PORT ANGELES — No one had filed for two of the three openings on the Port Angeles School Board as of Wednesday afternoon, with only two days remaining in the filing period.
Current board member Lonnie Linn filed Wednesday morning to bid for a return to his seat in the Nov. 3 general election, but Positions 3 and 5, currently held by Patti Happe and Steve Baxter, lacked contenders.
Happe and Baxter have each said they will not run again for the next four-year term and are hoping candidates will take on the task.
“If you care for education, you have to step up,” Happe said Tuesday.
Happe, a wildlife biologist for Olympic National Park, said she ran for the School Board after going through what she described as a flawed process that shuttered Monroe Elementary School in 2005.
“I’ve been on the board for 10 years,” she said.
During her first term, she had three children in the school district — one in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school.
She oversaw the closure of Fairview Elementary School a few years later and said her mission was to make the process easier than the one she went through as a parent.
Happe said she has overseen both extreme declining enrollment, with more than 1,000 students disappearing from the district’s schools in a decade, to the current holding trend.
“Now we can chart a future, not just try to stem the hemorrhaging,” she said.
“I’ve learned a heck of a lot being on the board. Lessons I learned here have paid dividends in other parts of my life.”
Now ready to move on, Happe said she is looking for someone who can be dedicated to the education of Port Angeles students.
“I strongly encourage people to get involved in this very important part of our community,” she said.
Baxter, director of information technology at Peninsula College, said leaving the district at this point is a bittersweet end to his two terms.
“It has been a great eight years serving the community. Now it’s time for some new blood on the board,” he said.
Baxter said there is a solid core of experienced board members, and two new board members can ease into the job.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.