POULSBO — Bruce Christen filed Oct. 6 as a write-in candidate for North Kitsap School Board.

He initially decided not to run for a full term — he was appointed Nov. 5, 2014 to the District 2 position vacated by Dan Weedin, who resigned — but filed as a write-in after lone candidate Jim Almond, a real estate broker endorsed by the local Republican Party, didn’t participate in the Oct. 5 League of Women Voters candidates forum and didn’t file a candidate statement for the voters pamphlet.

Almond’s no-show prompted a letter to the editor from Beth Worthington, school board president:

“As Election Day got closer, I looked for information about Jim Almond, the unopposed candidate for NKSD director, District 2. I did not find any,” she wrote. “The statement in Kitsap County’s Voters Pamphlet was blank. He did not submit one. Most other unopposed candidates had statements. He did not respond to the invitation to the League of Women Voters candidates’ forum on Oct. 5. Three unopposed Poulsbo City Council candidates did respond and attended.

“It is not fair to North Kitsap voters to ask them to cast a vote when no information is available. Our schools are too important to vote without knowing what the candidate believes in or what they will do.”

Almond said Oct. 13 that he didn’t participate in the candidates forum because “I had something scheduled, I’ll leave it at that.”

He said that although he didn’t submit a statement for the voters’ pamphlet, “I have my written statements online,” a reference to Q&As that he’s filled out.

Of his priorities as a school board member, he said, “I’m a short-answered person. I support the union, the schools, the teachers, and our community. But do I have an agenda? No.”

Almond said he hasn’t had the opportunity to attend school board meetings, but said he keeps up on district affairs because his wife is a teacher in the district. He said he could bring “a different perspective, that of a businessman” to the school board, and wants the “community and taxpayers to know what they’re paying for.”

Almond ran for 23rd District state representative in 1998 as a candidate from the American Heritage Party, which is now known as the Christian Liberty Party. He received 4,077 votes to Republican Paul Zellinsky’s 18,980 and Democrat Phil Rockefeller’s 23,095.

“It was fun and very interesting,” he said of the experience. When a friend of his asked him to run for school board this year, his initial response was, “Maybe — I’ll think about it.” He’s a long-time resident of the community — he purchased his father’s property and raised his three children here — and said, “I love Poulsbo.”

Between Almond’s activities as a Gideon — an organization of Christian business and professional men who are dedicated to distributing God’s word around the world — and real estate business, he said, “A lot of people in the community know me. They pretty much know what I stand for.”

Almond said anyone who wants to learn more about him should pick up the phone and give him a call. “I like to talk to people,” he said.