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ESD 105

Two new members join ESD 105 Board
     

The ESD 105 Board of Directors has recently welcomed a pair of new members:  Marietta Clements of Naches and Kathi Bonlender of Yakima.

Clements joined the Board on May 19 as the representative for District 4, which includes the Naches Valley, Highland, West Valley, and Union Gap school districts.  She was a longtime parent volunteer at Naches Valley, and retired after 35 years as a partner and accountant/bookkeeper with Rowe Farms, her family’s apple, cherry, and pear orcharding business. 

She is currently a member of the Yakima Memorial Hospital Guild and the Junior League of Yakima.  She has also been active with the Governor’s Mansion Foundation and has been a sponsor of the Washington Apple Education Foundation Memorial Scholarship. 

Clements and her two children are Naches Valley High School graduates.  She obtained a B.A. in elementary education at WSU and spent time as a teacher from 1965 to 1967 at schools in Spokane and Yakima.

Clements assumed the seat that had been held by Yakima’s Dr. Patsy Callaghan, who left the ESD 105 Board in April after serving since 1999.

Bonlender was sworn in on August 18 as the new director representing District 3, which includes the east area of the Yakima School District.  She has previously been a member of Davis High School’s Diversified Occupational Career and Technical Education Advisory Board, which addresses the needs of children in special education, and has been a member of the Apple Valley Kiwanis for 10 years.

Bonlender and her husband have owned and operated the two Sub Shop restaurants in Yakima since 1990.  All six of their children attended Davis High School. 

Bonlender replaced Mary Harris, who had been the veteran member of the ESD 105 Board.  Harris joined the ESD 105 Board in 1994 and decided to end her 15-year tenure as soon as a replacement could be found.

“It’s been very rewarding serving on the ESD 105 Board,” said Harris, noting that she arrived just after the ESD 105 Conference Center had been finished and left just as the agency is pursuing construction on an additional building near its other two in Yakima.  “I can’t think of anything I would have rather done during the past 15 years than serve here and be part of that growth.”