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Real People. Real Life.
www.northcountyoutlook.com
Vol. 12 No. 13 n
November 28, 2018 - December 4, 2018
MARYSVILLE • ARLINGTON • SMOKEY POINT • LAKEWOOD • TULALIP • QUIL CEDA VILLAGE
Thompson named MSD superintendent By Christopher Andersson christopher@northcountyoutlook.com
Jason Thompson
COURTESY PHOTO
Jason Thompson was appointed as the next superintendent of the Marysville School District on Nov. 19 despite some disagreements over the appointment process. Thompson was approved with a 3-0 vote during the Nov. 19 Marysville School District board of directors meeting while board members Chris Nation and Vanessa Edwards voiced concern over how much
public input was involved in the appointment and abstained from the vote. Earlier this year in May former Marysville School District superintendent Becky Berg announced her retirement. Berg had been away from the district since the beginning of the year as she was recovering from surgery to remove a non-cancerous meningioma tumor from her brain. Former deputy superintendent Jason Thompson was serving as
acting superintendent during that time, and then served as interim superintendent since May. Thompson has been the district’s deputy superintendent since 2016 and before that served as the district’s human resources executive director. He also has previous experience as a superintendent of the Newport School District north of Spokane. The plan for the future is to keep the current leadership staff on their current track, he said.
“I’m surrounded by people that are just doing amazing work and my job is just to keep us going in the same direction,” said Thompson. “I do listen and I will listen. This is not about me, this is about our team and the Marysville School District,” he said. The biggest goal for the district is bringing back a relationship with the community, he said. “We need to rebuild trust. There’s
See THOMPSON on page 2
Arlington kicks off Hometown Holidays By Christopher Andersson christopher@northcountyoutlook.com Arlington community members came down to the downtown business community for Small Business Saturday as part of the town's Hometown Holidays kickoff event. This is the second year that parts of the downtown
were closed off for various activities, including multiple fire pits, a snow machine and the Rotary train giving free rides around the area. S'mores kits were being sold with profits supporting the Arlington Police Department K-9 unit. This year included a few additions for the kickoff event on Nov. 24.
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER ANDERSSON
From left, Marcia Kelley, Hailey Anderson and Laura Anderson ride on the Rotary train which took people around the downtown area during the Arlington Hometown Holidays kickoff event on Nov. 24.
"We're making it bigger and doing more activities down here," said Lisa Cisneros, owner of Olympic Escrow and president of the Downtown Arlington Business Association. "We think it's wonderful. We've done some of these before but this is awesome and we got to do the charm walk as well," said local Marcia Kelly. A charm walk provided people an opportunity to get around to visit local businesses. "It's to encourage people to explore downtown and go into some businesses they might not normally go into," said Jennifer Egger, executive director of the Stilly Valley Chamber of Commerce. The tree lighting at Legion Park, which is usually held after the Santa Parade on the first Saturday of December, was instead held at the kickoff this year. See HOLIDAYS on page 15
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER ANDERSSON
Marysville Community Food Bank volunteer Jim Brennick organizes cans of food during the food bank’s Thanksgiving dinner giveaway on Nov. 20.
Marysville food bank gives out Thanksgiving dinners By Christopher Andersson christopher@northcountyoutlook.com The Marysville Community Food Bank hosted their busiest days of the year as they handed out Thanksgiving dinners on Nov. 16, 19 and 20. “Today we’re giving out our Thanksgiving food which includes a turkey and all the trimmings that would go with a Thanksgiving meal,” said Dell Deierling, director of the Marysville Community Food Bank.
The turkeys and Thanksgiving food is meant to help families and community members over the holidays, which can be expensive. “When it comes to the holidays in general, people still have a limited amount of resources and if they want to do anything special that money is going to come from something else, whether it’s putting gas in your car or paying rent,” said Deierling.
See THANKSGIVING on page 7
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