Kim Olson vying for open WISD seat

Galen Scott

gscott@weatherforddemocrat.com

After 21 years of service on the Weatherford ISD school board, current Board President Rachel Johnson is not seeking re-election in the upcoming May 12 election.

“In 21 years, I feel like I’ve done a lot; accomplished a lot,” Johnson said. “I wanted to do some other things and I think I’ve made a big contribution to Weatherford ISD. I felt it was time for somebody else to run.”

Johnson said she is pursuing a spot with the Weatherford College Board of Directors.

Weldon “Wally” Wallace, a local insurance agent, and Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Kim Olson are competing for Johnson’s Place 3 seat on the Weatherford ISD School Board.

Two years ago Olson retired from military service and settled in Weatherford with her husband, a Mineral Wells native, and two teenaged daughters. She intermittently serves the district as a substitute teacher.

Olson describes education as the foundation of everything else in American society.

“I really think education is the key. Yeah, we’ll need to get our roads fixed one day ... but if you don’t get education right, you lose whole generations of kids,” she said. “From a military point of view, I’ve seen nations that don’t do well in their education system and countries come apart because of it.”

After publishing a book recounting her experiences in post-invasion Iraq, Olson began to travel the lecture circuit, speaking on a variety of current issues. In November 2005, she graduated from a school system management program offered by the Broad Education Foundation, a revered non-profit organization devoted to improving K-12 urban public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition.

Olson said she turned down other local service opportunities because of the importance she places on education.

“Education is sort of my thing,” she said.

In light of the evolving state of public school finance in Texas, Olson is an advocate of creative funding sources and local initiatives like the WISD Education Foundation. She said when the district lost its grant writer a few years ago, some money was lost.

“I think maybe we ought to look at something like that again so that we are pulling in all the revenue that is available external to the standard tax base or common places,” she said. “We, as a society, have to be creative in getting the funds and the resources needed.”

Olson admires what she called “foresight” associated with the district’s new high school and said such foresight would continue to be necessary. But in concert with managed growth, Olson said board members also have an obligation to the taxpayer.

“So much money comes locally and not out of the state anymore and so we have to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and make sure the limited resources we have are spent the most appropriately,” she said.

With seven elementary schools, two middle schools and two high school facilities, the Weatherford Independent School District is the largest in Parker County. In addition to Weatherford, the district serves most of Hudson Oaks, as well as portions of Willow Park and Annetta North.

According to the Weatherford ISD Web site, the district serves 7,200 students throughout 254 square miles.

Editor’s Note:

See Thursday’s Democrat edition for Weldon “Wally” Wallace’s reasons for seeking election to the Weatherford ISD school board.