School board candidates share their views--Brian Heston

There are four candidates competing for two positions on the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors. Two candidates in one race were covered in last week's edition, and two more share their views this week. The pair are vying for a position being vacated by outgoing Director Paula Culbertson.

What did I learn about all four candidates? They may all have different definitions for critical race theory or different ideas about how to help local students, but they all care about the kids.

Interviews were edited for length.

Brian Heston is one of two candidates vying for the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors #2 positon being vacated by Paula Culbertson.

Heston grew up in the Longview/Kelso area and graduated from Kelso High School before attending Lower Columbia College, where he earned two associate degrees in computer science. He has been working in the technology field for the last 25 years and currently provides network security and firewall support for CISCO.

He and his wife have one son entering the eighth grade this year at Wahkiakum School District.

“He is a big part of why we moved out here,” Heston said. “We were having trouble with Kelso schools. We were having trouble with bullying, we were having trouble with him just being another number, essentially. We tried working with the proper channels to resolve problems and it wasn’t done.”

Deciding it was time for a change, the couple found a home in Cathlamet.

“We looked into the school, looked at the programs,” Heston said. “The class sizes are awesome. If teachers are teaching here, they are teaching because they want to teach. Most anywhere that’s true because the pay isn’t great. But especially out here where resources are so tight. You know they have to be in it for the kids.”

“That was a big part of moving out here was for the schools,” he said.

Why are you running for school board?

“Mostly because I think it’s a good way to help,” Heston said. “I’ve seen a little bit of the meetings, being there for robotics presentations, and staying after and seeing the types of things that they deal with and how it’s done. It just seems like a natural way to do more. I’ve seen what robotics has done for a lot of the kids. I think there is an opportunity to do that same kind of thing for a lot of other kids in different aspects. Not all kids want to do robotics but there is something that they want to do, and I think if we can encourage other programs and help other programs grow like robotics has, then we can help more kids.”

“I tend not to be very political. I don’t follow a lot of the hot button issues,” he added. “I just try to do what makes sense. I think in a lot of respects its going to be a matter of seeing what is going on at the time and seeing what the agendas bring and doing what seems right. I don’t necessarily have an agenda of my own. I just know that we need to have a range of perspectives on the board, and I know with Paula [Culbertson] leaving that’s a massive amount of experience with school systems and finance and everything else. I have some experience with finance with running small businesses. I have a lot of technology experience. I know the school has had a lot of technology pain in the last few years. I think I bring a good skill set to supplement what is already there."

What are the top needs at the school district?

“Obviously funding,” Heston said. “Funding for schools is almost never enough, especially in a small district. So in my mind, funding is a very broad topic. You’ve got funding for maintenance, you’ve got funding for staff and faculty. I think that what we achieve with the staff and faculty that we have is incredible. I would like to see more staff and faculty.”

“One of the big things in this community that I see is burnout,” he said. “Everybody wears so many hats. A lot of it is due to a lack of resources. If someone doesn’t step up and do four or five or 10 things a lot of them aren’t going to get done at all. More resources would be wonderful. It’s obviously not an easy solution. The lawsuit has proven that the maintenance side of things is obviously not an easy thing to solve. There is a lot of concern about if our schools end up in a situation where they shut down or have to be drastically reduced then kids end up getting sent to Longview for school, which ends up raising our taxes. So the same people who are voting down the bonds to try to maintain what we have because they are afraid of taxes going up, could eventually end up paying even higher taxes if they succeed in killing the bonds time and time again. That’s a major concern.”

On the lawsuit:

“I think it’s a tough climb,” Heston said. “I understand why it’s being done and I appreciate the sentiment behind it. I’m a little concerned that even if we win, it might be too late, because these buildings are in such bad shape. Just because you win a lawsuit like that with the government doesn’t mean the money is going to come through soon enough to make a difference. I hope I’m wrong, but that is just the reality of dealing with the government. I really hope it works out the way it should, for the schools’ sake, for the kids’ sake, for the community’s sake. The school is the largest employer in the county. If it goes away, so does the way of life a lot of people are trying to protect around here.”

What do you hope to accomplish?

“Beyond finances and resources, going back to what I said earlier,” Heston added. “The diversity of programs. Showing kids what opportunities are out there. Even if it is not as involved a program as the robotics or the welding program, even if it is a workshop now and then to give kids exposure. I know 4-H does a good job of bringing in“I think it’s a tough climb,” Heston said. “I understand why it’s being done and I appreciate the sentiment behind it. I’m a little concerned that even if we win, it might be too late, because these buildings are in such bad shape. Just because you win a lawsuit like that with the government doesn’t mean the money is going to come through soon enough to make a difference. I hope I’m wrong, but that is just the reality of dealing with the government. I really hope it works out the way it should, for the schools’ sake, for the kids’ sake, for the community’s sake. The school is the largest employer in the county. If it goes away, so does the way of life a lot of people are trying to protect around here.”

What do you hope to accomplish?

“Beyond finances and resources, going back to what I said earlier,” Heston added. “The diversity of programs. Showing kids what opportunities are out there. Even if it is not as involved a program as the robotics or the welding program, even if it is a workshop now and then to give kids exposure. I know 4-H does a good job of bringing in professionals from all walks of life and giving that exposure to kids. I would like to encourage more of that. Kids can’t visualize and dream and plan for something they’ve never seen, so they have to have the exposure first.”

What is critical race theory and is it being taught at WSD?

“I think it is drastically misunderstood by a lot of people,” Heston said. “The original studies are older than most people even know. They really had nothing to do with racism, which is what most people equate it with at this point. My understanding of critical race theory is it was a study that was done about essentially affirmative action and hiring practices, but not specifically affirmative action, just overall policy and how it affected employment and housing and any other social structure that could be discriminated and how that affected minorities.”

“Because it has been turned into a hot button issue a lot of people don’t know what it really is, they just know what the headlines say it is,” he added.

“Some people equate critical race theory with any curriculum that discusses race,” Heston said. “We’ve been discussing race in curriculum since we’ve had curriculum.”

“[Critical race theory] is not being taught here anyway so it really doesn’t matter here,” he said. “If someone attempts to introduce it we’ll address it at that point. Whether I’m on the board or not, as a community we will address it. That one, I’m not even concerned with here.”

Sex education:

“I’m not aware of anything I would have a problem with,” Heston said. “I haven’t personally reviewed any of the curriculum, if someone has something in the curriculum that they object to, I’m happy to take a look at it and give an opinion on it. It’s a hot button item that people love to talk about because it’s in the headlines. But most people have probably never viewed the curriculum, don’t actually have any specific objection to anything in the curriculum, they just know it’s in the news and want to talk about it.”

“In my mind, my wife and I both have a very open and healthy relationship with our son,” he added. “There is very little that we don’t know about what he’s learning, what he’s doing in and out of school. I’ve heard nothing that raises any alarm bells about critical race theory, or sex ed, or diversity or anything.”

Diversity and safety:

“One of the common things that I hear people complaining about is that their kids are being indoctrinated or they’re being forced to accept whatever the problem is, whatever they consider to be a problem,” Heston said. “In my mind, if your kid is telling you that they are being taught about diversity, and you consider that a problem, I probably don’t have much more to say about that. Diversity is natural. Everything in nature is diverse. You can either accept that humans are a part of nature and that we have diversity among us as well. Or you can presume to be above nature and I don’t know what I can do for you at that point.”

Heston has not received funding from any groups or organizations.