If Tim LeDuc hadn’t become a school board member, he might be driving a school bus today.
Several months ago, LeDuc noticed a Chehalis School District newsletter posting about the district needing more bus drivers. He applied and had a job interview scheduled for Monday when he received a call on Friday from an acquaintance urging him to consider running for the school board seat that would soon be vacated by Larry Petersen. LeDuc said he decided to file to run and put the bus driving plan on the back burner for now.
“I decided I didn’t want to give up all my free time,” he said.
At its regular meeting Dec. 12, the Chehalis School Board welcomed LeDuc as its newest member. Incumbent Chehalis School Board members J. Vander Stoep and Alan Browning, who both won re-election on the November ballot, were also sworn in to their new terms at the Dec. 12 meeting.
This is LeDuc’s first time holding an elected office. But LeDuc has been a regular at school board meetings since the summer. After the candidate filing deadline had passed for his position and he realized he would be running unopposed, he started coming to school board gatherings to start learning about the position he would be filling.
“I decided I should see what’s going on,” LeDuc said. “I met with (Petersen) to talk with him about his role and I met with J. Vander Stoep to learn more. I think it’s going to be an interesting four years.”
LeDuc grew up in Lewis County, graduating from Centralia High School. He attended engineering courses at Centralia College, St. Martin’s University and Montana State. He worked for a land surveying company before beginning a job as land manager at the Centralia TransAlta coal mine. He worked at the coal mine for 31 years before retiring. For his last 10 years with TransAlta, he was also in charge of environmental compliance.
LeDuc’s wife, Lesa, and their three children, Alicia, Andy and Cara, all graduated from W.F. West High School. The family ended up living in the Chehalis School District boundaries, somewhat by chance. They purchased property that is located right on the district’s boundary, so close that some of their neighbors live in the Centralia School District, and learned only after moving in that they lived on the Bearcat side of the street, not the Tiger side.
Though the decision to join the Chehalis School Board got him some good-natured razzing at his 50th class reunion, LeDuc was a Boy Scouts Scoutmaster in Chehalis for more than 20 years and their kids were also involved with sports and music, so they were no strangers to the halls of W.F. West.
“Anything that came up that we could help with, we were there,” LeDuc recalled.
Now retired, LeDuc likes to spend his free time working on construction projects with and for his kids. His son recently purchased his second old home and father and son are working on fixing it up together. LeDuc is also an avid woodworker. He said he likes to think of himself as never being afraid of a challenge, so he said he’s excited to serve as a member of the Chehalis School Board because it’s another opportunity to do something he has never done before while giving back to his community.
“I’m looking forward to learning more about how things work and making sure the district is prepared for the future, seeing that they’re set up to give the kids good opportunities for quality education,” LeDuc said.
