In the race to represent District 4 on the Battle Ground Public Schools’ board, incumbent Mavis Nickels and candidate Dick Rylander appear to be moving on to the general election.
According to primary election returns Tuesday evening, Nickels took 48.13 percent of the vote and Rylander took 32.58 percent. The third candidate, Ben Kapelka, trailed with 18.17 percent.
School board directors are nonpartisan and serve four-year terms.
Tuesday night, Nickels said she was pleased with the initial results, “but it has nothing to do with an ego trip or anything like that. Just let me do my job.”
“My problem is I’m not a politician,” said Nickels, 76, a retired math and science teacher and a blueberry farmer who has lived in the district since 1972. “This is all kind of amusing for me, but I really want … to be there for the kids. I want to do what I can to make education better for our school district. That’s the bottom line.”
Rylander, 64, who is retired after 42 years in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry, said he will need to work hard to delineate the differences between himself and Nickels if the initial results hold and he advances to the general election. He’s hoping voters can get to know him better through his website and Facebook page, where he’s upfront about his views.
“Given some of the challenges the Battle Ground school board has had about lack of trust, I’m really hoping I can bring a better level of comfort to those people who have not been as comfortable in the past,” he said Tuesday night.
Kapelka, 46, is a special-education assistant in district schools.
Providing school facilities to handle the district’s increasing population has been a key issue for the three candidates. District 4 is in the Battle Ground school district’s southeast corner. Hundreds of homes are either under construction or about to be built in the school district, where about 6,930 housing units are projected to be built in the next 20 years.
