Hi, I am Anna Taft and I have had the privilege of being on our school board for the past few years, and I wanted to take a minute to tell you about myself and why I am serving our community in this way. 

I have lived on the Peninsula for my whole life. I went to Hilltop, Ilwaco High school and graduated from the IHS Alternative school 1999. I also have two children who have gone through our school district. My daughter graduated in 2021 and my son is an active student.

My husband and I run our own business, Taft Plumbing. He is the third generation to own and operate our business. I am active in all the daily aspects of operations. I also spend a lot of time donating, volunteering, and helping in our community.

I am passionate about helping create equity for all of our kids and I was involved in our community youth sports for 13 or more years as a voice for all students. I have run leagues, and coached multiple sports at all levels. I also enjoy taking youth sports pictures for parents and the kids. I love hearing from the kids after asking if I got any pictures of them!

I am on the school board because of the kids, all kids. My voice is important as a parent in our community, and my belief is that the students have to come first. I try to center kids in all of my discussions and decision making and am that voice on our board. I want to help make sure that as a district we are meeting and teaching each child where they are. As a board, we should be working with the staff and community to help develop the whole child, expanding educational excellence as well as social and emotional growth in each student.

I believe we need to get the community more involved in our schools and am dedicated to continuing to work on community engagement, including volunteering and engaging stakeholders in decisions that we have to make as a district. 

I am proud to have lived in the North Peninsula for more than 25 years, my kids both went to Ocean Park Elementary.  I have volunteered at Ocean Park Elementary and I headed a fundraising push for the new fencing and repairs at the Ocean Park ballfields. We need to continue to engage the north end community, encourage them to get involved in our schools and show them that their voice and opinion matters. I have positive relationships throughout our district, and hope to continue and grow on that with more involvement and input from all our stakeholders and community.

ANNA TAFT

Ocean Park