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closeSchool board expects to fill vacancy next week
Five finalists have been selected to fill shoes of former Puyallup School District board member Kathy Afflerbaugh
Neil Pierson/of The Herald
For the second time in less than a year, the Puyallup School District’s board of directors is searching for someone to fill out its five-member ranks.
At its Oct. 26 meeting, the board announced a list of five finalists for the seat left vacant when Kathy Afflerbaugh resigned her post on Oct. 1. Afflerbaugh had spent 10 years on the board and her replacement will serve the two remaining years of her third term.
The five remaining candidates were part of a public interview session last week with the board, which is expected to announce Afflerbaugh’s successor at its regular meeting on Nov. 9.
Ashlyn Arnold
When she isn’t helping students at Pierce College-Puyallup with their general equivalency diploma (GED) requirements, South Hill resident Ashlyn Arnold is dealing with seven of her own children, four of whom are still attending Puyallup schools.
Arnold has five years of experience with Pierce College and has volunteered in classrooms across the Puget Sound region for the past four years. She has served as a reading tutor, science fair judge and guest writing instructor in Puyallup and also goes to various Pierce County districts to preach abstinence-based sex education.
“I have kind of been everywhere you can be in the school district at the grassroots level,” she said.
Arnold said she has considered running for the board for several years and believes the single-biggest issue facing the district today is “making sure that our students are ready to be impactful in their environment in the 21st century.”
Working with GED students has opened her eyes to the issues of retention and Arnold thinks that’s a unique perspective she could bring to the board.
“My job is to take the kids who have failed from a lot of different school districts,” she said. “It’s my job to make it work for them.”
Christopher Ihrig
When former board member Bruce Dammeier resigned in 2008, Puyallup resident Christopher Ihrig was one of the board’s five choices to replace him. The job was eventually given to Pat Donovan, whose term expires at year’s end, but Ihrig chose not to run against him so he could “strengthen the culture of a team environment” in the district.
Ihrig has served since 2008 as vice president and general manager of The Brighton Group, a Bellevue-based strategic planning and training firm for other corporations. He also has hands-on experience in Puyallup classrooms thanks to his four children: He has been a coach for the Edgewood Little League and a member of the booster clubs and parent-teacher associations at Spinning Elementary, Kalles Junior High and Puyallup High.
While the district faces many difficult challenges, Ihrig thinks budget issues are at the forefront.
“Our economy and our world is struggling, so you have families that are struggling,” he said. “School districts become a magnet for more needs.”
Ihrig began serving on the district’s bond oversight committee this year and feels investment in improved facilities can only benefit Puyallup’s educational goals.
“I can see what facilities do to create a good culture of learning,” he said.
Marcello Mancini
South Hill resident Marcello Mancini is another candidate with a direct stake in the district’s success: His daughter is a ninth-grader at Glacier View Junior High and his son is a fifth-grader at Edgerton Elementary.
Mancini has loads of management experience stretching back to 1992 and feels now is the time to use his background as an educational tool. He has been with Tacoma-based Medallion Foods for nine years, serving as vice president and plant manager for a firm with a $17 million operating budget.
The recession has brought a host of problems to school districts everywhere, he said, and he would like to help Puyallup focus on “allocating revenues based on needs versus wants.”
Mancini has volunteered time with the parent-teacher associations at Glacier View and Edgerton, where he has developed a sense of teamwork in getting things done.
“Everyone has to understand we all play a big part in the education of our children,” he said. “It’s an effort that needs to be committed to by everyone. We have one of the better school districts in the state, in my opinion.”
Therese Pasquier
A strong and lengthy business background is also familiar to Puyallup resident Therese Pasquier, who has sons attending Wildwood Elementary and Ferrucci Junior High.
Pasquier has spent more than two decades working in health care administration and long-term care insurance, including the past 12 years as vice president of LTC Solutions in Redmond. She served two years as Wildwood’s PTA president and recently finished up a term on the Puyallup Valley Food Bank’s board of directors, which she felt was “divine intervention” calling her to run for the school board.
“I’m a very hands-on person and I like to find solutions,” Pasquier explained. “I offer honesty to people. I don’t like beating around the bush.”
School districts are being forced to maximize the effectiveness of the money they receive and Pasquier said that while Puyallup is doing a good job of that, there’s always room for improvement.
“The district as a whole had to make tough decisions and not everybody is going to agree on those decisions,” she said of this year’s unprecedented budget cuts. “We could do better and maybe that’s looking at private revenue streams that come up, not just our public dollars.”
Mary Reeves
As a nine-year member of the U.S. Army who achieved the rank of captain and a mother of two who ran her own home school for eight years, Puyallup resident Mary Reeves said she knows about discipline.
Both of Reeves’ children were early graduates of Puyallup High School and are freshmen at Pacific Lutheran University this fall. She taught her son and daughter alone for four years and partnered with Puyallup’s home school program, Triad, for another four years.
“I don’t think home school by itself gives completeness for children,” she explained. “When I joined the home school program through the school district, it made it better because they had a classroom setting, they had other students, they had a complete curriculum.”
Being directly responsible for her children’s education has led Reeves to see parental involvement as one of the key issues in determining a student’s success.
“I’m finding that students aren’t as engaged and focused as I would compare to years back,” she said.
Reeves thought about applying for the board’s last vacancy but said she was too busy with her children’s education. That’s no longer the case, she said, and others have also encouraged her to run.
“I bring diversity,” Reeves added. “I bring experience as a parent, I bring experience as a teacher.”