Leading up to election day May 21, cdapress.com will periodically post stories featuring contested local races. All of the candidate profiles were published in the May 7 Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls Press.

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ANN SEDDON

Birth date: August 1947

Public service (elected or appointed office): school board trustee; director, Kootenai County Historic Preservation Commission; rural issues chairman, Mica Flats Grange 

Community service (service clubs, nonprofit boards, etc.): Active member of Vista Volunteers as school tutor, presently working with fifth-graders

Marital status: married 43 years

Residency: Idaho resident for 17 years

Family: two grown children, four grandchildren

Hobbies: skiing, photography, enjoying grandchildren, gardening

Educational background: Bachelor degree, Wheelock College; Master of Science in early childhood education, Western Connecticut State College

COEUR d’ALENE — Ann Seddon says she's running for election to the Coeur d'Alene school board because she's dedicated to education.

"In my 10 months on the board, I have made a positive difference, and therefore, I want to continue my work," Seddon said.

Seddon, who was appointed to the board last year, is seeking election to hold on to the Zone 4 seat. She is being challenged by Dave Eubanks.

The budget is one of the greatest challenges Seddon knows she'll continue to face, if elected. She sees the implementation of the Common Core standards as another significant challenge.

"We (need) to make sure that these are not base standards, and that we reach as high as we can for academic excellence," Seddon said.

She said she also wants to make sure each child "has their basics in education, that all our students are job and college ready."

Regarding resolving the budget, Seddon said it's her intent "to maintain our academic programs and maintain high quality education with our budget restraints."

Seddon said she's already made a difference in ensuring that all Coeur d'Alene school children are skilled in "the basics."

"I work with administration, encouraging them to test our elementary students in their basic sight math facts," Seddon said.

Seddon explained that she is referring to "memorization of the most basic math facts, and that would be addition, subtraction, multiplication and division."

The result of testing the elementary children, she said, "showed great weakness."

"Fortunately, all schools are remediating children lacking in this basic skill," she added.

This was not happening previously, Seddon said.

"I'm proactive in looking for solutions, and our administration is very responsive to the needs of the children," she said. "They got all over this when they found out. They just didn't know."

Seddon said she knew the lack of basic math skills was an issue several years ago. She discovered it, she said, when she tutored children from Coeur d'Alene, in a tutoring business she owned. It's also something she encounters as a volunteer in the classrooms.

"Along with our great successes, we need to look at the problems square in the eye," Seddon said.

Seddon said it's her personal experience as an educator and professional tutor that qualify her for the trustee position.

"I have common sense when it comes to fiscal issues," she said. "For example, our bus depreciation money should have been kept separate from general funds, and not spent in the general funds."

Another example, she said, is that one-time funding should be designated in the district's accounting, so its spending can be tracked. That's not happening now, she said. Federal stimulus funds have been spent, she said, and it’s not possible to tell where the money went, so the board can consider making cuts to those areas of the budget first.

Seddon also feels she has the ability to be objective, because she hasn't been employed by and doesn't have personal ties to the Coeur d'Alene public schools.

"I can deal with personnel issues and negotiations objectively," she said.

Because issues surrounding curriculum have been prominent in local education issues, each candidate was asked what, in his or her opinion, is the trustee's role in the development of curriculum?

"We set policy, but the administration has recognized that I come in with teaching experience, and therefore, I have been able to have a relationship with them as a contributor by looking at curriculum without interfering with administrative functions," Seddon said.

Seddon’s children didn't attend Coeur d'Alene public schools, but they attended public school, she said.

"And I taught in public school," she said.

But, Seddon said she doesn't think that whether a trustee has children attending school in Coeur d'Alene has any bearing on whether or not that individual can be a good trustee.

Each of the candidates was asked, how important is partisanship in the role of a school trustee?

"My decisions are made in the best interests of the students, which is what I'm entrusted by the state to do. That's what trustee means," Seddon said. "My political affiliation is not part of my decision-making in what is best for children."

Seddon believes she's the best candidate for the position because she's "been effective, in the past 10, nearly 11 months on the board."

She said that in working with this board, "We have opened up communication with the public. We have very open board meetings, where citizens, stakeholders can see the dialogue and communication that occurs on this board, versus the old boards, where there was little dialogue."

Seddon said they encourage individuals to come forward and speak to them, often waiving time limits, when citizens feel the need to be heard by the board.

She said they've held many workshops and community chats "to open up communication that was not there before."

She said her ability to be objective in negotiations is an asset, and she questions her opponent's ability to do the same. Seddon’s opponent, Dave Eubanks, is a recently retired longtime Coeur d'Alene School District teacher.

"He's a great teacher, but I think it's easier for me to objective because I've never taught in the Coeur d'Alene schools," Seddon said. "I have great respect for our generous taxpayers. I've shown fiscal restraint, and I'm doing something to make sure our students learn their basics and are college and job ready."

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DAVE EUBANKS

Birth date: Feb. 24, 1947

Public service (elected or appointed office): school board trustee

Profession: retired K-12 teacher, owns a Christmas tree farm in Cougar Gulch

Community service (service clubs, nonprofit boards, etc.): many service projects with students - raised $54,000 in pennies to help find a cure for cancer; organizer and producer of the annual Multicultural Faire at Lakes Magnet Middle School

Residency: 16 years in Coeur d’Alene

Marital status: married

Family: 10 children, including five adopted with special needs

Hobbies: woodworking and farming, raising fruit vegetables and Christmas trees

Educational background: Bachelor's degree in history from UCLA, master's in history from California State University Northridge, and nearly 100 additional college credits in education

COEUR d’ALENE — Dave Eubanks says he's seeking election to the Coeur d'Alene school board to help improve communication, collaboration and trust among all stakeholders in the Coeur d'Alene School District.

"I'm running for the Coeur d'Alene school board to do the best I can to help our kids get the best education possible to meet the challenges of the 21st century with confidence and success," Eubanks said.

He said he's running to "bring some balance" to the school board, to "use my 43 years experience on the front lines, to help improve our school district from the inside out."

Eubanks is running for the Zone 4 position on the board now held by Ann Seddon. Seddon, who was appointed to the board last year, is also seeking election.

"I think the three biggest issues are what I mentioned a few minutes ago - communication, collaboration and trust - all of which have taken a huge hit in the last year or so, because our school board has become highly politicized," Eubanks said. "These nonpartisan positions are no more on this school board. It's all about the party and towing the party line."

Eubanks said that's unfair because there are many stakeholders who don't buy into the party line.

"There are lots and lots of stakeholders who feel left out. They feel that no one is listening to them. They feel that no one cares. They feel that the school district basically belongs to one group only," Eubanks said. If those bridges are gapped, he said, there "is no limit to what we can do."

"It's when we're divided that things fall apart," he said.

Eubanks said that as a board member, he'll visit the schools regularly, attend staff meetings if allowed, and go to PTA meetings to be sure he's plugged in to the concerns and needs of the school community, and to share information from the board with the parents and teachers.

"We need to listen to not just the taxpayers, although they are definitely important, but we need to listen to parents. We need to listen to teachers. We need to listen to the business community. The business community wants an educated workforce, so of course, we must listen to them," Eubanks said. "And we need to get the politicians on our side. If you're a politician and you're leading our community and you just disparage our schools, how is that going to play out in the future? If our schools fail, our communities fail, our neighborhoods fail."

Because issues surrounding curriculum have been prominent in local education issues, each candidate was asked what, in his or her opinion, is the trustee's role in the development of curriculum.

"I think the board sets broad, generalized educational policies. The superintendent's job is to carry out those policies," Eubanks said. "The board should have some say in the curriculum, but by and large, it's the teachers who should have that say. The teachers are the professionals."

Eubanks has 10 children, and six of them have attended Coeur d'Alene schools. He has seven grandchildren, and three of them attend district schools.

"I think having a vested interest in the school district, beyond just an interest in political control and political power, I think it really helps to have your own children involved," Eubanks said. "I think it gives you a keener sense of what's worthwhile and what's not."

Eubanks said he doesn't know if not having children who have attended district schools is "a bad thing."

"But if you don't have any horses in race, if you don't have any skin in the game, your motivations can be suspect, and I think we have some suspects on our board," he said.

Each of the candidates was asked, how important is partisanship in the role of a school trustee?

"It shouldn't be there at all, not at all," Eubanks said. "The trustee, and in my mind, the very name 'trustee' for a board of education member, should mean that the community can trust this individual can do the best job of getting our kids educated and prepared for the future."

He said that's why the positions are filled through nonpartisan elections.

"What we see now is what happens when it's not nonpartisan. The division in our community is like the Grand Canyon. Everybody's at one another's throats," Eubanks said. "And you get this business of 'It's our board. You had your board. There was the old board, and now there is the new board.' I'd like to have a board that reflects the interests of everyone, that's everyone's board."

Eubank’s campaign literature states he is a registered Independent and a “fiscal conservative.”

Eubanks said his passion about education and 43 years of experience make him the best candidate for the trustee position. He said he's taught multiple subjects, including AP, gifted and talented, and special education classes. He said he's taught 15,000 children total in every grade except third through the years.

"I'm not in this for myself. I'm not in this just for the teachers or just for the business community,” he said. “I'm doing this for everyone, to help our kids have a better future."