Matthew Tasin (Orting School District school board District 2, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Matthew Tasin is running for election to the Orting School District school board District 2 in Washington. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source] He was on the ballot in the primary on August 5, 2025.[source]
Tasin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Matthew Tasin provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on July 17, 2025:
- Birth date: April 5, 1989
- Birth place: Houston, Texas
- High school: Klein High School (Texas)
- Bachelor's: United States Air Force Academy, 2011
- Graduate: American Military University, 2016
- Graduate: Air University, 2024
- Military service: United States Air Force, 2011
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Christian
- Profession: Military Officer
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Volunteer, Vereran, Visionary
Elections
General election
General election for Orting School District school board District 2
Matthew Tasin and Reshonda Williams are running in the general election for Orting School District school board District 2 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
Matthew Tasin (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Reshonda Williams (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Orting School District school board District 2
Joshua Glandon, Matthew Tasin, and Reshonda Williams ran in the primary for Orting School District school board District 2 on August 5, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Joshua Glandon (Nonpartisan) | |
| Matthew Tasin (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Reshonda Williams (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
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Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Matthew Tasin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Tasin's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I’ve been married over ten years to my amazing wife and we have two stellar school-aged kids. I’m also a military veteran with over 14 years of experience in various leadership positions. I am originally from Texas and have lived in four states, which gives me a unique perspective on the education system.
- Back to Basics: Quality education and a supportive learning environment need to be the district's top priorities. Recent reporting indicates 72% of Washington eighth graders were not proficient in math, and 69% were not proficient in reading. Data shows that over 30,000 families have pulled their students out of public schooling and nearly 90% of families are concerned about their child/ children's education. Student safety, bullying, overcrowding, and aging infrastructure are important issues I hope to address.
- Discipline and Standards: Student agency is a wonderful thing, but at the end of the day kids need adults to set firm and consistent boundaries. I’ve volunteered both at OES and PTR and served on the Citizen Facilities Advisory Committee. I’ve observed that teachers have few disciplinary options and the lack of standards is reflected in the District’s 23/24 Report Card:
42.6% of students were on track for college-level learning in ELA without needing remedial classes.
28.5% of students were on track for college-level learning in math without needing remedial classes.
38.8% of students were on track for college-level learning in science without needing remedial classes. - Parent Involvement and Student Safety: I hope to work with teachers, school staff, and parents to better understand how the district can support them and ensure their voices are heard, to include continuing the bond initiative. I also see a need to partner with school administrators, community leaders, and the Orting Police Department to enhance safety protocols.
Education, Government Spending, Environmental Protection, Protection of Individual Rights
I look up to Jesus and aspire to follow Him and be as much like Him as I can be.
The U.S. Constitution
Integrity, Critical Thinking, Transparency
Leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving, process improvement, programatics, and straightforwardness.
The core responsibility of a school board member is to prioritize the education and safety of students above all else. Board members must partner with school administration, parents, and community members to prepare students for college, careers, and life.
I want to leave the District better than I found it. Specifically, I want to leave behind a District where teachers want to work and where students achieve high levels of post-graduation success.
Certainly the one that had the biggest impact on me was the 9/11 terrorist attack.
I mowed my neighbor’s grass in middle and high school.
The Bible tops my list because it’s so full of life lessons and real-life struggles, but the books I’ve re-read the most times are The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Goku because he balances incredible power and drive with kindness, mercy, and a gentleness of spirit
Learning humility.
As previously mentioned, I believe Board members must partner with school administration, parents, and community members to prepare students for college, careers, and life.
The people of Orting
I think you need to build classes so that stronger students are grouped together in a class and struggling students are grouped together in a class. That way the school can allocate the proper resources to meet students’ individual needs instead of trying to paint a single class full of diverse learning styles and strengths with the same broad brushstrokes.
I would like to hold coffee convos periodically where I can meet with members of the community, specifically parents, to get their insight and inputs on school issues. I also want to adjust the events in the School Board meetings so that parents have an option to speak both at the beginning and end of the meeting. I don’t think it’s fair to parents that after they hear the Board discuss and deliberate that parents are not allowed to ask questions or seek further clarification from the Board.
I want to use evidence-based curriculum practices and continue to seek out new modalities. I think good teaching is a combination of keeping students engaged in the material, such as letting them know how a history lesson is important to them today, coupled with an individual emphasis on the students as unique human beings. My measure of success would not be the number of high school graduates, because if you lower standards you can increase graduation rates. My measure for success would be the percentage of students graduating at or above grade-level and the percentage ready for college curriculum without the need for remedial classes.
I would like to see an increased emphasis on technical programs and trade school courses, Running Start, and life skills courses. I want students to graduate not just ready for college, but also with the skills to balance their budget, maintain healthy relationships, and perform basic household management.
The Bond needs to pass. I would want to set up multiple community meetings to encourage community members of the importance of education for the future of the nation. The District’s newsletter stated that “an estimated 75% of the residents and voters within the school district boundaries do not have school-aged children in the Orting School District.” We need to reach those individuals if we want our schools to be properly funded.
Parents shouldn’t have to worry about dropping their kids off at school. I want to fund more school resource officers, enhance security through checkpoints and metal detection equipment, and be transparent about any threats to the school along with the District’s disciplinary plan in such an event.
Planning classes by ability level would alleviate the strain placed on students who need more time to master material by not pushing them too hard too fast. Special education professionals need dedicated training and, due to the high demands of the job, a build-up period before being asked to work with high needs children. Students should be afforded regular touch points with the counselor as well as social-emotional instruction. Faculty and staff need to have mental health services as part of their insurance plan, as well as access to the school counselor during set-aside faculty times.
I don’t have a favorite but I appreciate a good dad joke. My youngest likes to tell the joke “why did the apple go to Applebees? To eat his face off.” It makes no sense but it’s our thing.
As mentioned, I am actually a proponent of year-round schooling to minimize summer learning loss.
An ideal learning environment is free from political bias and distraction, including distractions from other students. Teachers are empowered to control their classrooms with a progressive discipline policy and the classes are built so teachers can give adequate attention to stronger and weaker students.
I would not have left the schools shut down as long as the State did. The policies the State put into place made no sense given the science and risk to children, yet the harm done to them socially and academically was incalculable. I would push to limit school closures to the greatest degree possible, and am actually a proponent of year-round schooling to minimize summer learning loss.
I would like to hold coffee convos periodically where I can meet with members of the community, specifically parents, to get their insight and inputs on school issues. I also want to adjust the events in the School Board meetings so that parents have an option to speak both at the beginning and end of the meeting. I don’t think it’s fair to parents that after they hear the Board discuss and deliberate that parents are not allowed to ask questions or seek further clarification from the Board.
I think if you build a District that empowers teachers to maintain control of their classrooms and set classes based on student performance, then teachers will be able to spend more time teaching and less time managing student behavior or failing to challenge some kids in order to bring up students who take more time to master subjects. These changes will inspire teachers to want to work in a District where they know they’ll be supported and be given the resources necessary to manage the kind of classroom they are leading.
There aren’t enough characters for me to go into this as deeply as I would like, but long story short is that government accountability and transparency are the cornerstone of a healthy democratic republic. It is the lack of these qualities that has led to an all-time low level of trust in the American government.
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Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Tasin completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
