Whidbey News-Times, October 15, 2014

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News-Times Whidbey

Think Pink! Breast Cancer Awareness Month

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 | Vol. 124, No. 83 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢

Vaughan backs off plan to seek IT director job By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter

Island County Commissioner Aubrey Vaughan won’t be seeking the top job at Island Transit after all. Vaughan, a member of the Island Transit board, announced during the regular transit meeting Friday that he plans to apply for the agency’s top job. He resigned from the two-person committee charged with searching for an interim director. Vaughan changed his mind VAUGHAN over the weekend, however, and announced his change of heart Monday during the county commissioners’ meeting. Vaughan originally said he didn’t think it was necessary for the new director to have a transit background — which he doesn’t have. He reaSEE VAUGHAN, A19

ELECTION 2014

Transportation, education top state concerns

By JANIS REID Staff reporter

Legislative candidates clash on how to fund the state’s education mandate and how to handle local and state transportation issues. Republican incumbent Dave Hayes, finishing his first term as District 10 Position 2 representative, said that state Supreme Court’s order to fund education is going to affect every part of the state’s budget in the coming years. “Obviously coming into compliance with the McCleary decision is going to overshadow just SEE HOUSE RACE, A20

Photos by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times

Melissa Dahl is back in the classroom at Crescent Harbor Elementary this fall after spending most of the 2013-14 school year coping with breast cancer treatment and a premature baby. A year after his birth, Jacob, mom and dad are doing well.

Drive to survive Oak Harbor teacher juggles motherhood, cancer battle By RON NEWBERRY Staff reporter

I

f she hits the traffic lights just right and makes the turn at Sharpes Corner without a semitruck escort, Melissa Dahl figures she can get from her home in Burlington to Oak Harbor in about 45 minutes. The trip is part of a weekday morning routine that starts with the chirp of an alarm clock at 5 a.m., includes a stop at daycare to drop off her 1-yearold son and a drive-by to grab her daily mocha, culminating with her arrival at Crescent Harbor Elementary School in enough time to chart the course

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for another day of teaching. It’s a busy way to start one’s day, but Dahl has no complaints. “I love my job. I love the school district and I love my staff here,” said Dahl, a Title 1 teacher who focuses on giving children extra help in reading. “It is worth it to me to make this commute and work for the school district because it’s amazing. The people of Oak Harbor are awesome.” Dahl, 27, feels indebted to staff and teachers at Crescent Harbor as well as

o t hers in the Oak Harbor School District, includ- ing some she’s possibly never met. A year ago, she was a new mother facing a precarious set of circumstances. SEE DAHL, A20

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