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After serving 14 years on the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors, Carla Marconi will be leaving the board after not filing for reelection this year.

At their Nov. 22 meeting, Superintendent Paul Turner, Alternative Learning Environment Principal Mark Herndon, and Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School Principal Sara Kennedy all thanked Marconi for her service to the district. 

Colville Business Council Chairman Andy Joseph, Jr., as well as CBC Member Jarred-Michael Erickson, attended the meeting via Zoom and also thanked Marconi for her service on the school board. 

Marconi was given flowers and an LR hat from Turner, and the board presented her with a Pendleton blanket from the CBC as a gift to honor her service.

"You've been a great support," Herndon said. "I really appreciate what you've done."

Marconi joined the board some seven years before the district would open its new Lake Roosevelt Schools complex, combining what had once been four schools onto one campus.

Marconi thanked everyone for honoring her and explained that she would have liked to run for the position again, but that when she tried to file, the county told her that due to new census data, she could only run in fellow board Director Butch Stanger's district, which she didn't want to do.

"I really enjoyed working here," she said. "I enjoyed everything about the district. I'm going to miss it. As long as I've been a board member, it's been part of my life."

The meeting was then disrupted by what appeared to be hackers or "trolls" who logged onto the Zoom meeting and played audio, which is described in another story this week.