Tri-Cities area school district considers big change to fill constantly open board seats
.JPG "Kiona-Benton High School at 1205 Horne Drive in Benton City.")
Between funding, enrollment and new policies from the state, school boards have a lot on their plates these days.
At least one in the Mid-Columbia is just trying to keep its seats filled.
The Kiona-Benton City School Board has struggled for the last year to keep two of its five positions filled, and has recently floated the idea of turning some of those neighborhood seats into at-large positions.
At issue is the board’s five director districts, which requires candidates to run for the specific district seat where they live.
“If there’s someone that wants to serve as a school board member, and they live on the wrong side of a certain street, then that’s not conducive to the needs of this community,” said Ki-Be School Board Chair Josh Skipper.
“I think the community interest (to serve) is out there. We just have this geographic challenge we’re stuck with until we go down the path of making that change.”
Ki-Be School District is a small district serving 1,500 K-12 students in and around Benton City.
No candidates ran for two of the three Ki-Be School Board seats that were up for election last year.
Dan Raap, a former two-term board member and retired Hanford site manager, was interviewed and appointed during Monday night’s meeting to represent District 5, which includes Benton City neighborhoods west of Highway 225.
He will take his seat on the board at the first meeting in November.
He replaces former board member Rick Gonzales, who vacated the seat following the Sept. 23 meeting after declining to run for election last year.
The seat representing District 1 has been vacant for 10 months now.
Former board member Julie Rheinschmidt left that seat in December after choosing not to seek re-election. That director district representing the Badger Canyon area and other neighborhoods south of Interstate 82 was never filled.
Educational Service District 123 stepped in after the board was unable to find an appointee for the seat, Skipper said, but didn’t find anyone to serve.
“A lot of those students are being sent to Richland or Kennewick, and so those families may not have as much interest in joining the board as someone who might be in downtown Benton City,” Skipper said.
Meeting quorum rules
Having only three seats filled came with its own set of challenges, Skipper said. Having fewer school board members complicates things when one is traveling or sick.
Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act requires a majority quorum of elected officials be present to conduct government business.
Skipper said it’s possible Ki-Be could turn two of its seats into at-large positions and redraw the remaining three director districts. It’s a long and convoluted process they’re now considering.
The district would have to contract a map study. After the board passes a resolution in support of the plan, then voters in the district would have to approve the change, Skipper said.
Rural communities in Washington state and beyond have struggled to fill elected positions as industries — once the centerpiece of many small towns — have shuttered and consolidated in recent decades, and as new, smaller businesses struggle to take root. That’s led to the withering of some smaller communities.
The nation’s contentious political climate also plays a role, too. In recent years, school board meetings have become a venue for parents and community members to air out opinions on various culture war issues, some unrelated to the process of public education.
Serving on a school board is also often characterized as a “thankless job” that comes with little or no financial compensation.
Ki-Be’s walk back on director districts comes at a time when many Central Washington local governments are moving toward establishing voting districts.
Various lawsuits filed over Washington’s Voting Rights Act in recent years have claimed that at-large systems dilute the voting power of Latinos.
