I am going to vote for Carolyn Simpson for Snoqualmie Valley School District Board of Directors and I don’t even know Carolyn. I was impressed with what I read about her in the Snoqualmie Valley Record.

I like that she has worked in finance. One of the biggest duties of the school board is to spend our tax dollars wisely. I believe the community will benefit from someone with a financial background.

I also was impressed with her commitment to making sure the public is involved in how the district is governed. There have been many times in the past that I have felt the members of the school board merely tolerated public input as opposed to encouraging such input.

But the main reason I am voting for Carolyn is because of her statement that, “The school board meetings [have been] primarily the district presenting a proposal and the school board approving it. There [are] rarely questions and there is rarely dissension.”

While my children were in school, my wife and I attended all but one school board meeting in eight years. We started attending the meetings because I, like Carolyn, felt the board members (many of whom are the same people as when I attended the meetings) were not asking any questions, much less the right questions. Most times I would be the only person asking any questions.

I really think we need someone on the board who will ask questions, and a lot of them. We don’t need someone on the board that will just sign off on the administration’s proposals. We need someone willing to make an effort to get all the facts so they can reach the best solutions for our district as a whole.

I don’t think one needs to be an “insider” to be an effective director. Having served as a commissioner for King County Fire Protection District No. 27 (Fall City) for almost 10 years, I knew nothing about the fire service before becoming a member. It required me to ask a lot of questions, and I believe that helped contribute to the operations of an outstanding organization.

I do wonder, since the other candidate was appointed to her position, if that wasn’t partially due to her already conforming to the views of the current board members. I know if I had the opportunity to appoint a member of a board I sat on, I wouldn’t appoint someone I felt would oppose my views. I also have a little concern with the endorsement by the Snoqualmie Education Association (teachers’ union). While our teachers are great, they do have vested special interests.

I am elated that we actually have an opportunity to make a choice for school board director for the first time since 1999. I am choosing Carolyn Simpson; hope you do the same.

Dan D. Guettler

Fall City