Continued School Board Interviews

Cascade School District has three open positions for school board, Districts 1, 3, and 5. In total, eight candidates are running for school board. Election day is on August 3, 2021. In the last edition of the Echo, some candidate interviews were featured. This week includes the remaining interviews. 

 

Cindy Puckett is the incumbent running for re-election in District 1, which encompasses the Icicle Road and East Leavenworth Areas. She has been a board member since 2013. 

 

Puckett thinks that she is the best candidate for the job because she has history in Leavenworth, knows people and loves doing what is best for families. In her job at Dan’s Food Market, Puckett interacts directly with the families and stakeholders in the District. 

 

Social and Emotional Learning and learning to cope with the changes in the last year and a half are policies that Puckett believes are important to students and families. As we move forward from the pandemic, she is looking forward to in person learning, but understands that some will want to consider staying remote and is willing to work with those families. 

 

As a current school board member, Puckett said that she learned “we have to view from a 360 degree above all, to see the whole district and how to make it work together.”

 

She said that her accomplishments on the school board were believing in the community and the new and remodeled buildings. Professionally, Puckett has attended WSDA conferences where she met with other school directors.

 

Puckett said that hands-on learning is very important and mentioned that the school offers wood shop, welding, tech, robotics, small motor/auto repair through Skill Center, and firefighting. She is also very glad that college courses in the high school were started.

 

When asked about maintaining open lines of communication, Puckett said that she loves the contact she has with parents about what they think and they need help with. She said that parents are always welcome to attend board meetings or can get information from the local newspaper or school website. 

 

“I love our community. I have lived here all my life and have seen many changes. I hope you will vote for me,” Puckett said. 

 

Misha Whitfield is also running for District 1. She said that she is a practicing psychologist and has over twenty years of experience in the mental health field. She has served as a clinician, faculty member, coach and supervisor.  

 

Whitfield said that she is known for her clear, direct communication style and ability to skillfully confront sensitive and controversial issues in a collaborative and respectful manner.  She said that she understands the complexity of navigating leading systems and will hold individuals and teams appropriately accountable for their goals and responsibilities. 

 

When asked about being the best candidate for the job, Whitfield said that, “It is time for the mental health of our students to take the priority it deserves. I am a practicing psychologist and decided to run for office after witnessing firsthand the devasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of our children and teens.” 

 

Whitfield also said that she is running because representation matters. Whitfield is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and believes it is vital that there is increased representation of leaders from underrepresented communities with our elected officials. 

 

As we emerge from the pandemic, Whitfield said that safely returning to in-person instruction and learning is most important for schools. She said that coronavirus prevention strategies like wearing masks indoors if you are not fully vaccinated or are too young to be vaccinated are good common sense and have been shown to reduce the risk of transmission. 

 

When asked about policy, Whitfield said that Social and Emotional Learning are especially important as we are still grappling with the wide-ranging negative effects of the pandemic. She is excited to bring her expertise as a psychologist to focus more deeply on these issues.  

 

When asked about tackling economic and social inequality, Whitfield said it is critical that schools increase their efforts and resources to better recognize the unmet needs of individual students including disadvantaged or at-risk students. She said that strategies to implement this could include investing in special education and improving access to mental health providers in schools as well as ensuring teachers are adequately compensated. 

 

Marty Young is running for District 5 which encompasses the Dryden and Blewett pass areas. He said that he decided to run to allow people to have a choice on another candidate that might take more action and not just go along with what is prescribed by the state. 

 

“We had a two week shutdown that went into well over a year and science really didn't back that up. I think the kids were hurt by that and needed to get back in the classrooms a little quicker,“ he said.

 

Young said that he works for the Department of Social and Health Services doing cash, food and medical benefits for clients with a work-first approach. Before that, he worked in engineering for 25 years and traveled all over the world with that job. 

 

STEM education should have a greater focus in schools, Young said, because test results in Leavenworth schools are lacking. He is concerned about indoctrination, specifically, critical race theory and comprehensive sex education being taught in schools. 

 

Remote learning was ineffective, Young said, and schools should get back to pre-shutdown levels of education as soon as possible. He said learning loss should be a big focus and hopes that students don’t have to wear masks in September. 

 

If policies go beyond the school boards control to the state level, Young said that he would be willing to lobby Olympia by Zoom, phone or visiting in person. He said that “we just need to make our voice heard that yeah we disagree with this.”

 

Young said that he is always willing to talk with parents by phone or email. He wants to open board meetings up more for dialogue and feels that there has been a restriction on people asking questions.