MOUNT VERNON — Burlington Café owner Brad Whaley has a nearly insurmountable lead over incumbent Dick Spink in the Burlington-Edison School Board race.

Whaley, 51, leads with 65 percent of the vote to Spink’s 35 percent as of the first count Tuesday night.

Spink, 48, served on the board for eight years and is the first incumbent to face a contested election since the district’s financial turmoil became clear this year. The district faces insolvency as early as August because of previous land purchases that the district can’t afford without new revenue.

The lopsided vote appeared to reflect voter dissatisfaction with Spink’s—and the School Boards’—purchase of property for a school site at a price several times the land’s value. The land is zoned for agriculture and is still not within Burlington’s urban growth area and therefore is unusable.

But shortly after learning of his likely victory, Whaley articulated a position on the land purchase that mirrors Spink’s. He now supports rezoning the property—29 acres near Peterson and Pulver roads—for a school. Moving the property out of agriculture is adamantly opposed by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, a group in which Whaley is a member.

Then there is the issue of the school district’s debt crisis. In 2004 and 2007, School Board members voted to buy property on interest-only, nonvoted bonds. The principal payments start to come due next month. In December 2010, the payments balloon to $650,000 per year. The district could become financially insolvent starting next school year, and its budget would then be regulated by the state.

The board’s purchase of the Peterson-Pulver property without any assurance that it could be used for a school has many of the district’s residents up in arms and was likely reflected in many of the votes in his favor. He avoided staking out a clear position on the issue prior to the election, suggesting only that some “compromise” might be possible.

But Whaley is now saying that he thinks getting the land rezoned and gaining voter support to pass a bond to pay for the land is not impossible. He also said he sees the Peterson-Pulver parcel as the best location for a school.

He said the board should work with the city to build a strong case for rezoning the land and then take it to the county.

“The county commissioners have an obligation to deal with this topic, and somebody has to put their feet to the fire,” Whaley said Tuesday night.

School Board President Liza Bott was at the county building to welcome Whaley to the board and inform him of upcoming meetings.

Whaley will be sworn in at the first School Board meeting after the election results are certified on Nov. 24. That meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 14 in the administration office, 927 E. Fairhaven Ave., Burlington.