At a Sept. 18 forum on November’s school board elections, challengers and incumbents focused on weighty issues so complex as to extend beyond school board responsibilities to the Legislature, the family and the community.
The forum was hosted by the Southwest Washington Federated Republican Women. All this year’s school board candidates were invited. Attending were incumbents Andrew Lawhon (Battle Ground), Rob Perkins (Evergreen), and Amanda Miller (La Center). Challengers included Larry Roe (Vancouver), Nick Wells (Vancouver), and Gary Wilson (Evergreen). To their credit, incumbents were as searching for answers as were the challengers.
Boiled down to essentials, the objectives of K-12 education are to teach reading, math, and basic science. Washington’s school performance metrics, while up from pandemic levels, are firmly in the “needs improvement” category. Newest data show that as of spring 2023, only 51 percent of students met English Language Arts, or ELA, standards, 39 percent met math standards, and 43 percent met science standards.
On a district level, for ELA, Evergreen tested at 38 percent, meaning that just over one-third were reading up to standards. More importantly, roughly two-thirds were not. Vancouver, Battle Ground, La Center, and Camas performed better in ELA, at 43 percent, 50 percent, 51 percent, and 74 percent respectively. Evergreen and Vancouver scored lowest for math, at 27 percent and 30 percent. Camas was highest in math at 64 percent.
