Three first-time candidates drawn to vacant Nine Mile Falls School Board position

Thu., July 18, 2019

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

Nine Mile Falls School Board director position No. 2 candidates

Kirsten Foose

Age: 41.

Education: Bellevue Christian School class of 1996. Earned her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Washington in 2000. Earned a Master of Health Policy and Administration degree from Washington State University Spokane in 2017.

Political experience: None.

Work experience: Worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for most of her career before going to graduate school at Washington State University Spokane to study health administration. She has worked at CHAS Health for three years and been director of operations for about a year and a half.

Family: Married to Dan Foose. They have four children who all attend Nine Mile Elementary School.

Her pitch: Foose said she would bring both administrative and fiduciary experience to the school board. She also said she’s collaborative and creative. Foose said she’s been looking for a way to support schools and teachers, and evening board meetings are the best way for her to do so as a full-time working mother.

Her words: “I think my skills naturally complement what a healthy board needs to be effective. I’m creative and collaborative; I have a good amount of experience and education with everything fiduciary – so managing budgets.”

Eric Olsen

Age: 50.

Education: North Central High School class of 1986. Earned an associate degree from Spokane Community College in 1989 and completed one year of undergraduate work in chemical engineering at Eastern Washington University. He is working to finish his bachelor’s degree.

Political experience: None.

Work experience: Major with the Spokane Police Department. He has 29 years of experience in the department. He started as a patrol officer and has been a part of the tactical team, bomb squad and K-9 unit.

Family: He is married and has two daughters who attend schools in the district.

His pitch: Olsen has many years of police experience and said he would prioritize school safety as a part of the school board. He is trained in active shooter response and wants to increase the amount of preparedness at Nine Mile Falls schools. He also wants to increase the safety of the high school through crime prevention through environmental design principles without adding measures like metal detectors and access cards. Olsen would look to form a school safety committee comprised of staff, first responders and parents to study the safety of each school and make recommendations to leadership.

In his words: “I want to create that safe, secure environment, so our students aren’t concerned about school shootings, or other types of school violence, and are able to focus on learning and growing up like kids should.”

Mary McAdam

Age: 64.

Education: East Valley High School class of 1973. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Eastern Washington University in 1977. She earned a Master’s of Education in administration and curriculum development from WSU in 1986.

Political Experience: None.

Work experience: Worked in the Nine Mile Falls School District for 39 years until retiring after the 2016-17 school year. She started teaching science and girls physical education at the junior high school. She moved to the high school in 1991 to teach several subjects and coach multiple girls sports teams.

Family: Divorced. She has one adult son.

Her pitch: McAdam said she would bring decades of teaching experience to the school board and call out the Legislature for not properly funding schools. She said she feels teacher raises have been blamed for budget crises. She said she wants to see more money go into education and advocate for construction on Lakeside High School.

In her words: “Since I was in the district before there was a high school and after there was a high school, I’d like to take the district and see what else we can do.”

None of the candidates for this year’s Nine Mile Falls School Board election are running to replace anyone.

Three candidates filed for the director No. 2 position vacated by Debbie Williams, who is moving out of the district. Meanwhile, incumbents Mac Mikkelsen and Bill McBride are running unopposed for director positions No. 1 and No. 3.

Mikkelsen and McBride have been on the board since 2011, and Williams began her tenure in 2007. All three candidates in the three-way race – two of them parents and one a retired Nine Mile Falls teacher – said they have been happy with the board’s performance and wanted to offer their perspective without taking away someone’s seat at the table.

“I’m not really running to fix something,” said Kirsten Foose, 41, who is the director of operations at CHAS Health and has four children attending Nine Mile Falls Elementary School.

Each candidate said they have a unique perspective and set of skills they want to offer.

Foose said she believes her experience as a manager in health care administration would naturally complement the work of a board of directors.

“I’m creative and collaborative; I have a good amount of experience and education with everything fiduciary – so managing budgets,” she said.

Eric Olsen, 50, a major for the Spokane Police Department, wants to focus on school safety with his background in law enforcement. He has two daughters in the district.

“I was working the day of (the) Freeman (shooting), and that was extremely close to home,” he said. “It shook my family members to the core.”

He wants to increase preparedness for active shooter situations at Nine Mile Falls schools and form a school safety committee to make recommendations to leadership after a comprehensive study.

If Olsen is elected, Nine Mile Falls would join the Reardan-Edwall School District as the only all-male school board in Spokane County.

Mary McAdam, 64, would bring nearly 40 years of teaching experience in the district to the board. She retired two years ago.

“Since I was in the district before there was a high school and after there was a high school, I’d like to take the district and see what else we can do,” she said.

McAdam said she would advocate for improvements to Lakeside High School and more funding from the Legislature for public schools.

“The state (Legislature) has blamed teachers (asking for raises) for the funding crisis and they need to fund education,” she said.

Despite the fact there will only be one new face on the school board in 2020, the candidates see big changes coming to the district – namely, growth in population.

Superintendent Brian Talbott said the district is already preparing for a development of about 50 new homes near Lakeside Middle School, as well as a proposed 475 lots for single family homes at the former Sun Dance Golf Course.

Foose said the growth will be a good thing for the district, since it will mean an increased tax base. Olsen agreed, but he said he wants to ensure the district doesn’t lose its identity as a close-knit community.

A big part of addressing that growth, the candidates said, will be in pushing for revisions to Lakeside High School or a new school altogether. Two bonds for major renovations to the school failed in 2015, and a $33 million bond to build a new school failed in 2016.

The high school opened in 1990 and was built in the shape of an eagle – the school mascot. While a lack of science lab space was partially addressed by a 2016 grant for a portable lab building, Olsen said the number of entrances and other safety issues are a primary concern.

“It was made to be cool as opposed to functional,” Olsen said. “… And not necessarily safe.”

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