Alison Meryweather appointed to school board

After two rounds of public interviews, the Issaquah School Board voted Wednesday night to appoint experienced PTSA leader Alison Meryweather to fill the vacant Director District 4 seat.

"Alison brings passion for public education and experience in advocating for kids," board president Brian Deagle said. "She has volunteered countless hours for our district, and we are excited for her to extend her service to the board of directors."

Meryweather currently has a freshman and junior at Issaquah High. She has been an active PTSA leader at the school level and district level since they were in elementary school, which included serving as co-president of the Issaquah School District PTSA Council.  Through this work fundraising and volunteering in classrooms, she realized how the shortfall in education funding was harming students, and she took her advocacy to the next level—Olympia. As such, she has testified many times before the Legislature and served as the PTSA legislative liaison to keep parents in the district educated about important education bills. Furthermore, Meryweather also took an active role in local organizations such as the Issaquah Schools Foundation and Volunteers for Issaquah Schools to unite the community in its support of students.

“As a representative of the community on the school board, I think it’s imperative that community input is valued and sought on a regular basis,” Meryweather said. “… As a member of the school board, I will look for opportunities to encourage broader quality community participation with the school district.”

Meryweather has a degree in Political Science and French from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and she previously worked for Ford Motor Credit in retail and wholesale lending.  She and her husband have lived in Issaquah for 25 years.

“It has been my observation and experience that engaged and well-informed parents and education advocates do make a difference in the well-being of all children,” Meryweather said. “I meet them every day and couldn’t be more thankful.”

The vacancy occurred in Director District 4—which spans from the Issaquah Highlands through the downtown Issaquah corridor south through Mirrormont—when Chad Magendanz resigned in January to assume a new leadership position as Washington’s 5th District legislator. Meryweather will fill the rest of his term, through November 2013.

In all, five community members applied for the vacancy. Meryweather advanced to a second round of interviews along with PTSA leader Lisa Callan. The school board expressed their appreciation for all the applicants and said they each had such excellent  qualifications that any one of them would have been an asset to district leadership.

(Ed. Note: The information in the story was provided by an Issaquah School District news release.)