Spokane Public Schools’ appointed board member prioritizes kindergarten readiness, post-grad pathways and upcoming levy after first three months on the board

Education is in Hilary Kozel’s blood.

Appointed to the Spokane Public Schools board in September, the newest board member comes from a family of educators. Teaching wasn’t her calling, but being surrounded by education instilled in her its value. Kozel felt a seat on the board is the ideal blend of her passion for education and history of community involvement and civic engagement .

“Short of becoming a teacher, this was another avenue that I could be involved in the public education system,” Kozel said.

Her mom is a teacher of 35 years, and her dad was a professor, who then worked in administration at the University of Idaho.

Kozel recalls watching her mom plan and eventually go on strike when her union was negotiating contracts. In her young mind, she saw her local school board as “ogres.” Now an adult with her ear to the ground in her community and an extensive history volunteering with the district, she said she’s familiar with the competing interests of all stakeholders in education and believes her position can help balance them.

Kozel moved to Spokane in 2007 from Idaho. A stay-at-home parent, she began volunteering in her now-teenage kids’ schools, got involved in the parent-teacher groups at Wilson Elementary and eventually became president of the organization at Sacajawea Middle School. She organized gift card drives, staff parties and programs that doled out mini grants to teachers.

In recent years, she sat on district advisory committees: the parent advisory committee for On Track Academy, the district’s citizen advisory committee and long-range strategic planning work group.

She volunteered on the campaign for the district’s last levy ask in 2021, unaffiliated with the district.

Kozel also briefly served on the Spokane Public Schools Foundation board, but it wasn’t a good fit, she said.

She co-organized a walkout at Wilson to protest gun violence as part of a national walkout day after the 2017 Freeman High School shooting that killed one and injured three others.

“It was a little controversial,” Kozel said. “But we thought it would be a great opportunity for students to feel like they can make a difference in their little corner of the world when they knew what had happened at Freeman and what was happening nationwide.”

A seat on the school board has been on her mind for the past few years, and when board member Riley Smith vacated his seat in June due to a conflicting job opportunity, the timing was perfect to finish the two years left on his term.

“It was a good opportunity, especially to be appointed, because it’s a nice way to get an understanding of how the board functions,” Kozel said.

Now more sure-footed with three months on the board and six regular meetings under her belt, Kozel grapples with trying times marked by a crisis in housing, substance use and youth mental health. These are needs that she connects to the upcoming levy renewal that pays for some psychologists and counselors in schools.

“The fact is, our upcoming levy is to maintain the services in that realm: special education, counseling, nurses,” she said.

Her priorities as a board member include student achievement and support in every step of their academic career. She advocates for preparing toddlers for kindergarten and aiming for higher enrollment in pre-K programs, of which she said there’s been an increase.

She wants schools to ensure older students are encouraged to embrace all avenues post-graduation: from a four-year college to a two-year skill center. Through touring universities and colleges and connecting with apprenticeships before kids graduate, they’ll feel more prepared for a life of voting, paying taxes and all that adulthood has to offer, she said.

“A lot of times Spokane Public Schools is really a safety net for kids,” Kozel said. “I’ve seen this when they walk across that graduation stage, they don’t really have that support maybe at home, and so they sort of falter; they don’t know what their next steps are.”

She plans to run for her seat when it’s on the ballot in November 2025.

“I haven’t earned my full stripes yet,” she said.