Stanger seeking reelection to board

Having served on the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors since 2009, Ken “Butch” Stanger would like to serve one last term to see certain things get accomplished. 

Stanger, who lives in Belvedere, between Elmer City and Nespelem, graduated from Coulee Dam High School in 1961 after attending both Nespelem and Grand Coulee schools before that.

Having grandkids, nieces, nephews, and lots of other relatives in the district, Stanger told The Star over the phone that “we all need to pay special attention to general education as it relates to the students.”

“One thing that is really true of where we’re at now is that, if nothing else, the Covid pandemic created a new process of communication for education,” he said, referring to the communication between students, staff, and parents. 

“I don’t think that’s going to change immediately,” he said. “I think communication both in and outside of the school has to be a strong reproach to the virtual type of teaching, because that’s becoming more readily available in a lot of the larger communities. It’s not quite as available here because we’re in more of a rural setting, but I think that has to be really important to us as we go forward in education.”

Stanger was on the school board when the new school was built, and he said there was still something to be desired with facilities, such as the sports fields and a new gym. He would like to see those larger facilities built in a coming term, which he said, if reelected, would be his last.

Getting that accomplished requires working with the community and with governments on the state and federal level.

Another priority for Stanger is for the school district to work well with the Colville Tribes.

“I think we need to keep working with the tribe to make sure that education is a work in progress for both the tribe (because we’re within the Colville Indian Reservation), but we’re also a school district within the incorporated community of Coulee Dam. So we have a really good opportunity to create that type of working relationship both between the school district and the tribe and the state and federal government.”

Stanger is also involved with the Washington State School Board Association, and the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools.

“We’re trying to push for additional funding under NAFIS on the federal side,” Stanger said. 

Part of being involved in these groups is to make sure that legislators “remember that school districts are underfunded, and many times understaffed,” he said. “They need to understand that bonds and levies under state law are not really applicable to many rural districts, especially Grand Coulee Dam School District, where almost 90% of our entire school district is impacted by federal lands. We don’t have the resources to do bonds or levies, and we shouldn’t put that obligation on the general community and the taxpayers; it’s not fair to them.”

Stanger said that in his years as a school board director, he has gained a lot of insights and learned a lot about issues within the district from staff members and other community members.

“If we don’t pay attention to the general community,” he said, “we’re going to miss a lot of good communication.”

“I really hope,” he said, “that all of the people that have an interest in education remember that the school board gives them the opportunity to take their thoughts and work hand in hand not only with the school board, but most importantly with the operations and the staff and the students and the parents, and [to] create an educational environment here that is going to be successful for many, many years into the future.” 

Before retiring, Stanger worked for tribes across the U.S. as a business consultant, helping develop casinos, a water bottling company, and more.