mainland public schools.
I am a candidate with a proven track record of getting things done that help students, teachers and staff. Using my communication and business skills, I managed the social media campaign to pass the recent school bond and I have been a member of the Vashon Schools Foundation board for the past three years. In the process, I have developed good working relationships with members of the current school board. I have volunteered to help fund VISD initiatives I personally believe in such as racial equity, mental health promotion, bullying and suicide prevention, STEM programs and providing new textbooks, lab materials and learning aides.
I believe serving special-education needs is a crucial part of the mission of public schools. I am also interested in restorative justice as a productive disciplinary model.
A quality public education is not just about academics, however. Exposure to music, arts, drama and athletics are equally important in nurturing well-rounded individuals. I will strongly support the Vashon tradition of celebrating and maintaining these programs in island public schools.
I truly believe it takes our “Vashon Village” to support a thriving school district. Engaged education is all about the collaboration among community, schools, parents and students to achieve and sustain excellence in education. Together, the community and VISD have produced a highly acclaimed educational experience. I hope to be a steward of this legacy into the future, while exercising oversight, proactively seeking improvements and wisely utilizing resources.
I am passionate about public education as a great social equalizer. I believe in the promise of young people’s hearts and minds. I would be honored to have your vote to become a Vashon School District director in Position Two. Visit Rheagan Sparks Candidate for VISD School Board Position #2 on Facebook for more information about me and my campaign.
Jake Jacobovitch
I will work hard to build upon the current successes of our school district to ensure it is a place where each child receives an education that prepares them to achieve their hopes and dreams; our educators are provided the resources required for them to excel in their profession; and our school system is accessible, transparent, responsive and accountable to you, island taxpayers.
A 41-year island resident whose children attended Vashon schools, I now have three grandchildren at Chautauqua Elementary School. In the past, I have served you with integrity, honesty and openness on various boards in service to our community, including the school board, park district board, our community council, Vashon Island Jr. Basketball, Vashon Youth Baseball, King County EEO/AA Committee and others. I have coached and mentored our island youth for more than 30 years. Providing our children with what they need to grow to their fullest potential is of the utmost importance to me.
When serving on the school board in the past, I proposed and had changes approved to district policies regarding educational curriculum, hiring, public participation and financial systems and reporting. I applied for and was awarded two state grants totaling more than $600,000 that paid for fire alarm repairs at VHS and for sidewalks and lighting at Chautauqua and McMurray. As PTSA auction chair, I helped raise $117,000. I have volunteered as a school bus driver for 11 years for our school basketball and football teams and class field trips.
Some of my priorities are:
Financial Stability – Identify a long-range plan to bring all our facilities up to current safety and ADA standards.
Student Learning and Assessing Achievement – Incorporate more student-friendly methods to assess student learning and achievement.
Diversity & Inclusion – Increase education, awareness and tolerance.
Vocational Education – College is not the answer for all our students. We need to create a relevant vocational program containing courses of study in computers, information technology, GIS mapping skills, electronics, diesel mechanics, plumbing or carpentry. I see many of our students waste a decade of their post-graduation life until they find one of these professions.
Public Involvement – I would like to see more public involvement in board decisions. I would also like to find ways to engage more parents to get involved in their student’s education.
On my office wall I have a plaque that reads: “100 years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child.”
I am endorsed by Sen. Sharon Nelson and the Martin Luther King County Labor Council.
Vashon Island School District-Position Four
Steve Ellison
We are fortunate to live in a safe, affluent, supportive community. Our schools are staffed with dedicated, effective professionals and are very successful by many measures. However, as a former superintendent said, “We are good, but we can do better.”
I initially ran for the school board with a belief that all students have “unique interests, aptitudes and dreams,” and the school system should be structured to easily accommodate this variety. Through service on the board, I have come to understand how every student has unique hardships also, and these can be the most difficult to accommodate because they are diverse: learning, social, emotional and financial. Often, these are the most essential to address because they chronically impede learning.
Our initiatives on healthy and compassionate living and a multi-tier system of supports are working on these. While we do this, we must maintain and enhance rigorous, engaging, diverse offerings for all students. Balancing this and achieving results requires clearly defining objectives and “what success looks like” and implementing measurement methods to determine progress. In academic areas, we have good criteria and measures of success. For initiatives and non-academic life skills, we have focused on “programs implemented,” but we have work to do on the difficult tasks of defining and measuring success.
Equipping every student to thrive is challenging. We are known as an excellent public college-prep district. However, we need to embrace and prepare the non-college bound students well also. Robust, diverse, logistically easy career and technical (CTE) offerings are essential to support these students.
Prior to my election to the board, I regularly attended board meetings for two years. Over those 10 years, we have seen dramatic change: Bush’s “No Child Left Behind,” Obama’s “Every Student Succeeds,” “Common Core” and “Core 24 Graduation Requirement,” a change at VHS from trimesters to semesters, new faces as seasoned teachers retire, increased awareness of equity and micro-aggression and more. In addition to their daytime jobs of educating kids, education professionals have been asked to change a lot. Before something is understood and curriculum developed, it changes. Now is a time to slow down and refine current programs.
On the board, I try to contribute a pragmatic, open-minded, fiscally responsible, conservative perspective. This is often a minority view, but fills an important role as a voice for a quiet, but substantial demographic on the island. The result is well-functioning, balanced leadership for our schools. Accomplishments during my service include stable finances, two successful bond efforts enabling updated facilities and, most importantly our updated, community-supported mission.
Please support me with your vote to continue this work.
Spring Hecht
We need school board directors who are committed to our district’s mission, vision and values, and who will listen to student voices and parent and school staff concerns, and make sound decisions. As a parent of two children, one at Chautauqua Elementary and another at McMurray Middle School, I’ve observed our school district’s many strengths, as well as some of the challenges. In addition to experience serving on a non-profit board, I have dedicated over 16 years of my career helping to transform the lives of children and their families as an administrator and manager at child welfare organizations, and in my current role as a child and family therapist. For the past two years, I have greatly enjoyed serving as the community lead and collaborating with the Vashon Island School District’s leadership team on equity and education issues, and while we’ve made progress, there is work yet to be done.
As a district, we have overcome some difficulties over these past couple of years, but major projects are now underway, and while there are still some unknowns, our budget is currently balanced, and our district is stable. We are ready to focus on how to best utilize limited funding to enhance the learning environment for our kids and ensure that every child can thrive, and have their educational, social and emotional needs met.
I’m committed to embracing new ideas and supporting policies that close the opportunity gap, maintain enrollment, improve curriculum and serve students with diverse learning needs. I’m eager to get to work and be part of making our excellent schools even better, and helping students develop into compassionate, critical thinkers with a growth mindset.
Vashon Park District-Position Two
Doug Ostrom
I am running for reelection after having been first elected four years ago as an insurgent candidate in my first run for public office.
At that time, the Vashon Park District found itself in a serious situation and that prompted my run. Concerned voters had asked the state to conduct a special audit of the district — a procedure that it almost always refuses for lack of resources. This time, the state accepted the challenge. In one of my first acts four years ago, I was present as the auditors explained that the district finances were in serious disarray, with unstated but serious consequences a real threat.
I and the other four commissioners have had to make difficult decisions to defer or reject important initiatives for financial reasons. We have sometimes disagreed, but maintained a level of mutual respect.
Today, the Vashon Park District is much healthier, and the most recent auditor reports praised the district. We have almost eliminated the long-standing, but unusual, practice of tax anticipatory notes (TAN) that amount to payday loans to the district. A legacy of inherited debt and large amounts of short-term financing is still with us, but we are almost in a situation where we are ready to try out some initiatives and tackle a long list of deferred maintenance projects.
This is where my unusual “outsider-insider” perspective comes in. I grew up on Vashon Island with two siblings and graduated from Vashon High School where my dad was a long-time teacher, and my mom a substitute teacher. I really am an island kid, but I left Vashon Island and spent decades in places all over the country. Eventually, my wife and I had children and I received a doctorate degree in economics.
When we moved to Vashon Island in 2010 after living for eight years in Japan, I became an outsider in my boyhood home. I believe this gives me a unique perspective.
So what now? I will absorb some of the lessons I have learned so far from Vashon and keep those things that make this island special.
We should reinvent the park district in line with our population structure, natural beauty and history. Having one of the oldest populations in King County, we have to make the parks work for those more inclined to passive recreational activities such as picnicking, but also enable robust programs such as soccer for the more active, typically younger population. We should consider a shelter at Lisabuela. We should look to other island communities to see what is possible with our shorelines and towns. And, in all things, we should be good environmental stewards. I ask for your vote.
Nick Keenan
I am running to serve Vashon and Maury Islands as a Vashon Park District board member to ensure cooperation and transparency and help expand programs with strong community input. I believe the board must prioritize based on our collective goals and values.
A 10-year Vashon resident, I offer experience in government and corporate finance. I also have volunteered my time as vice-president of the Vashon Island Soccer Club, co-chair for the Vashon Daughter Dance and have coached 11 different youth sport teams in tee-ball, soccer, basketball and lacrosse.
As a board member I would contribute my expertise and passion to:
- Scrutinize revenues and expenses to contain levy rates.
- Resolve critical maintenance issues.
- Target community priorities for park programs.
The park district’s work effects every Vashon-Maury Island resident, and the board can do a better job serving our community with more accountable leadership. Thanks for your consideration.
Vashon Park District-Position Four
Abby Antonelis- uncontested
Vashon Island deserves a strong voice of a young family on the park district board. Since moving our family to Vashon, I have served on the board of Creative Preschool, built a farm from the ground up and helped found the Vashon Island Crazy Clovers 4-H Club.
I also have my degree in geology from Pacific Lutheran University. My oldest child goes to Chautauqua Elementary School and has participated in many of the offerings the Vashon Park District currently provides.
I believe our parks are a true asset to the community. I hope to
continue to further positively navigate Vashon’s future of publicly held land for this community.
I hope to use my position on the park district board to bring more science-based activities to Vashon Island while concurrently partnering with programs on the island that encourage children to get outside and learn about the world around them.
I believe that public lands are for everyone to enjoy and utilize. I look forward to growing the exposure to public lands on Vashon Island.
