City of Wenatchee

Current board president Maria Iñiguez is running for another term on the Wenatchee School Board in Director District 2. Iñiguez has spent nearly two decades working in education, and she currently serves as the executive assistant to the president of Wenatchee Valley College. She joined the board in 2020 and is an active community volunteer with a number of local organizations including the school district’s college mentor program, the state’s Latino Civic Alliance, and the Community For the Advancement of Education.

Iñiguez’s campaign is focused on ensuring that all students can access the resources they need to thrive, regardless of background and identity. As a bilingual child of immigrants, she has a unique vantage point to understand equity within schools. Iñiguez specifically wants to use a data-driven approach to close opportunity gaps and increase the overall academic success of the district. Her experience in education and on the school board set her apart from her opponent and better position her to face the challenges in Wenatchee schools.

Challenging Iñiguez in this race is Randy Smith, a former business owner and local youth sports coach. Smith appears to be a more conservative candidate. His campaign is focused on a lack of student achievement in the district, but his platform offers no solutions to give students the resources they need to succeed.

We recommend Maria Iñiguez for Wenatchee School Board, Director District 2 to continue bringing her education expertise, equity lens, and community leadership to the board.
 

Tucker Jackson is running unopposed for Wenatchee School Board, Director District 3. The seat is currently held by Martin Barron, who is running in District 5 after last year's reorganization of districts. Jackson has worked in a number of industries, including construction, marketing, consulting, academia, and farming. He serves the community as both a PTSA president for a local elementary and as a youth soccer coach.

Jackson believes that Wenatchee is a wonderful place to grow up and should be an equally great place to get an education. He wants to invest in students, teachers, and school infrastructure so that all students can access the resources they need to thrive.

We recommend Tucker Jackson for Wenatchee School Board, Director District 3.

Miranda Skalisky is running for Wenatchee School Board in District 4. Skalisky holds a master's degree in human services, and currently works investigating the abuse of elderly and disabled residents. She previously worked in the court and detention system, did community outreach for the local police department, and volunteered with multiple nonprofits and community groups.

If elected, Skalisky wants to make sure the board manages their budget to keep funding the necessary resources for students and families. She wants to increase community outreach and multilingual communication to Wenatchee's diverse immigrant population, and would work on connecting families to transportation, housing, and other resources. She also supports expanding the rich curriculum in schools, providing more diverse opportunities for students with varying goals in life.

When asked about progressives' possible concerns over her close ties to law enforcement, Skalisky said she hopes her volunteer work has shown her dedication to the community. Making schools more inclusive is a top priority for her, as she has observed how students of color and working class kids are misrepresented by parents and leadership. She hopes that we can create safety and acceptance for students of all backgrounds at school.

The other candidate in this race is Kendra Martin. Martin recently left her job at Wenatchee High School, where she worked in nutrition services and as an executive assistant. She holds a master's degree in secondary education.

Martin's platform has some positive points - she criticizes the overuse of standardized testing on students, wants school administration to create a more supportive work environment for staff, and supports an equal education for kids of all different backgrounds.

However, Martin has some red flags that align with the views of right-wing groups that are active in our local school board races. She emphasizes "parental rights" and would support opt-out processes for curriculum, arguments that conservatives use to ban books and oppose comprehensive sex education. She also thinks schools have an obligation to report students' "insecurities around any number of factors" to parents, which may indicate that she would require teachers to report kids who are questioning their gender or sexuality. Martin has also criticized the teachers' unions and schools for not appreciating "differing opinions."

Martin has raised no funds and has no campaign website as of October.

Skalisky has earned endorsements from many educators' groups and progressive organizations. She is the best choice in this race.

Martin Barron is running to keep his seat on the Wenatchee School Board in District 5. Barron was born in Zimbabwe and has worked in multiple countries as a chemical engineer, business manager, and economist. He is a long-time volunteer in Wenatchee schools, and has seen all four of his children graduate from the public school system. Barron has served on the school board since 2019, and was the board president in 2022.

If re-elected, Barron would work on adjusting to the budget challenges caused by the end of pandemic-era funding and declining numbers of students. He advocated for the introduction of financial literacy into the curriculum, and wants to make sure students are further prepared for the future world by improving classroom technology and including education on subjects like artificial intelligence. Barron also wants to make updates to the math program, add more classroom time into the school year, and include more youth voices in decision-making.

Unlike his opponent, Barron supports efforts to make our schools more inclusive and equitable. He serves on the State Advisory Committee for Migrant Education, and his fluency in Spanish has allowed him to meet with immigrant families that often lack the access to advocate for their kids. Barron wants to increase the diversity of teachers in classrooms and continue to make all kinds of books available to students. He opposes the small group of candidates who are making our schools and libraries a playing field for their political agendas.

Barron's opponent in this race is Tricia Cleek, a conservative Christian nurse who is running to represent District 5 on the Wenatchee School Board. Cleek is aligned with the far-right group Moms for Liberty, whose members want to ban books from school libraries, eliminate comprehensive sex education, and change school curriculums to match their conservative political agenda. She is also recommended by the Family Policy Institute, a far-right Christian interest group that wants to enforce "Biblical values" in our public schools. Cleek is a mother of three who chose to homeschool her kids instead of sending them to the schools that she now wants to represent.

In a meeting hosted by Moms for Liberty and the Republican Women's Club, Cleek railed against critical race theory and attempts to make schools more inclusive for students of color, saying they give students a "victim mentality." She also made transphobic comments, and called for stricter discipline and dress code enforcements for young girls.

Our students deserve a quality education free from the politicization of a small group of far-right activists. Cleek would be a major step in the wrong direction for Wenatchee's school board. Martin Barron deserves your vote to keep our school board focused on our kids.