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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Four Board Positions Open In Liberty District

Amy Scribner Staff writer

At least two new faces will be sitting on the Liberty School Board come election day. With four board positions open, there’s ample chance for some turn-over when voters go to the polls Nov. 4.

Here is a run-down:

Position 1

Incumbent Michael Connelly was appointed to his current position last year when board member Dean Lyons moved away from the district. Connelly, a Spokane attorney who lives in Latah, has two children in the district. He said he hopes to continue fostering the closeness he finds to be one of the district’s best qualities.

“The school is a focal point for this community,” Connelly said. “We’ve worked really hard in the last year to get a sense of community down there, so teachers, staff, administrators, parents and students are all working together.

“The advantage of a small school allows us better tracking of academic performance, and the ability to engage in schoolwide projects with a lot less effort than, say, in District 81.”

Position 2

Linda Booth DeFord is running for the space currently held by Ione Felgenhauer, who is stepping down this year.

Booth DeFord lives in Mount Hope and has two children in the Liberty District. She is a vocational counselor for the Community Colleges of Spokane.

Booth DeFord said she felt the time is right to get involved.

“We have excellent new leadership in Liberty,” she said. “And we’ll see the changes that will come from that.”

Booth DeFord said she wants to work on updating technology “to get kids better prepared for life after school.”

Position 3

This contest features longtime Spangle resident Michael Dodson against retired chemical engineer Marie Tellesen.

Dodson grew up in Spangle and graduated from Liberty High School. He has two children enrolled in the district. Having worked in the past as a bus driver, janitor and an airline cargo manager, Dodson now does contractual maintenance service.

Dodson has also spent countless hours as a teacher’s aid, and says he’s committed to getting more volunteers involved in the schools.

“There’s an apathy toward involvement in this district,” he said. “I believe very much that we need to volunteer in our communities. We’ve become urban strangers.”

Dodson said he would also work to see more skills-based courses offered as part of the curriculum.

“Kids need to know there’s more than four-year colleges and farming,” he said. “We need to look at programs that identify or train kids who are more headed toward tech programs. Some kids don’t want to be doctors or lawyers, and that should not be the benchmark of our culture.”

Recent financial difficulties culminated with Dodson losing his home to auction two years ago. He also owes several thousand dollars to the state in over-payed unemployment benefits.

But Dodson said these situations have left him with an increased awareness of the value of a dollar.

“If anything, it’s going to make me more careful with the school’s money,” he said. “I’ve learned some hard lessons, and I’ve learned to be more aware of how far money has to stretch.”

Marie Tellesen moved to the Spangle area three years ago from Ohio. Her son graduated from Liberty High last year. A retired chemical engineer, Tellesen has worked on the district’s technology committee and volunteered with the Renaissance program. She also serves as the high school cheerleading coach.

“I have had an advantage of being really active in the schools,” she said.

Tellesen said she would like to see more money devoted to technology upgrades in the district’s computer programs.

“I’ve worked at putting together a tech plan,” she said. “The money is not there and it’s handicapping some of our programs.”

Tellesen said she is proud of the district’s resourcefulness in securing computer equipment using grants and other sources.

At the same time, Tellesen said the focus needs to be on all aspects of education, not just technology.

“There’s nothing wrong with sitting down and reading a classic, either,” she said.

Position 4

Incumbent George Engle faces Roberta Winn MacKay. MacKay, whose son graduated from Liberty two years ago, has been a health and human growth teacher at Lewis and Clark for the past 23 years.

She helped found Liberty’s arts scholarship board, which honors graduating Liberty students pursuing a degree in the arts. She said she would like to expand Liberty’s existing arts options, adding a drama class and more fine arts electives.

She also wants to add more foreign languages.

“We all excel at different things, and we need to address that,” she said.

Engle, who has served 16 years on the Liberty board, has two children enrolled in the district, two more who have already graduated from the district, and is himself a 1966 Liberty graduate. He works for Allied Securities. Engle said he hopes to continue working on several issues currently facing the district, including restructuring the curriculum to fit the needs of each student.

“I want the teachers to be able to teach in a way that each student can learn, whether it be with whole language or phonics,” he said. “Some kids learn better with one than the other, and we don’t want to get locked into one way.”

Engle said he would also continue working on what he said is a much-needed bond issue in the district.

“The bond issue is a big thing that we need to somehow do work on,” he said. “We keep paring it down and making it smaller, and (the vote is) always within 59 percent.”

Bond issues designed to curtail overcrowding in the district have failed eight times in the past four years. The most recent attempt, in May, fell just two percent short of the 60 percent majority needed. The $6.3 million bond issue would have funded - among other things - construction of a junior high school and the addition of a fire safety sprinkler system in the high school.

Superintendent Skip Berquam said growth is heaviest in the northwest corner of the district.

“What we do with the bonds is one of the main issues in the district,” he said.

All the candidates expressed some concern with the district’s attempts to deal with growth.

“Overwhelmingly, folks have established that they do not want the package offered,” said Dodson. “I feel the enrollment figures have leveled off, but the board said they need money for new buildings. The people feel a little bit deceived.”

MacKay said she would like to look at expanding the district’s existing facilities rather than building new ones.

Tellesen said she’d look for “a reasonable strategy” when considering the district’s growth. “We do have a real bulge in the population,” she said.

“If we do have growth, we’re not ready for it,” she said.

, DataTimes