Deer Park neighbors vie for school board

David Franklin, a two-term incumbent on the Deer Park School Board, is running against one of his neighbors, Joseph Nadeau, for the only contested seat for the District 1 position on the board.

The two Deer Park residents are keeping the race neighborly, although Nadeau said, “I think we need a fresh voice, a new voice.”

Franklin said, “We all have the same thing at heart: the kids.”

Franklin, 64, who has lived in Deer Park since 1979, owns Franklin Accounting, with offices in Deer Park and Spokane. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a 1977 master’s in business administration degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and worked as a civilian accountant at Fairchild Air Force Base. He and his wife, Jeanne, have three grown children. He has been a youth baseball coach.

He said the challenge for the school district is keeping up with tremendous growth. The district now has about 2,400 students compared with 1,500 eight years ago. Voters have given the go-ahead to renovate the high school, and kindergarten was converted to an all-day program last year. Franklin said the district is helped out by a young and energetic staff, and wants to continue working on school issues with them.

Nadeau, 46, went to a series of universities and completed his bachelor’s of science to be a physician’s assistant in 1993 at Des Moines University. He served in the U.S. Public Health Service in Missouri and came to Deer Park in 2001, working initially in Springdale and now at Deer Park Family Care Clinic. He serves on the regional faculty for the American Heart Association in advanced cardiac life support and on the board for ambulance service in Deer Park.

He and his wife, Alissa, who is from Davenport, have three children.

Nadeau was involved in promoting the high school bond and wants to join the school board to have an active role in its design. Two of his children are enrolled in the Home Link home schooling program, and Nadeau also wants to provide a voice on the board for home schooling.

Also, Eric J. Keller in the at-large board position, and Carrie Breckner in the Director District 4 position are running unopposed.