The Bellevue School Board is facing a major decision, one that could affect our children’s education for years to come.

Make the right choice and the district will continue to be a lighthouse district for the rest of the nation. Do it wrong, and our children’s education could suffer.

The task? Find a replacement for Judy Bushnell, who is stepping down from the board after 18 years.

Replacement is the wrong word, of course. No one replaces a person who has given so much of their life to making the schools and students better.

School board members are a special lot.

They put in long hours studying school proposals, trying to come up with the best options for students.

They must be ready to talk with a parent or community member at almost any time – and quite often at home on the phone – when they want to air a concern.

They must be willing to sit for hours in numerous meetings listening to people who want this or that in the schools.

Then, having done this for four years, they must stand for reelection and ask the voters to let them do it all again.

Fortunately for Bellevue, Judy Bushnell has been one of those people.

She helped bring Mike Riley to Bellevue as its superintendent and was with him when he pushed to have more students take on the challenge of Advance Placement courses. She was there during the times teachers and the district couldn’t agree on a contract, helping to bridge differences. She was there when the district published data and assessments of student achievement to determine if students were achieving – or not – in the classroom. Most of the time, the students achieved. If they fell short, she was there to help find a way to success.

At times like this, we often say how much a person will be missed. That doesn’t have to be the case. The School Board just needs to find someone like her.