Eatonville elects five incumbents

About 40 percent of registered voters turned out for both the Eatonville Town Council Election and the Eatonville School District Board of Directors, and those voters elected five incumbents and one challenger.

For Eatonville Town Council, incumbents Robert Thomas and Emily McFadden beat out Will Moncrease Jr. and Joe Hagen, respectively.

Thomas captured 357 votes, or about 57 percent of the total 729 ballots, 103 of these ballots in this category being blank. Moncrease was able to squeak out 266 votes. There were three write-in votes as well.

McFadden was able to put together 489 votes, or about 73 percent of the total vote. Hagen could only come up with 179 votes, coming in at around 27 percent of the vote. There were just 59 blank votes in this category, and two write-in votes.

Bill Dunn, who ran unopposed, wrote an email to the Dispatch saying that after being appointed to the council in January of 2017, these next four years will be his first full term.

"Being fair-minded, being transparent, and having a willingness to consider ideas and perspectives other than my own is the plan," he wrote about his focus in the term to come. "There will be some tough challenges, tough decisions, and tough conversations in the coming years, but I look forward to working with the other members of our council and Mayor Shaub to find the best solutions."

As for the Eatonville School District Board of Directors, incumbents Jeff Lucas and Paulette Gilliardi ran unopposed, while Matt Marshall beat out incumbent SammieJo Thirtyacre with 1754 votes to 1276.

Gilliardi was on the school board during the 1990s, and then again for the last 11 years.

She said ensuring that every student is affirmed in their right to learn is a large focus for her in the coming term.

"My focus is on giving high-quality education to every student, and giving every student opportunities that go sometimes outside of the box of traditional education," Gilliardi said. "I appreciate the opportunities we are able to give kids, and I want to continue supporting that."

She said she likes that the district provides so many opportunities for hands-on learning, from outdoors programs at the elementary-school level, to the CTE (career and technical education) programs in the higher grades.

"We have some programs for our middle school and high school kids that we utilize on the farm for kids that traditional learning is more difficult, so they have opportunities to gain their credits and gain experience in other ways… Our CTE programs are amazing and continue to grow. Students can get credit for math and other things while they are taking vocational-type classes."

She said she also supports the Pierce County Skills Center and what it offers kids for getting certifications and jobs training, while earning high school credit at the same time.

Lucas said the Board of Directors committed to growing its advanced placement programs and the district's credit retrieval systems in an effort to catch those falling behind.

Part of this work, he said, is through a partnership with the Graduation Alliance, a group that helps students obtain their GED or high school diploma after their four years of high school have expired.

"It's a great time to be on the Eatonville School Board, to be involved with the district," he said. "We've got really good people working for us at all levels and make it really easy at the board level."

For other election information and results, visit results.vote.wa.gov/results/current/pierce/. The general election was held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.