Dave Pollock re-ups, while Bruce Weiland and Cheryl Dale will step down.
Two Bainbridge School board members will step aside come November, while a third can’t wait to come back.
“I absolutely love being on the school board,” said board member Dave Pollock, who on Monday announced he will seek a second term.
First elected in 2003, Pollock is the only incumbent seeking reelection.
President Bruce Weiland and Cheryl Dale both say they won’t be running, after serving a combined 20 years on the board.
Their departure means two of the three seats up for election will be filled by newcomers. Weiland and Dale will leave the board at the end of November.
No candidates have stepped up to challenge for Pollock’s position or Dale’s open seat, but Patty Fielding, who before she retired was a master planner in the health care industry, has announced she will pursue Weiland’s soon-to-be-empty seat.
“My husband and I are totally committed to education, “ Fielding said. “It’s the most important thing, and our society needs to commit to making education a positive experience.”
Fielding has a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and two master’s degrees, in physical therapy and public administration. She spent 30 years with Kaiser Permanente before her retirement in 2001. She is active in the Bainbridge Resource Group, chaired the 2025 Committee and helped craft the school bond and levy measures that passed last year. She has two grandsons at Blakely Elementary School.
“I like working at the policy level, but I also have lots of hands-on experience,” she said. “I think I would be a good fit.”
She said her prior experience with the district would help ease her transition into the new position should she be elected.
She pointed to funding and curriculum – in particular how the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and the recently released Washington Learns report will impact instruction – as key issues facing the board.
Weiland, who is leaving the board at the end of his third term, said the district has a number of important issues on the horizon, including a major renovation at Bainbridge High School and pending litigation – along with several other districts – against the state over the level of available education funding.
Despite ranking near the top of the state in academic achievement, Bainbridge schools are among the worst-funded due to laws that limit the amount of levy funding districts can seek.
Voters on Bainbridge this month passed a $23.1 million levy that will cover about 20 percent of the district’s day-to-day costs over the next three years. Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed nearly $1.3 billion be spent on education over the next two years, but many feel the state needs to find a permanent solution for school funding.
Like Fielding, Pollock said he’s focused on finances. He said he’s proud of the work the school board has done over the past three years, and that he’s learned a great deal during his tenure, particularly from the failure of the $8.9 million technology levy in 2005.
Pollock said the measure – the first Bainbridge school levy to fail in nearly three decades – did so because the district didn’t adequately explain it to voters.
The district has since passed a $45 million bond, a $6.1 million tech levy and this month’s maintenance and operations levy.
Pollock said his goal is to continue improving communication between the school board and the community.
“It’s been a very rewarding experience to be a part of a district with such great teachers, students and parents,” he said. “I want to continue to be in a position to make a difference.”
Though no other candidates have yet surfaced, board members did discuss recruitment of candidates at a recent retreat.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get people to step up to a four-year term,” Weiland said, adding that he himself hadn’t considered running until someone else suggested it. “One approach is to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. The other is to encourage people to run who we think will benefit the board.”
