Union Support of School Board Candidate Causes Concern — For Both Sides

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The Washington Education Association’s Political Action Committee, or PAC, sponsoring Strong Centralia Schools, has racked up $91,720.81 in contributions as of Thursday in support of Mandi McDougall for Centralia School Board position four.

McDougall is running against incumbent school board member Jami Lund.

Based on the records shown on the Public Disclosure Commission’s (PDC) website for Centralia school board races from 2015 to 2019, it is unusual for a school board candidate’s campaign in a town of Centralia’s size to spend more than $15,000. Of the $91,720.81 contributed toward McDougall’s campaign, $77,560.04 came directly from the WEA and $16,560.04 is reported as being used for “staff time” on McDougall’s campaign. All figures can be found on the PDC’s website.

The union’s position and fundraising for the race is causing a good deal of consternation — from both candidates.

“They (union organizers funding Strong Centralia Schools) don’t like that I was pushing back on the raise, they don't like the Freedom Foundation, and they want to make sure their dominance is evident to anybody and everybody that is involved with the school board,” Lund said. 

McDougall said she had no input in the PAC’s advertising in her favor, and actually asked them to take down their website supporting her. 

“People are saying ‘well I love Mandi buts she’s bought by the union’ but there’s never been a conversation between me and the WEA about any of this,” McDougall said.

According to the information posted on the PDC’s website, all of the money that has been contributed to Strong Centralia Schools has come from outside of Centralia, with money coming from: Seattle, Olympia, Tukwila, and Federal Way — where the WEA is located. 

The Chronicle reached out to Strong Centralia Schools to ask why they were supporting McDougall for school board. Kerri Kite-Pocklington, a representative with Strong Centralia Schools and a teacher in Centralia School District, said that McDougall shared her values, is a local mom, a business owner and that McDougall is running “to make the school board more representative of the families our district serves.” 

McDougall, however, said she is frustrated because she did not have any awareness of, or control over radio commercials and a website in her name that were created by Strong Centralia Schools to promote her campaign. At the bottom of the website, MandiMcDougall.com, it says “No candidate authorized this ad.”



McDougall said that she reached out to Strong Centralia Schools to tell them that she would prefer their support through boots-on-the-ground methods such as doorbelling and sign-waving. She also asked them to take down the website that used her name. She said they did not respond to her or take down the website. 

McDougall said that she and her team were deliberate and thoughtful when creating her campaign materials so that they would accurately reflect her brand and her goals as a candidate. 

“In a way (WEA and Strong Centralia Schools are) probably undercutting what we have worked really hard on. I just hope it’s not casting a shadow over what we’re doing,” she said.

McDougall emphasised that if someone has a question about where she stands on anything that they reach and have a conversation with her or send her a message.

Opposing candidate, incumbent Jami Lund said that the union organizers are funding efforts to support McDougall primarily in an effort to unseat him from the school board. Lund works for a libertarian taxpayer advocacy group called the Freedom Foundation which is publicly anti-union. Lund also voted against the 24 percent raise that was given to Centralia teachers after their strike last year. 

“The union organizers are a little bit on the pushy side, that’s just sort of their method of operation is very pushy — borderline bullying,” he said. 

Lund said he is disappointed in the way unions operate and feels that they give the teachers too much power, causing taxpayers and services to families suffer. He said because the teachers received a 24 percent raise and the school board is now $2.8 million in the red. He said school programs for students are having to be cut and class sizes are going to have to increase in order to pay the teacher’s salaries. 

“Everybody is trying to ignore the elephant in the room, which is the employees ... the 800-pound gorilla, they get their way and a lot times it doesn’t serve families well and it definitely doesn’t serve taxpayers well,” said Lund.

When asked why he thinks McDougall is being backed by the WEA and Strong Centralia Schools he said, “Mandi is a great person and she’s a victim in this …I think she has things to learn about how her own children are affected by theses financial decisions… Mandi will obviously be quieter than I am."