Ballots are here. Peninsula School Board candidates talk about CRT, impacts of COVID, other issues

The Gateway asked to speak to all four of the candidates running for Peninsula School Board. Three of them responded. Here are the profiles, condensed for space. Incumbents are listed first, others in alphabetical order.

School Board Position 2

Linda Ader

Linda Ader is a corporate environmental science consultant who is making her first run at public office. She has based her campaign around opposition to what she calls “critical race theory.”

Ader declined to be interviewed by The Gateway.

Peninsula School District board members and the district superintendent, Krestin Bahr, have said repeatedly that nothing resembling critical race theory, a topic usually confined to graduate-level law courses, is taught in Peninsula schools. The once-obscure academic concept seeks to explore ways past racism persists in sometimes unrecognized ways in today’s law and other institutions.

Ader’s voters’ guide statement says in part: “As Martin Luther King advised, our children should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Critical Race Theory (CRT) teaches kids to divide themselves based on their race and then view themselves either as perpetrators of wrongs they didn’t commit, or as victims of wrongs they haven’t experienced.”

Her statement goes on to say: “Instead, it’s vital that we teach students to improve their positions in life through hard work, merit-based advancement and strong characters. Social cohesiveness comes from these virtues, which build common ground between all types of people.”

She also calls for increased emphasis on “robust vocational and business training opportunities” that will give students career choices beyond a college career path.

“To this end, I’ll work to expand our district’s Career and Technical Education and Business Development programs,” she said in her voters’ guide statement.

She has been endorsed by both of her primary rivals, David Weinberg and Erik Johnson, and by state Rep. Jesse Young (R-Gig Harbor).

Ader has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Hawaii and is a certified hazardous materials manager. She writes that she has spent 30 years as a consultant, leading teams of scientists in assessing contaminated sites.

She has volunteered at the Serve the Children Foundation, elementary school reading programs, Kitsap County Hospice, the Washington Correctional Center for Women at Purdy and St. Joseph Hospital, where she has been a patient visitor.

▪ Money: Ader has raised about $18,519 in contributions and $4,900 in loans from herself, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. The largest have been an in-kind donations of $4,481 from the state Republican Party, a gift of $1,250 from Tom Jonez, and donations of $1,000 each from Susan Frederickson, Steve Mathisen and Valerie White.

▪ Primary: Ader received 3,157 votes in the August primary election, or about 18 percent. Two of her primary rivals polled about 8,000 votes together, and pledged to throw their support to her.

Jennifer Butler

Jennifer Butler is a longtime school booster who helped lead the successful 2019 campaign to pass a $198 million bond issue that resulted in the construction of four new schools. She is an architect and former Navy lieutenant.

“I’m running for the board because I have always been deeply committed to education,” she said in an interview.

Resuming school after the worst of the pandemic is particularly fraught, she said, and the school board needs to be up to the challenge.

“We’re back in person, but we’re only beginning to understand the effect of isolation and the scope of learning loss,” she said. “To me, the biggest thing we are facing right now is learning gaps. The effect of the pandemic was very asymmetric. There were some kids who did well in remote learning, and other kids who did not, and they were on their own.”

Butler has two children, Abby, who is fourth grade, and Sydney, who is in second. She says she felt fortunate that she was able to work at their home near the Purdy spit and help them learn remotely, but she could see others were having a hard time.

“I saw that every day on Zoom,” she said. “It was just heartbreaking. Some kids just fell off the map.”

‘A catch-all phrase’

Butler dismisses the controversy over critical race theory as a made-up issue to rile up a political base.

“It’s become this sort of catch-all phrase for any sort of inclusion or equality, and it’s very polarizing,” she said. “It’s not in the K-12 curriculum, it’s not in teacher training, and it never was planned to be.”

She said she supports the recent board resolution that reaffirms that education should be inclusive and without bias.

“As a veteran, I love our country, and I think teaching history should include our great moments and our tragic failures as well,” she said. “I fully believe we can be patriotic and inclusive at the same time. What we don’t need is partisan proxies who are fighting a political battle on the backs of our kids.”

Vocational paths

Butler would like to see more non-college-track vocational training in the schools. She points to her husband, Mark Burcar, who loved airplanes while in school but had to look elsewhere for training to become an airline pilot.

“He went out to the airport and washed planes to earn money to get his pilot’s license at 16,” she said. “I’d like to see kids today have access to that kind of training within the school system. Right now, we don’t have a lot of those channels.”

She’d also like to encourage more community involvement within the schools. She would like to see formalized mentorship programs in many academic areas.

“We have a lot of retired folks in Gig Harbor with great life skills,” she said. “We are not capitalizing on our biggest resource, which is our community. The biggest indicator of a student’s success is the involvement of a caring and concerned adult.”

Butler has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree in architecture from Catholic University of America. As a naval officer, she attended Surface Warfare Officers’ School in Newport, Rhode Island. She is a senior project architect at fi architecture, a Gig Harbor company founded in 2016. (the firm spells its name without capitals.)

She is vice president of the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation and served as chairperson of Stand Up for Peninsula Schools during the bond campaign. She has been a member of the Minter Creek Elementary PTA, a volunteer for Peninsula Hands-On Art, and a site volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

▪ Money: Butler has raised about $27,913, according to the PDC. The largest was an in-kind donation of $1,500 from Paige Schulte of Gig Harbor. Eight persons gave $1,000 each, including Paul Gruver of Lakebay and Judith Burcar of Gig Harbor. Washington State Democrats made an in-kind donation of $244. Other contributors included board members Chuck West ($200) and Deborah Krishnadasan ($176 in-kind) and Gig Harbor City Council member Robyn Denson ($200).

▪ Primary: Butler received 9,587 votes in the August primary election, or about 54 percent.

School Board Position 5

David Olson

David Olson, 61, is the current president of the Peninsula School Board. He has served two terms and is running for his third.

“I think I have a good record of accomplishment in the last eight years,” he said in an interview. “We passed our levy with 72 percent, we passed our capital bond issue with 65 percent, which is unheard of in school districts, and we built four schools in 18 months on schedule and under budget.”

But, he added, “the work’s not done, and we still need to focus on our kids’ success.”

Olson has tried to clarify that the district does not teach anything like “critical race theory” and that the district is still committed to racial equality and diversity.

He took heat from multiple sides after he visited a meeting of the conservative group Informed Parents of Peninsula Schools and was videotaped seeming to promise them a resolution addressing CRT. Olson said the sole purpose of his visit was to hear their point of view. “I was there to listen,” he said.

A resolution passed by the Peninsula School Board in July made it clear that the district doesn’t teach CRT, while pledging that it will continue to “teach a complete and accurate history that is inclusive and without bias.”

Olson stressed that the resolution was a collaborative project of the entire school board, its more liberal members included.

“I didn’t write that resolution alone,” he said. “The entire board had a say in it.”

Interest in skilled trades

As a former Navy diver, welder and electrician, Olson has a strong interest in offering students a path into the skilled trades.

“When I first started going to board meetings in 2013, all they were talking about was how the kids had to go to college,” he said. “I didn’t see any emphasis on skilled trades.”

The district has since added a Career and Technical Education program, but Olson would like to see it grow.

“I’d like to see all our kids have a path to success — four-year college, community college, skilled trades, business training — wherever they want to go,” he said. “And I want to see those paths open to all of our kids — the homeless kids, the English-language learners, the special-education kids.”

Olson said the board wants to get STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math — programs going in more elementary schools. And he’s intrigued with a new idea for “outdoor, hands-on” learning that will get kids out of the classroom.

As a fiscal conservative, Olson is proud of the way the district has managed its budget, leveraging savings from the construction of the new schools, for example, to modernize Kopachuck and Key Peninsula middle schools.

“We did that without going back to the voters for another bond issue, and that really shows our fiduciary responsibility,” he said.

Olson has a bachelor of science degree from Southern New Hampshire University and is working toward an MBA from Seattle University. He served 28 years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a chief warrant officer.

In retirement, he has worked as a banker. He’s a director of the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation, a former director of the Gig Harbor FISH Food Bank and a member of Gig Harbor Rotary.

He and his wife, Tonia, have four grown children, all of whom attended Peninsula Schools at some point.

▪ Money: Olson has raised $32,723 in donations, according to the PDC. The largest was a $4,481 in-kind donation from the state Republican party. Eleven persons or businesses donated $1,000.

Juanita Beard

Juanita Beard is a relative newcomer to Gig Harbor, but not to electoral politics. She ran for school board in Lakewood’s Clover Park School District in 2009 and narrowly lost, with 49 percent of the vote.

“I thought, well, next time,” she said in an interview. “So this is a logical next step.”

A licensed mental health therapist with a private practice, Beard says her priority on the board will be the safety and mental health of both students and teachers.

“Access to mental health care and mental health resources are my number one priority for the district,” she said. “That includes bullying and harassment. I understand some students are expressing fear of using the bathrooms because of things that go on in the bathrooms, and that’s an issue we need to address. If our culture in the schools is making some students fear for their safety, that’s an issue.”

“Our school counselors are being cut so badly that they are having to do scheduling and help students choose their courses, instead of being able to do some therapy,” she added.

Teachers she sees in her private practice feel stressed, too, especially during the pandemic.

“So I know that teachers are struggling and they need support, too, not just a pat on the back and here’s a cookie.”

‘Mixed messages out there’

Beard said the controversy over critical race theory is the result of “mixed messages that are out there.”

“A lot of people are concerned that critical race theory means teaching kids to dislike each other and themselves, and that’s not the case,” she said. “I want the community to know that critical race theory, which is an elective course offered in law schools, is not on the docket for our curriculum, and it’s not even being proposed.”

Even if it was, she said, it’s not the job of the school board to dabble in curriculum.

“We set policies, not curriculum,” she said. “The school district has curriculum experts who do that, and if I want to explore curriculum, I want to talk to the experts.”

Beard said many people confuse critical race theory with diversity, equity and inclusion, which just means “we’re all different, and we all matter.”

“I want the community to know that equity, diversity and inclusion doesn’t just mean (people of color), it includes our students from migrant families, students who are disabled, students who identify as LGBTQ — they all need to be considered, and they all need to be given the right tools to be successful.”

Beard has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from City University in Bellevue. Before going into private practice, she was a hospital case manager for MultiCare and CHI Franciscan, a state child welfare social worker and a clinical case manager for challenged teens at Episcopal Services for Youth.

She and her husband, David, a commercial truck driver, have two children, Lilliana, 9 and Daniel, 6, both of whom attend Harbor Heights Elementary. She notes that if she and Jennifer Butler are both elected, they will be the only members of the board with school-age children.

▪ Money: Beard has raised about $30,000 in contributions, according to the PDC. The largest are $1,000 from Sara Patinkin and $990 from Elias Olson and a $771 in-kind contribution from Washington State Democrats. The South Sound Women’s Leadership PAC gave $500. Seven persons gave $500 each.

CORRECTIONS: An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that David Olson is a director of the FISH Food bank, that he has an MBA from Seattle University, and how many members of the board have students. Olson is a former director of the food bank and working toward an MBA degree. Board member Natalie Wimberley and candidates Jennifer Butler and Juanita Beard all have school-age children.

This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 1:15 PM.