Serving as a trustee of the Southern Humboldt Unified School District is one of the most demanding volunteer jobs around and not many people have come forward over the past decade or so to fill vacancies on that board. This August, incumbent trustee Mark Schaffner decided not to reapply for a second term and his seat would have gone vacant, but Benbow resident William McClure filed his intention to be a candidate and will replace Schaffner on the school board in December.

William McClure has deep roots in Southern Humboldt. His family bought property on Eel River Lane in lower Redway in 1921 and built on it in 1923. He was born in 1948.

”They subdivided lower Redway and my family bought down there the first year. They were the fifth or sixth house to be built down there.”

The house his parents built is still there, but he now lives in Benbow.

McClure attended Redway Elementary School in 1954, the year that school was opened and continued through to South Fork High School. He attended 8th grade at South Fork during a period when there was no junior high school.

”That would be 1961,” he says. “I believe the people from Alderpoint stayed in Alderpoint, but when we got to 8th grade we went right into the ‘C’ wing. They had room for us there. I think there was 100 kids. Even back then, when the mills started shutting down, 50 or 60 people would lose their jobs as the mills went down. But they had room for us at the high school and I didn’t mind. I got some of my high school credits, like Algebra, in the 8th grade. Mr. Dick Woods was a great teacher. Plus, we could play sports and get on the JV teams. We didn’t realize that was going to help us out when we were seniors, but we could take more electives during our senior year because we already had our requirements completed by then.”

McClure says he didn’t realize it at the time but being at the high school bothered some of his fellow 8th grade students.

”Each person is going to be different,” he says, “especially at that age. Some of us liked it; some of us didn’t. I went to school with people like Tom Woods who got to be coach at Humboldt State. I don’t think it affected him too much. He did pretty good.”

McClure says that several issues of concern to him caused him to file for a seat on the school board.

”This short one that’s been bugging me is this money that Reggae has owed us for over a year now,” McClure says. He would like the district to place a lien on the concert promoters.

He is also concerned about the sale of the old school in Garberville and the possibility of a parcel tax.

”They met behind closed doors and decided they were going to accept CR’s offer for $250,000 less than Studebaker was offering. CR is saying they’ll put a million dollars into this thing and try and hire local people. When Sylvandale Gardens built their new place, they could not find a local contractor.”

He says the old building is a dinosaur, “and short of a bulldozer, I don’t see any improvements.” He favors selling the property to Studebaker because it would bring in more money and put that property back on the tax rolls. It would have also meant more housing, he says.

”Why did they not take the highest offer?” he says.

He says the trustees’ attempts to pass a parcel tax is also a big concern.

”Apparently they’re going to go for it again,” McClure says. “Not everybody is realizing that this is probably a done deal. They went into a closed meeting, behind closed doors, and I hate a closed-door meeting unless it’s for some kid getting in trouble. That’s fine for discipline problems, but not when they discuss the sale to CR. And now the people that were hired to pass the CR tax are being hired to do the parcel tax here. And there’s no mention of how much they’re going to get paid if they pass the parcel tax or how much the parcel tax is going to be and if there’s going to be any exemptions. I think they’re making wrong decisions.”  

He says he’s not opposed to most of the things the trustees do and he expects there will be a lot of unanimous votes once he’s seated.

”But they are going to hear the other side of it,” he says, “and there will be a lot of six to one votes, I have a feeling. I’m not going to try and raise holy heck, but I think they need to have my opinion.”

McClure once ran for the hospital board and garnered over 700 votes, so he feels he represents a constituency in the greater community. It wasn’t enough to win, he says, but he felt he made his point.

”Hopefully this is going to work out,” he says. “I’m not there to cause trouble.”

McClure adds that he feels there are too many school districts, superintendents and school boards.

”What I want to do,” he says, “is Eureka south to be one district and Arcata north one district. The one problem I have with that is local control, but we could always vote Gary Eagles out. There’s way too many principals and superintendents.”

He is also opposed to unfunded mandates. He doesn’t think the state or federal government should require schools to do something without giving them the money to do it.