May ready to step in for Hazel

COEUR d’ALENE — Lisa May said running unopposed for a position as a Coeur d’Alene School District trustee was a double-edged sword.

May, who will fill the seat vacated by Trustee Christa Hazel beginning in July, wasn’t able to connect with residents and learn their feelings about education issues while on the campaign trail. But the other edge of the sword is the fulfillment of a desire to give back to the community, which May said has only grown stronger since moving back to the region in 2006.

“It’s in my fabric,” May said of serving. “I’m very excited, appropriately nervous, and humbled at this opportunity.”

While growing up in Spokane, May attended public schools and then went on to attend the University of Washington, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in nursing and Spanish. After college she moved to Dallas, where she said she was able to use both degrees working in a hospital’s trauma department.

While in Texas, May met her husband, Mike. She said the two had a strong desire to live in a small community, and they jumped at the opportunity to return to the Northwest when her husband was offered a job at Kootenai Health.

Public education, May said, is of vital importance to any community. With that in mind, she helped found the nonprofit Coeur d’Alene Education Partnership and served on the board for five years.

“It made me want to give back more, and I think I now have some new skills from that experience I can apply as a trustee,” she said of the experience.

Two of May’s three children attend Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, and the other attends Sorensen Magnet School. May said she believes having a child in the district will be valuable.

“It’s great to be able to see what’s going on in the classrooms and to see what challenges teachers are facing,” she said.

Student achievement ranks high among issues May hopes to address and improve. She said preparing children to succeed in college and their careers should be the No. 1 priority of the board.

The district itself, May said, is in a transitionary period. She added the leadership of interim Superintendent Stan Olson will be helpful in continuing to guide one of the state’s largest school districts in the right direction. May added she’s excited to help select a new, permanent superintendent and hopes the process will get the entire Coeur d’Alene community involved.

“I want to be approachable,” she said. “As a board, I want us to be as transparent as possible in our process as we work through important issues.”

May also stressed a trustee is a non-partisan position and she will approach it as such. She will be sworn in during the board’s regular meeting in July.

“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work,” May said.