November 1—Puyallup School District 3 Director Position 2 Candidate Profiles

Larry Carney - Cindy Poysnick

Susan Schell of The Herald

Larry Carney

Larry Carney feels that one of the priorities of the school district should be to have adequate room to house students.

“One quarter of the students are now being housed in portable classrooms,” he said.

Carney has a long history with the Puyallup School District — 30 years, to be precise.

From 1967 to 1997, he was a classroom teacher, vice principal at the junior high and senior high school levels, Executive Director for business services and worked five years in the human resource department.

Carney studied at law school while, at the same time, teaching at Rogers High School. He graduated from University of Puget Sound with distinction and has been a member of the Bar Association since 1976.

He is concerned that the WASL has placed an undue emphasis on subjects being tested and the social sciences have been reduced in importance.

“Foreign languages are being squeezed out of the curriculum,” he said. “It is difficult for a student to get more than two years. Physical education is being de-emphasized, whereas it needs to be re-emphasized. If students have to take more and more science and math, they have to take less of something else.”

Carney feels another important issue for the school district is the recruitment of quality teachers.

“For any school district to recruit and retain the best teachers, the district has to continue to work to create a pool of applicants in order to select the best and make teaching a positive experience,” he said.

Cindy Poysnick

Cindy Poysnick said one of her main focuses if elected would be on strengthening communication between the school district, the board members and the community itself.

“There are concerns in the school district in regard to communication,” she said. “People don’t see the school board members out in the district. They need to be more willing to communicate with the voters that put them there.”

Poysnick said she hears stories of people writing letters and leaving phone messages with the schools that are never returned.

“People need to be responded to,” she said. “I am a complete open-door kind of person who will work on restoring trust with the people in the community.”

Poysnick has lived in South Hill for 25 years and owns a small business. She has raised three sons through the Puyallup School District. She has extensive volunteer experience in the community including acting as a Boy Scout leader for 13 years and a basketball coach for eight years. She has served as a lobbyist and legislative chair and is endorsed by the PTA.

She ran for school board in the past and lost by 65 votes against a current incumbent.

She places a high priority on housing the students.

“Even with the opening of the new schools we’re still playing catch-up,” she said. “Being from South Hill I see all the new construction. It is not stopping. We have to work hard to pass school bonds so we can build bigger schools. Eventually down the road we’ll have to look at building another high school.”

Another priority high on Poysnick’s list is working to reduce the number of students in each classroom.

“All that ties into the overall success for every student that walks in the door,” she said. “It’s quite obvious that teachers can’t spend enough time with students who need extra help, especially with hands-on types of classes. There’s a lot of frustration when educators can’t be hands-on with 40 kids in the classroom.”

Poysnick said the school board needs diversity, not just another school district employee.

“I come from a very diverse background in the community,” she said. “I feel that the role of the school board is to have people on board who can represent various voices in the community.”