Alan Nolan is a retired Air Force aviator who, with his wife, operates a residential remodeling business. He's a Republican who also serves as vice president of the Mead school board.
This interview is lightly edited for clarity and length.
DN: You are a member of the Mead School District Board of Directors Tell me about your service there.
Alan Nolan: I was elected in 2023 and ultimately, I had been working to try and I had concerns that was going on in our school district and stuff that's kind of mirrored across the country and I've been helping others get elected. So Brianne Gray and Michael Cannon had gotten elected and I knew both of them. I'd been speaking with them in terms of helping to find others and there was a candidate who I'd intended to help out, who ended up dropping out at the last minute. I was asked then if I would consider it. My wife and I and kids spoke and decided it was the right thing. So I ran and I've been able to do this for the last two and a half years and honestly, it’s been a great experience. We've got great staff. It's great working with the kids and I think we've made a lot of headway on a number of important topics.
I think one of the big things is we were in a financial emergency in 2019, based on some decisions made by the prior board. But we've actually been able to get ourselves back to a balanced budget, thanks to the generous support by the voters.
We've also been able to go ahead and bring new curriculum. Now that doesn't sound like a big deal. But, social studies for the middle school as an example, they hadn't had a new curriculum in over a decade, well over a decade, and when we've gone through and looked for the social studies for elementary, we can't identify any curriculum that we've purchased and own. So our teachers have been forced to cobble together a plan that complies with Washington requirements and that is interesting and fun for the students. So it's going to be good to have textbooks that are going to provide those tools for them and also have additional supplemental resources.
So those are the types of things and I have really enjoyed. I enjoyed going out and meeting people when I was running in 2023 and so it's been a very rewarding experience.
DN: How do you think that experience would help you as a state legislator?
AN: Well, first and foremost, it shows my ability to actually achieve things and I think this is one of the things that set me apart from my other competitors. I've got a record of success in the military world, in the business world, where we've run and grown a successful company, providing good jobs for the last decade. And also in the school district, where I'm working within a government agency. It’s got bureaucratic processes that maybe don't necessarily want to change or take a new direction and we've been able to work with them without creating lots of strife, without focusing on political type issues, but on student issues, and actually achieve results. That's what we should be looking for in the people we send to elected offices. We should be looking for competence and then it's also good if they can, in addition to telling you what their character is, actually back that up based on actions. I think that my time on the Mead school board has shown the things that I'm willing to stand for and how that I'm able to do so effectively. We've been able to do stuff where we made headway without making headlines.
DN: So given your time as a school board member, can we assume that, if you're a legislator, that education is one of the areas that you'd focus on in Olympia?
AN: It certainly is one of them. I mean, when I look at the various committee assignments, there's one that looks specifically quite interesting. I think it's Commerce, Veterans Affairs and Technology. That ties in a number of different things that I've got, historical experience and passion about education is obviously one of those I would very much like to see. Education is critical in terms of providing our children the opportunity to compete and succeed in the 21st century economy and Washington schools have not been doing.
DN: So if you become elected what sorts of influence do you want to have? I mean we've we've sort of waded into this a little bit. But what are the things that you're interested mostly in accomplishing?
AN: First and foremost, I think we need to focus on fiscal responsibility. There's an issue there. In the last eight years, the legislature's added over $131 billion in new taxes, but we still have deficits. So it's not an issue that we're lacking revenue.
During that same time frame, you look and see our population has not grown at the same rate. Spending hass far outpaced it, so it is a spending problem. You look at other states across the country and you see how there are issues where you can identify fraud or poor use of that. That's kind of a typical joke that, okay, the government is not going to spend money well, and we all kind of understand that at a gut level. But yet we're continuing to put more and more money into government programs. I think that we need to be fiscally responsible. We're pulling back the amount of money and the things that we're trying to do with government. I think that there are far better, in many case, market solutions that make sense for some of the problems that we have and so I would like to first and foremost see us be more fiscal responsible.
DN: There are some who believe the state isn't fully funding public education. As a school board member, how do you feel about that?
AN: That is a good point because, per the Constitution, the paramount duty of the state is to fully fund education, but the question is what does that entail? Does that entail having a football team? Does that entail having choir and band? So the legislature clearly doesn't have a opinion on that where those sorts of things are not necessarily funded.
DN: Also, things are funded by local schools.
AN: Exactly. They are funded by local schools and that's the difference. So the state Interprets that as it's required to provide a basic education and then it's called a supplemental levy because it is going above and beyond that basic education. I I do think that it is important for there to be local buy-in and local support for that school ,so I don't think that the levy where there's the split between the state funding and local funding should go away because money is ultimately one of those powerful tools. If your school board members are not doing what you want to do, you have the ability to affect that, based on your vote and we've seen that where levies have been passing, although not in all cases, but that approval rate has dropped. That is one of the things that's driven the change on the Mead school board.
So I think it is fair to say that there are many things that are not being funded, especially based on some of the cost increases for school districts. A good example of one is our insurance. I think that's gone up about a million dollars over the period that I've been on the board. Those are costs rising far faster than what any school district is going to be able to keep up with and so there probably there is a need there for the state to address those sorts of fundamental things, as well as look at some of the unfunded type of mandates that they've added.
A good example of that is pushing for electric buses. I'm not here to argue the right or wrong of electrified vehicles, but I do know that they aren't necessarily Ideal in all cases. I know that Loon Lake School District purchased a couple of them. We actually purchased one as well. I think ours has been working, but we've had to be careful in terms of how we manage that and Loon Lake has found that they could really only use it on either the morning or the afternoon run, especially in the winter months where it's cold and the vehicles are less efficient.
So it's a combination of not just fully funding but also having stopped applying requirements that aren't directly related to improving the educational outcome for students.
So I think both of those go hand in hand in terms of are we appropriately funding the our public education in the state.
DN: Washington state law requires 60% approval for bond issues for school bond issues Some are looking to lower it to 55 or even 50. What do you think?
AN: I don't think that that's appropriate I think that having that community buy-in is appropriate and I will tell you it is an issue for us and Mead School District has some very old buildings and we are going to need to replace those.
So we're working to figure out a Solid plan that we can take community go. Okay, we understand that this is directly affecting you and your taxes and in order to get the approval for we have to have that high degree of buy-in and so we want to make sure that we come up with a sound plan that is fiscal responsible and show the voters, ok, listen, it's not that we're going out there and trying to have a Taj Mahal. We're just trying to create good buildings that are allow for effective education.
Actually, I think one of the issues here ultimately ties back to the state as well where some of the requirements, because it is a public works project, It makes that a very expensive building to build. So again, there's tie-ins in terms of policy as well as that also affect the bond issue that you addressed.
DN: Tell me about an elected official you admire.
AN: Let's see. That's a good question and there are quite a few of them. You know what? I think what I'm actually gonna do is I'm gonna focus on what I think the characteristics that I think are more important as opposed to specific individual, because they do cross Individuals and some people have them in different qualities.
The first and foremost is I think that you need to be accessible. You are an elected official and you're representing others and I think that you need to be have the willingness to go out there and speak to and listen to your constituents and I think that's especially important because you can't assume that you're the smartest person in the room. I've been fortunate that I've worked with some very capable people and I recognize that that's not necessarily the case for me.
The next is character. There's the saying the absolute power corrupts absolutely and so I think you need to look and see how has somebody handled that and shown that in action. So that character of being willing to take that power, that responsibility that you've been given in authority and use it in a wise manner.
