Two vie for Washougal School Board position
Elizabeth Garvison runs against incumbent Elaine Pfeifer

By Clarice Keating, Post-Record staff

Elizabeth Garvison

An advocate of communication will run against incumbent Elaine Pfeifer for the Washougal School Board District 2 seat in the November general election.

Elizabeth Garvison, 33, said she believes there is room for improvement in the way the district is being governed.
“Parents need to feel that their opinions and views are being heard, and that — if necessary — the school board will take action to alleviate any concerns,” Garvison said.

The mother of a Canyon Creek Middle School seventh-grader, Garvison has served as president of the school’s parent advisory committee.

If elected, Garvison said she intends to support and encourage PAC groups in all Washougal schools, as well as meet with parents and school staff members on their terms.

Garvison is a human resources manager for Saint-Gobain Crystals in Washougal. She holds a bachelor’s degree in human resources from Washington State University-Vancouver.

She works with 80 employees, and said her experience has taught her the listening skills and empathy needed to heed concerns, as well as make difficult decisions in the best interest of the district’s students.

Elaine Pfeifer

Elaine Pfeifer, 47, was appointed to the school board in 2005. She now serves as the board president.

Pfeifer’s community involvement includes volunteering on planning committees for two large-scale annual fund-raising events — The Stride and the Washougal High School holiday bazaar — as well as past parent advisory committee member and past president of the Canyon Creek Middle School Boosters Club. She has two sons — a 20-year-old WHS graduate and a junior at WHS.

If Pfeifer wins this election, she said her number-one priority will be to continue to promote a cohesive, integrated curriculum for every student in the district.

“This would assure that all students are prepared with the core skills necessary to succeed at the next grade level, regardless of what teacher they have or what school they attend,” she said.

Pfeifer works for Pfeifers Sales, Inc., a manufacturers representative’s agency, covering operations and accounting.

Pfeifer said her three years of experience working with the school board have helped her learn how the district’s educational system functions, as well as the role of a board member in that system.

“My work background in operations management gives me experience in problem solving and looking at the school system as a whole, in terms of a well-functioning, successful business,” Pfeifer said. “Finally, my role as a parent of a WHS graduate and a present WHS junior allows me to experience first-hand how our district is currently operating at the school level.”

Key issues

Both candidates pointed to growth as one of the two biggest issues facing the district in the next five years.

Pfeifer said it will be important for the school board to create sufficient building capacity for expected growth, and it’s a challenge the school board is currently undertaking.

Garvison said the explosion of new housing developments is a sign of things to come.

“We need to ensure that we plan our school boundaries to accommodate growth at all of our school campuses,” she said. “We need to determine if our impact fees that we charge on new housing is appropriate.”

Garvison said another key issue is increasing parent involvement in the policy-setting arena, as well as in the classroom.

“We have parents who are wonderful volunteers currently who are giving sometimes in excess of 30 hours per week of their time to the individual schools,” she said. “But we need to have a frank discussion with them to determine what areas of concern do they have, what are they seeing in the classrooms.”

Garvison said she hopes to open up dialogue so that parents and staff have no fear of retribution.

Pfeifer said another main issue is providing an individually relevant education that keeps students engaged while meeting increased academic requirements.

“I believe in order to meet the needs of individual students, we need to hire and retain highly competent staff that encourage and challenge students at various levels of ability and interests,” she said.

To do this, she said, the board needs to budget appropriately as well as offer a well-rounded curriculum that supports supplemental programs like arts, broad-based foreign languages, career and technical training and specialized school and trade partnerships.