Cheney school board candidates Swenson, Johns disagree on tax proposals

Sept. 18, 2019 Updated Wed., Sept. 18, 2019 at 4:01 p.m.

By Jared Brown jaredb@spokesman.com (509) 459-5135

Cheney Public Schools Board Director No. 5

William “Bill” Johns

Age: 73

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Washington in 1968 and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Gonzaga University in 1973.

Political experience: None.

Work experience: He has worked as a civil engineer for a number of different local governments, such as the city of Spokane, Spokane County and Adams County. He also worked on the Lower Granite Dam project while employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Served in the Vietnam War from 1969-70.

Family: Married to Mary Johns. They have two children who attended Cheney Public Schools.

His pitch: Johns said he frequently has attended Cheney Public Schools board meetings for the past four years and has experience managing large project budgets. He has advocated for and against multiple school bonds and levies since the 1970s. He is against the Cheney Public Schools capital levy for land acquisitions and technology upgrades that will be on the November ballot. He says the board should spend within its means and residents can’t afford higher taxes. He also said the raises given to teachers last year were too high. If elected, he said he would be a voice of dissent on the school board.

His words: The district is “taking too much money out of people’s pockets... They had some reserves, the reserves were used to pay the salary increase of teachers and the levy is used to pay for things that the reserves should pay for.”

Mitch Swenson

Age: 59

Education: Graduated from Cheney High School in 1978. Earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from Eastern Washington University in 1982.

Political experience: Cheney Public Schools board director since 2015.

Work experience: Has worked as a commercial real estate broker with NAI Black in Spokane for 36 years. He specializes in selling apartment buildings and owns a number of complexes.

Family: Widowed. He has five daughters who all graduated from Cheney High School.

His pitch: Swenson said he has a deep passion for the Cheney area and its schools. He said serving on the school board the past few years has been a chance for him to give back since he and many family members attended area schools. The board needs to continue planning for growth and acquiring land for future school construction, he said. With years of experience as a real estate broker and apartment building owner, he said he is equipped to budget and manage a business. Swenson said he supports the capital levy on the ballot so the school district will be able to build new schools, improve technology and attract more students.

His words: “I believe strongly that we as a populous are seeing so much growth in our area all of a sudden and need to make sure our kids have a great system, including great teachers and facilities.”

A Cheney Public Schools board member running for re-election and his challenger say the school district needs to plan for continued growth but disagree on how the school district should raise and spend money.

Incumbent Mitch Swenson, who was first elected to the board in 2015, said the school district needs the two-year capital property levy of 50 cents per $1,000 on November’s ballot to acquire land for future schools and upgrade technology in schools.

“I appreciate the fact that it’s hard when taxes go up,” Swenson said. “But I think sometimes you have to take yourself out of that and think that it’s the kids. We want to continue to be the best district that we can be.”

Challenger Bill Johns, who said he’s been at most of the Cheney school board meetings over the past four years, said he believes the capital levy is a result of excessive teacher pay increases causing the district to dip into reserve funding.

“The teachers raises, it bothered me,” John said. “That’s what stimulated me to run more than anything.”

Without those raises, he said the district could use reserve funds for land acquisitions. And he said students could go a few more years with older computers.

In July, Cheney Public Schools projected spending between $1 million and $1.2 million of its reserves for the 2019-20 budget. If the capital levy is approved, the school board expects it would generate about $4.2 million.

“I’ve done a lot of door belling in this district on other issues,” Johns said. “And not a lot of these people can afford it.”

Swenson said if the school district had not passed a school expansion levy that Johns opposed a few years ago, “We would be putting kids in tents today.”

“If we don’t move forward with more construction and more acquisitions it will be worse,” he added. “I want to continue on the path that we’re on.”

Johns said he would like to see another high school built in the coming years for growth, but he wants to plan to avoid hurting taxpayers.

“There needs to be more planning on what happens not just reaction to the problems,” he said.

Johns added that he will be a unique voice on the board and won’t vote with the majority. He said he would like to discuss issues like cellphones, vaping and marijuana at school board meetings.

In addition to planning for growth, Swenson said he wants to have stronger partnerships with local universities, like Eastern Washington University, to prepare college-bound students.

“There are a lot of smart people in our region in Cheney, so why not continue to marry those?” he said.

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