PORT LUDLOW — At 73, Quentin Goodrich has collected enough award and recognition plaques to cover all four walls of his office and retire.
But he won’t.
He has enough energy to run his own tax preparation business and to continue in public service, helping Chimacum and state schools improve — which he has been doing for the past 17 years.
In addition to his current position on the Chimacum School Board, Goodrich will serve as 2005 president-elect of the Washington State School Directors’ Association.
He will be the first person from Jefferson County to serve as association’s president the following year.
The organization represents all state’s locally elected school board members. Working with state lawmakers, it helps to keep the Legislature and school administrators on the same page.
“We work with the Legislature and try to help them understand what we need,” Goodrich said.
“But I can also understand what they need, sitting on the other side of the fence.”
296 school districts
Founded in 1922, the agency brings together 1,482 school board members from Washington’s 296 school districts. The districts they lead serve more than one million students, have a combined annual budget of $6 billion, and employ nearly 100,000 people, says the organization.
“The main thing we do is we try to help public understand the challenges for public education,” Goodrich said.
According to agency’s statement, its core mission is focused on ensuring that school board members have the knowledge, tools and services they need to effectively govern their districts and improve student learning.
Cindy McMullen of the Central Valley (Spokane) School Board will be president next year.
In 2006, Goodrich will assume McMullen’s role after an induction at the association’s annual conference in Seattle.
