Local residents Dave Myerson and Mercer Island High School PTA President Terri Caditz will challenge Position 2 member John DeVleming for re-election to the Mercer Island School Board this November.

The race for the School Board seat will trigger an August primary election battle — the first in decades — should all three stay in the race after June 11. Meanwhile, Board Vice President Adair Dingle will run unopposed. All four registered their intentions to run with King County Elections last week during the five-day period allowed for candidates to declare their intentions for public office.

Myerson, a pathologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Cancer Care Alliance, has worked with the school district on its volunteer Math Review Committee, guiding the MISD on curriculum decisions.

“I think I can offer [the board] something they don’t have now,” he said.

“We need interaction between the curriculum, student and the teacher. We need to focus on the student a little more.”

DeVleming welcomed the challenge and said the election contest will draw attention to education and get residents talking about the issues.

“There’s an awful lot going on in the district right now, and we need some continuity on the board,” he said.

School Board positions are nonpartisan and are for four-year terms, in staggered elections every two years. The deadline for public office candidates to register was 5 p.m. on June 5.

The incumbents say their desire to support Superintendent Plano in continuing reforms for grading and the curriculum are driving their decisions to return for another four-year term. Those ambitious changes, key components of the 2020 Vision plan, were approved last year, but state cuts in education funding may force a scaling back of plans.

School Board issues on the table

Two of the five School Board seats are also up for election as they face a busy agenda in the coming year. Support for Superintendent Gary Plano, an ambitious plan to re-envision education and an agreement to build the PEAK activities center using public land and money will all effectively be on the ballot this November.

“Incorporating it may be a challenge,” said Dingle.

During its May 28 meeting, the School Board examined the Mercer Island School District’s (MISD) estimated $2 million deficit and weighed its options, which include eliminating or reducing the hours for a dozen para-educator and administrative positions.

Dingle focused on 2020 Vision goals

Working full-time as a Seattle University professor of computer science and engineering, Dingle said her background in post-secondary education gives her a unique perspective on how high school graduates are prepared and how they are not. Her four children, three of whom are in the Island’s public schools, also give her the perspective of a mother. She said she is prepared to push through the reforms — particularly for the math curriculum — despite a lack of funding.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” she said. “But the world is changing rapidly and expectations for our students are changing rapidly.”

If re-elected, Dingle is in line to become president of the board according to the board’s custom of rotating the position every two years.

DeVleming seeks to move forward

Meanwhile, DeVleming has been more concerned with keeping the peace between the Mercer Island Teacher’s Association (teacher’s union), and that the MISD remains intact during the budget crisis. He wanted to ensure that events like a teacher’s strike in Bellevue last year don’t happen here.

“We’ve got a great superintendent and a great union head [in Mike Radow],” he said. “They’ve given us a great opportunity to take some dramatic steps.”

The local attorney, originally from Pullman and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Idaho Law School, has put his children through the Island’s schools and says he has joined the ranks of an estimated 75 percent of residents who do not have kids using the schools.

DeVleming credited predecessors John Fry, Ken Glass and Carrie George — all elected in the 2001 School Board elections — with paving the way for the MISD’s present initiatives that he has helped along.

Chief among them is PEAK, a public-private partnership between MISD and the Boys & Girls Club of Mercer Island to build a modern recreation and sports facility that is used both by MIHS and the club. Some residents have raised questions about the size, scope, location and ethics of the agreement. But DeVleming says the need for such a facility is acute.

“The amount of gym space has not changed in three decades,” he said. “It’s a darn shame that Mercer Island kids haven’t had the opportunity to use these facilities in the past.”

Candidate Terri Caditz was not available before press time to comment on her filing. More detail about both Pos. 2 challengers Dave Myerson and Caditz, their backgrounds and campaign plans will be published in an upcoming issue of the Reporter.

This year’s primary election is scheduled for Aug. 18.