Letters from our readers

Greetings to all concerned voters.

My name is Kenneth “Butch” Stanger, and I am requesting your support for the Position No. 2, Grand Coulee Dam School 301J-GCDSD, Board of Directors-BOD, for the term 2022-2025.  Through the continued support of the general voting community, it has been my joy and pleasure to represent the GCDSD going into my twelfth (12th) year at the start of school year 2021.

I am a graduate of Coulee Dam High School, and a majority of my children, grandchildren, nieces-nephews, have attended and graduated from LRHS. I served on both the Nespelem and GCDSD School’s Indian Parents Advisory Committees up through 2009. I was asked by that committee to run for the GCDSD school board and was elected to the Board in July 2009. In 2018 I was nominated and selected to the Washington State School Directors Association-WSSDA Board of Directors. My wife Kim retired from the GCDSD after 21 years of service this year.

The education policy through “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA), state policy directed by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction-OSPI, and interaction with the Colville Tribe’s education department, allows GCDSD and the BOD to communicate and direct a positive educational environment for all of our students. However, our success in education is primarily the equity and hard work of our teachers, staff, administration and parents. The authority of the BOD is limited to general policy, fiscal management and operations.

My priorities as a member of the GCDSD BOD are to continue listening, learning, and paying attention to policy, revisions to education processes that may come from the federal or state levels, and help make decisions that are in the best interests of GCDSD and our students. Over the 12 years on the BOD we have had a lot of turnover in teachers and administrators. One of our goals is to get teachers and administration who are invested in our students and community so we will have consistency for the students. We believe we are on that threshold now. This will be the seventh year of operation of our new school; the athletic facilities were cut from our original building costs and that is a major goal that we have set before the GCDSD BOD for funding and completion. Our district will continue to assist our students in their future endeavors, and that may include secondary education, vocational training, entrepreneurship and military service.

The Covid Pandemic has taught us that the “internet” applications and communication are going to be instrumental in future education of student learning and achievement. Education is expensive and the pandemic added a new level of expense to our already strained GCDSD budget. The expense associated with mental health and special education will require us to be very diligent in our actions to secure future state & federal funding. We are a rural school district surrounded by five counties, and a large majority of our school district is affected by federal land ownership that limits our ability to look at local funding for our costs of education. GCDSD should not have to accept the fact that our taxpayers are stretched for any values that could be additional costs for bond or levy. Federal government created the Grand Coulee Dam and the communities that require education for our children, yet federal dollars into local education is only a very small portion of our annual budget — this needs to change.

I am very proud of our entire staff at GCDSD. They continue to pull together in whatever comes their way and strive to educate and care for our children. I want to thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your children’s day in education. 

Respectfully,

Kenneth “Butch” Stanger