Next Monday, July 31, the La Conner school board will approve the school district's 2023-2024 budget. The vote will almost certainly be unanimous but it will not be an easy decision. Board members and staff have known about and been grappling with cutting millions of dollars and reducing teaching, support and administrative staff..

The ongoing decline in student enrollment and the district’s despair at the low number of families with school-age children has been editorialized here before. The difficulty of little available and increasingly expensive housing stock is beyond the immediate control of local governments. Yes, they can make progress in moving the needle, but it will take years stretching into decades to vision, plan, decide and execute for the quantity of units needed. Patience, persistence and never taking eyes off the prize is needed. That and shouting from the rooftops and lobbying and arm twisting state and federal elected officials must take place session after legislative session at every level of government.

Years and decades of funding in support of apartment housing and the social infrastructure of government agencies and nonprofit organizations management will be the fertilizer and water that will sprout more families with school-age children in the Skagit Valley.

Two days ago, July 24, members of the La Conner Town Council and staff met in an all-day retreat, starting the process for developing a five-year plan. That is an important step for facing the future. Council, staff and Mayor Ramon Hayes have long worried about aging water mains and the sewage treatment plant. This is a town government that has been diligently keeping things patched up and making sure residents get essential services.

Now they are planning to be prepared for the future. But what will that future contain?

Five years ago no elected official or staff looked into a crystal ball and said plan for only 80 of the 490 school district aged children living in La Conner. No one predicted a pandemic, the Swinomish Channel flooding or the Hedlin family selling their Maple Avenue property. Neither record sales tax revenue nor unabashedly luxury homes were projected in 2018.

So, planning for emergencies and the unexpected is impossible. Considering a future that will stay between the lines or be without pain is to never get out of bed. But it is perhaps equally impossible for small town elected officials and the staff that counsel them to take, much less act, on the Reader Digest aphorism sound bite that the nine most important words ever advised were “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

Balance is certainly needed between determining the next year’s budget and all the complex forces sometimes seemingly spinning endlessly out-of-control.

Planning against the next disaster is impossible. Planning for resiliency and sustainability and a future very different from the present moment is the oddly sound alternative. Cooperating with all local governments to jointly bring in an agreed upon number of workforce housing units requires committed vision. Envisioning a Valley – and therefore La Conner’s downtown – without parking spaces or cars will take courage as well as foresight.

Council members are back from their Mount Vernon retreat. Soon they will be reviewing the 2024 annual budget. But it will be policy decisions they make after that, and budgets they craft after that will determine how the town will prepare for a future that will be more surprising than anyone can plan for.

Elected officials at every level represent citizens. Advocating for and speaking out for the community and future of your dreams not only helps town officials but is necessary to get them to stretch toward your hoped-for best ideas.

– Ken Stern