Steve Ellison has been a fixture at nearly every school board meeting for more than two years. Rain or shine, a binder of meeting documents in his lap, he carefully observed the ins and outs of school politics. Now, he’s hoping to officially join the fray.

The father of three young children is running for a position on the Vashon Island School District board, in a four-year term that would begin in December.

Ellison, who owns an Island company that produces wooden cores for skis and snowboards, has lived on Vashon since 2000, and says his engineering, product design and company management experience gives him an edge that makes him a well qualified candidate for school board.

He’s driven his small company to success for nearly 15 years, and said that applying a business model to running the school district isn’t a bad idea.

“Any organization is more effective when it has team members with complementary strengths who work together as a team,” he said. “I bring skills and a perspective that is unique.”

Since he began following school politics diligently in the last three years, he’s soaked up information about a variety of educational issues — and asked questions of the board that may otherwise have gone unanswered, he said.

“That’s one reason I think I bring a valuable perspective,” said Ellison, a candid but serious man who said he’s looking forward to bringing fresh eyes to old problems.

He’s also gotten involved as a community member, serving on the Instructional Services Council, a school district committee charged with the task of aligning curriculum at the three Island public schools.

But now, Ellison said, he’s ready to step into the role of director.

“The board of directors’ job is oversight,” he said. “It has two primary functions. One is to define a vision of where a district needs to be headed. And the second function is to monitor progress toward making that dream a reality, as well as taking care of day-to-day business.”

He hopes to join the board to ensure that the school district strives for academic excellence for every student, he said.

Good isn’t good enough — there’s always room for improvement, noted Ellison, a Burton resident who skis, bikes and camps in his free time.

“Given that we’re at the high end academically, we need to push that envelope and see how we can continue to improve, how we can prepare our graduates to succeed after graduation,” Ellison said. “We need to have a policy of continuing improvement.”

The school district needs to do so, he added, with a smaller budget than it’s previously had, in part because of decreasing state and federal funding and in part because the district’s enrollment is declining.

If elected, he’d like to see the school board spend more time working on its most important task — improving educational services for students — and less on the operational and peripheral aspects of running a school district.

He pays attention to areas that need improvement in the district — like its financial solvency, social environment for teens and educational quality — not because he’s negative, he said, but because “success depends on addressing your weak areas.”

An area he agrees needs to be addressed is the status of Vashon High School, a campus that some contend needs a major over-

haul.

Ellison said he’d like to see its most urgent fixes made immediately, but its larger overhaul done in phases.

The school board’s current five members are in the throes of crafting a funding measure to rebuild and renovate the high school — a proposal they want to put before voters in February.

Were he to win, Ellison wouldn’t yet be on the school board when it votes on sending the measure to Island voters, a decision it expects to make later this fall.

But he’s quick to note that he’d throw his support behind whatever decision the current board makes.

“If we take this bond to a vote soon, it’s my hope that it passes, so we can direct our attention to improving our educational programs, which is really where the focus needs to be,” he said. “There are a lot of unaddressed challenges for our district … that I’d like to see addressed.”