Consequential school board races underway in Portland suburbs, other parts of Oregon

The balance of power on school boards around Oregon, including in some suburban Portland districts that are among the largest in the state, could shift with the results of next month’s election.

School board elections, held in May of odd-numbered years, normally draw only a die-hard fraction of registered voters. But this year’s could alter what thousands of students learn and who will teach them in the years to come.

Contested races, often with candidates running as part of ideologically aligned slates, are on the ballot in Hillsboro, North Clackamas, Canby, Salem-Keizer, Newberg, Albany, West Linn-Wilsonville, Crook County, Oregon City and Gresham-Barlow, among other districts. The deep-pocketed donors who are key players in consequential statewide races have waded in, with endorsements and donations coming from conservative groups like Oregon Right to Life and the Oregon Family Council, as well as labor unions and advocacy groups like Stand for Children.

That trend, which the state school boards association says has been gaining ground around the state since 2018, is more pronounced than ever this year.

“School boards are at the epicenter of the culture wars,” said Andy Saultz, assistant professor of educational policy and leadership at Pacific University.

In Democratically controlled Oregon, activists upset by schools’ lessons about race, sexuality and gender identity scrabble for a toehold at the Legislature. But control over local school boards is within reach — without the price tag of a legislative run — especially with prolonged school building closures and debates over masks still fresh in some parents’ minds, Saultz said.

Not every issue facing local school boards has a partisan take or is politically fraught, of course. Races are nominally nonpartisan, and candidates from across the political spectrum say they want to focus on how best to keep children on track academically and safe in school, to hold superintendents accountable and support teachers and to budget prudently in an era of declining enrollment.

But they don’t always align on solutions. And there are deep divisions on other culturally heated topics, including how much say parents should have over curriculum, what kind of books should be available in classrooms and libraries, the presence of armed police in schools, protections for LGBTQ+ students and student autonomy over their identities and choices while at school.

A handful of districts in Oregon provide a preview of the fissures that can crop up when control shifts on a school board, including Albany and Newberg, where voters in 2021 handed power to what had previously been the boards’ minority of conservative-leaning candidates.

In 2021, the Newberg board majority’s insistence that teachers not display political messages – such as Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ Pride flags — spiraled into multiple lawsuits, the superintendent’s ouster and resignations of key staff. In the same year, a newly elected, right-leaning Albany school board majority dismissed Superintendent Melissa Goff, now an education adviser to Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, without cause after some community members raised concerns about her focus on equity and inclusion.

The Oregonian/OregonLive is spotlighting three large districts in the Portland metro area where control over the school board is at stake in May — Hillsboro in Washington County, North Clackamas in Clackamas County and Gresham-Barlow in Multnomah County.

SEX ED IN THE SPOTLIGHT

With nearly 19,000 students, Hillsboro is the fourth-largest district in Oregon. Forty-one percent of its students are Latino; another 40% are white; 8% are multiracial; and 7% are Asian American.

Hillsboro’s third graders performed at roughly the state average in reading in 2022, with slightly more of its white students demonstrating proficiency (49%) than the statewide rate (47%) but fewer of its Latino students doing so (17% versus 21% statewide). The same pattern held true for eighth graders’ math skills. But 92% of its sophomores were on track to graduate at the outset of the 2022-23 school year, well above the state average.

Six of the seven members of the current Hillsboro school board were elected with support from entities including the Washington County Democrats and the Oregon Education Association. The exception is Monique Ward, an engineering data manager who was elected in 2021 with support from donors including the Oregon Family Council, a group that 20 years ago led the fight to ban gay marriage.

This year, three seats are contested, and if the three candidates aligned with Ward win their races, it will signal a sea change for the district. At least one of them has deep pockets: orthopedic surgeon and parent Bart Rask. He is the principal donor to a political action committee called Communities for Sensible Schools, which spent $120,000 in 2021 to back Ward as well as three other conservative candidates who lost.

So far this cycle, Rask has donated $50,000 to the political committee, which in turn has supported his campaign and those of two other candidates, small business owner Terri Kam and retired state employee Shawnna Arns. The committee spent $48,000 as of Friday to fuel their campaigns.

Should all three win, the district would almost certainly see changes to its comprehensive sexuality education curriculum, which in accordance with state requirements includes lessons on gender identity, consent and navigating sexual relationships, and is updated every two years. Anti-abortion advocacy group Oregon Right to Life has endorsed the three along with a dozen or so candidates in other districts around the state.

“For sex education topics outside of the biology of reproduction, parents should have input since the range of exposure to sexual topics parents want for their minor children varies widely, as the need for these topics is subjective,” Rask wrote in his responses to a candidate questionnaire from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

His opponent is technical writer Patrick Maguire, who was appointed to the board in 2022. Kam is running against incumbent and state employee See Eun Kim, while Arns is running against daycare owner Ivette Pantoja for the district’s only open seat. Maguire, Kim and Pantoja are all supported by the state largest teachers union and by the Washington County Democrats.

Maguire said he joined the board to ensure marginalized students have a safe space to learn.

“I was encouraged to volunteer on the board in part because of my advocacy for the voices of our LGBTQ+ students and families who were asking for more support,” he wrote in response to The Oregonian/OregonLive questionnaire. “The Trevor Project has conducted studies providing proof of what we intuitively know: that the mental well-being of youth is gravely affected by bullying. Providing a supportive environment can literally save lives.”

Kim said that in her time on the board, debates over comprehensive sex education have been a continuous point of division. She said parents can already opt their child out of those lessons.

“But when they say I don’t want this to be available for other children in the district, that’s where I have to draw the line as a board member [by] saying, ‘This may not personally align with your values, but we serve a district of almost 20,000 students,’” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “A lot of the time, schools are the only place that a child has a trusted adult in their lives or that’s the only place where they have access to sex ed. To withhold that from our students is not fair and is not equitable.”

If elected, Arns, who is part of the opposing slate of candidates, said she would prefer to see an “opt-in” model where parents could choose to have their children participate in sex ed instead of having it be the default.

BOOK RESTRICTIONS AND BEYOND

North Clackamas is Oregon’s sixth-largest school district. Fifty-six percent of its students are white, 20% are Latino, another 11% are Asian American, 9% are multiracial and 3% are Black. Its third graders beat statewide averages for the share of third graders who read proficiently in spring 2022 and 88% of its class of 2022 graduated within four years, well above the state average of 81%. But far fewer of its eighth graders scored as proficient on state math tests than eighth graders statewide.

As in Hillsboro, the current school board membership drew significant support from progressive-leaning organizations. But after a few years of tensions running high at board meetings, three of four incumbents decided not to run for reelection.

All four seats are contested, with two distinct slates of candidates facing off. Should the slate of candidates who have drawn support from prominent local Republicans, including county Commissioner Ben West and Paul Savas, pull off a win, they would flip control of the school board for at least the next two years.

That could bring an immediate change to everything from what books are available in middle and high school libraries to the anti-bullying curriculum teachers use to deliver lessons on tolerance, equity and inclusion.

“We’re not a monolith. We’re not always going to agree on everything,” said April Dobson, a North Clackamas parent and longtime community organizer who is running for one of the open seats, speaking of the other candidates on her slate, who have the support of the teachers’ union and other advocacy groups that typically support Democratic candidates. “But we do have shared values around the success of every student and the support of every student, regardless of their identity, their race, their gender or anything else that people use as a label to box kids in.”

Dobson’s opponent is Angela Pederson, a former elementary school teacher whose children are recent graduates from Clackamas High. She’s countered that the district’s board and administration have shifted too far to the left.

“Our district lacks balanced leadership and has become a place that doesn’t authentically embrace the diversity that they say they promote,” Pederson wrote in answers to The Oregonian/OregonLive candidate questionnaire. “Our schools should be places that foster critical thought rather than steering one set of politically motivated agendas.”

The district also features a race between incumbent Jena Benologa, coordinator of a student exchange program, and Courtneigh Swerzbin, a parent and small business owner. In another race, Tara Nelson, a parent who works as a customer service representative in the banking industry, faces Paul Kemp, a senior mechanical designer at an engineering firm whose children are graduates of the district’s schools. The final race features parents Aimee Reiner, an account manager, and Glenn Wachter, a health care executive.

Dobson, Benologa, Kemp and Wachter have all been endorsed by Stand for Children, which advocates for student achievement and equity for low-income, minority and immigrant students, the North Clackamas teachers union and the three departing members of the school board.

Nelson, Swerzbin, Reiner and Pederson have fewer shared endorsements, though Pederson counts Republican member of Congress Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Happy Valley among her supporters and Reiner has the endorsement of the Oregon Moms Union, a political action committee that advocates for more parental authority over school decisions.

Across the two slates, fundraising totals so far range between about $2,000 and $15,000 — not out of the ordinary for a school board race in a district of this size. But both sides say they expect some outside spending in the race, whether from the Oregon Education Association or groups like Oregon Right to Life or the Oregon Family Council.

Amid the disagreements, there is common ground — both sides are calling for more focus on meeting the needs of children in special education, improving the district’s high school graduation rates and expanding vocational education.

A SHIFT TO THE LEFT

The Gresham-Barlow school district is the 10th largest school district in the state. Forty-nine percent of its students are white; 32% are Latino, 9% are multiracial, 4% are Black and 3% are Asian American. A high share of its students are navigating poverty, and only 29% of third graders tested as fully proficient in reading in 2022, compared to 39% statewide. Only 19% of its eighth graders registered as fully proficient in math, also well below the state average. Its on-time graduation rate of 76% for the class of 2022 was below state average too.

But there’s a key difference between Gresham-Barlow and both North Clackamas and Hillsboro. In Gresham-Barlow, the current board has a slightly right-of-center makeup, which could be upended by this May’s results.

The board’s current make-up solidified after the May 2021 election, when an appointed board member who had pushed for a policy that would have required that Black Lives Matter and rainbow pride flags be on display next to the American flag in every school building lost her bid to serve a full term.

This time around, there are four races on the ballot, three of them contested. If Stefanie Craft, a special projects manager at Ad-Tek, retired teacher Julie Frediani and veterinarian Cherice Roth all win, it would shift the political makeup of the board.

It’s difficult to predict the outcome, in part because the district’s voters resist pigeonholing. Its representatives in Salem are Democrats, but voters there were more likely to support Republican and Independent candidates than most of the rest of Multnomah County in the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Craft is running against David Ligatich, chief financial officer of several metro-area Biscuits Cafés. Frediani is trying to unseat incumbent Holly Riegelmann, a bookkeeper at her family’s appliance business. And Roth is matched against incumbent Shawn Farrens, a human resources manager for an online charter school.

Roth and Frediani are endorsed by the Gresham-Barlow Education Association, and Craft and Roth both have endorsements from Stand for Children. Farrens and Riegelmann have endorsements from fellow school board members Cathy Keathley and Blake Peterson, while Ligatich has the support of the Oregon Moms Union.

The race is drawing significant interest from labor unions. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union gave $50,000 this month to a political action committee called Independent Neighborhood Action, which has in turn spent about $16,000 so far to boost the candidacies of Roth, Frediani and Craft.

On the other side, Ligatich has reported raising more than $34,000, including a $5,000 loan he made to his campaign, and $12,000 from two members of the family that runs Leathers Fuels, a chain of gas stations in the Gresham area.

Farrens, who says he considers himself to be “center-right,” comes in next: He has reported raising $12,550, including $5,000 from Jan Weston, the chief financial officer of a local car dealership in Gresham.

Overall, Craft has raised about $9,200, including $500 from Multnomah County Commissioner Lori Stegmann, while Roth and Frediani have $8,200 and $5,395 in contributions, respectively. Riegelmann has reported $2,250 in contributions.

Ligatich, who said he decided to enter the race after his son was disciplined for slamming a door after a disagreement with a high school teacher over an assignment, said he’s in favor of the “parents’ rights” movement. If elected, he said, he’d push for all curriculum to be made available online for parental review.

Craft, his opponent, said she’s more inclined to leave it to professional educators to choose the best curriculum for Gresham-Barlow students. One of her key focuses, she said, will be on, “inclusiveness for our diverse community.”

“All students should feel represented and safe in our schools and have access to sports, arts and all extracurriculars and activities, no matter their background,” she said.

The Oregonian/OregonLive surveyed candidates running for school boards in Hillsboro, North Clackamas and Gresham-Barlow on key questions designed to help voters make their choice in the May 16 election. The newspaper will publish candidates’ responses online this week.

— Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com