Dick Mason

The Observer

School board elections for Union County are beginning. Voters are now receiving ballots in the mail for board races in their school districts and the Union-Baker Education Service District.

The ballots must be returned to the Union County clerk’s office by May 15. Following are overviews of the board races in the La Grande School District and the Union Education Service District.

Information on board races in the Elgin and Cove school districts appeared in The Observer late last week. Information on the remaining school board races in Union County will be published in the next several days.

La Grande School District

The school district has four positions up for election; one is contested, and one has no candidates.

Nobody filed for the La Grande School District’s Zone 2, Position 2 berth. The Zone 2 berth is open to a resident in the portion of the school district that is south of Highway 30 and south or southeast of Highway 82 and outside the city limits of La Grande. The seat’s incumbent is Dick McDaniel.

Unless someone is elected as a write-in candidate, the La Grande School Board will later appoint someone from Zone 2 to fill the seat.

Deanna Brickman and Merle Comfort are running for the Zone 3, Position 7 berth. Brickman is a retired La Grande High School teacher, and Comfort works for Comfort Dental Lab. The winner will succeed incumbent Steve Joseph. Zone 3 berths are open to those living within the La Grande city limits.

Randy Tweten and J. Michael Frasier are both running uncontested for Zone 3 seats.

Tweten, an incumbent, is running for the Position 3 berth. Tweten is a biologist with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration.

Frasier is running for the Position 6 berth. Frasier taught music in the La Grande School District from 1973 to 2003 before retiring. He is now a part-time music teacher at EOU and a private consultant. Incumbent Tina Beeck is not running for reelection.

Below is a look at the candidates in the school district’s Zone 3, Position 7 board race.

Deanna Brickman

Brickman is campaigning as a strong advocate of the arts.

The candidate said she does not want the school district to make cuts in programs such as drama, art or music if budget reductions are needed in the future. Brickman also lists herself as a strong supporter of such industrial arts programs as metal shop and wood shop.

"These kind of things teach lifelong skills,” Brickman said.

Brickman knows many of the fine arts well, for she is a retired drama, speech, English and film teacher. Her teaching career spanned from 1964 to 2004, and she was a full-time teacher for about 95 percent of that time. She taught at La Grande High School the last 15 years of her career.

Brickman is running because she believes she owes a debt of gratitude.

"I want to give back to the community. It has been good to me,” said Brickman, who now works as a substitute teacher in Union County.

Brickman said that she supports the school district’s efforts to get a bond levy passed for capital construction and maintenance. The board intends to seek such a levy in November 2008. Voters rejected a $30 million bond levy for maintenance and capital construction last November.

Brickman has a firsthand understanding of some of the school district’s needs because of her teaching experience at LHS. She noted that one of the things the bond levy would have paid for was air conditioning for the second level of LHS. Brickman said this is badly needed because temperatures sometimes reach the low 90s in the classrooms.

"Not much learning is going on because students are so preoccupied (with the heat),” Brickman said.

The school board candidate believes that the school district’s administrative staff is doing a good job. She is disappointed that Superintendent Jay Rowell announced last week that he will resign at the end of the school year.

"I’m really sorry to see him leave. He is a very nice person and did a good job,” Brickman said.

Brickman would try to get the school board to take a closer look at administrative costs if she is elected. She believes the school district’s administrative staff is too large and should be trimmed back. She said administrative costs could be cut by doing such things as having custodians play a bigger role in the physical operation of their buildings.

Brickman, who has two grown daughters, is a 1964 graduate of what is now Eastern Oregon University, where she earned the equivalent of a master’s degree in education.

Merle Comfort

Merle Comfort understands firsthand the challenges he will face if elected to the La Grande School Board.

Comfort served on the La Grande School Board from 1990 to 1998. He was on the board during a difficult period. The school district had to make significant budget cuts during this time as result of the passage of Measure 5, the property tax limitation measure. The board was forced to do things such as cancel its contract with EOU to run Ackerman Lab School, which caused Eastern to close the grade school.

Comfort knows that he may face similar circumstances if elected again, but this does not discourage him.

"I really wanted to be more involved again,” he said.

Comfort has remained connected to the school district since leaving the board, serving on its budget committee since about 2000. He thus understands the school district’s needs and supports its effort to seek a multimillion-dollar bond levy for capital construction and maintenance in November 2008.

Comfort believes that a bond levy is needed to address the poor condition of the school district’s aging buildings.

For the levy to pass, the school board must reach out to as many people as possible, the candidate said. This includes critics, who Comfort believes should be invited to be part of the planning process.

"We need to get people directly involved who should be directly involved,” Comfort said. "This would move the process along…. We need more groups on the same page than we [have] now.”

Comfort said that as a board member he would again strive to keep his eyes on the big picture and not involve himself in anything related to the day-to-day operations of the school district.

"I don’t want the board to micromanage,” Comfort said. "What it should be doing is making the best informed decisions possible.”

Comfort said he is sorry that Superintendent Jay Rowell announced Thursday that he will resign at the end of the school year. Comfort said Rowell is in a difficult situation because he does not have a full-time curriculum and personnel director working under him as did previous superintendents.

"Jay did an excellent job, but he was stretched too thin. When one person is doing the job of three, some areas will suffer,” Comfort said.

Comfort wants the school board to look into getting somebody to help the next superintendent with personnel and curriculum responsibilities. This might mean bringing in a half-time administrator.

"We need to look at all options,” Comfort said.

Comfort is a dental technician for Comfort Dental Labs, owned by his father, Hubert. He and his wife, Deanna, have a daughter who is a student at La Grande Middle School.

UNION-BAKER EDUCATION SERVICE DISTRICT

Four candidates are running for the three Education Service District berths up for election.

? Zone 1: Incumbent Steve Oliver of Summerville, a substitute teacher, is seeking reelection and has no challenger. Oliver previously served as Union County Sheriff. Zone 1 is open to those living in the Elgin, Imbler, North Powder and Union school districts.

? Zone 3: Incumbent Carol Boothman-Byron is running for reelection unchallenged. Boothman-Byron is a special education teacher with the La Grande School District. Zone 3 encompasses a portion of La Grande and all of Island City.

Zone 6: Incumbent Les Balsiger is being challenged by Pasco Arritola for the berth. Both candidates live in La Grande. Zone 6 is an at-large position open to those living in Union and Baker counties and a small portion of Malheur County.

In 2004 a forensic audit found extensive fraud in the Union-Baker Education Service District. The audit was conducted in conjunction with an Oregon State Police investigation. The ESD, which had had an annual budget of about $24 million, lost at least two thirds of funding as a result of the forensic audit findings. Below, both Balsiger and Arritola address the ESD’s current situation.

Pasco Arritola

Pasco Arritola wants to keep the Union-Baker Education Service District on the straight and narrow.

Arritola wants to do everything he can to make sure that the ESD does not revert to its pre-2004 ways. He believes the key to preventing this is making sure that the ESD adheres to its policy manual.

"I want to make sure that it follows district policy,” Arritola said.

He knows the ESD well because he served as the agency’s curriculum director from 1998 to 2004. He has kept a close eye on the ESD since then, monitoring it to make sure that it adheres to policy. Arritola believes he could help the board do a better job of this.

"I can make it a better board,” Arritola said.

Now retired and a substitute teacher in Union County, Arritola describes himself as a direct person, one who will not change his ways if elected.

"I don’t hide anything. I’m a straight shooter,” Arritola said. "I won’t change my values to get friends.”

Arritola believes that there is still an important place for the Union-Baker ESD. He noted that some services once offered locally by the Union-Baker ESD are now offered instead by the Umatilla-Morrow ESD. Arritola said that if the Union-Baker ESD can provide the same services at equal or less cost, it should be allowed to.

"It is better to stay local,” Arritola said.

He believes that the Union-Baker ESD is still of important value.

"I want it to stay open. It benefits our school districts,” Arritola said.

If elected, this would be Arritola’s second stint as a school district board member. Arritola served on the La Grande School Board from 1992 to about 2001. Prior to joining the La Grande School Board he worked in the La Grande School District for 18 years. He held many positions including those of Island City Elementary principal, La Grande High School associate principal and athletic director, and special programs director.

Arritola received an undergraduate degree from what is now Eastern Oregon University in 1961, a master’s from Oregon State University in 1967 and a doctorate from OSU in 1978.

Arritola said that his decision-making yardstick as an educator is the same one he would use as a board member.

"I make most of my decisions based on what I feel is best for kids,” he said. "The bottom line is that I care about kids.”

Arritola has been involved in many community activities during his time in La Grande. He has coached Little League, served on the parish council for Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church and has been a member of the Lions Club for 25 years and the Elks for 30 years.

Arritola said that today he continues to stay connected to education for one reason. "I still like the kids.”

Les Balsiger

Board member Les Balsiger believes the Union-Baker Education Service District is far from regaining its former stature, but it is on the rebound.

"We are starting to move gradually on the way up. I’m optimistic but guarded in my optimism,” Balsiger said.

Balsiger was appointed to the board in July to fill the unexpired term of Ron Luellan of Baker City, who stepped down to devote more time to his business.

This is Balsiger’s second stint on an ESD board. He earlier served on the Clackamas (County) ESD Board from 1977 to 1979. Balsiger grew up in Wilsonville and knows Clackamas County well. His late father, Phillip R. Balsiger, was elected Wilsonville’s first mayor in the 1960s.

Balsiger came to La Grande in 2004 after accepting a position at EOU. He is the director of student relations and marketing for EOU’s division of distance education.

He received a law degree from Gonzaga University in May 2004. He earlier earned a bachelor of science degree in liberal studies from EOU’s distance education program and an associate degree in business from Clackamas Community College.

Prior to coming to EOU, most of Balsiger’s professional career has been spent working in marketing for the real estate brokerage business and in new home construction.

Balsiger has an extensive background in public service. He is chairman of Printed Page Ministries, which coordinates the delivery of food and clothing to Romania’s Transylvania region. Balsiger founded Printed Page Ministries in 1988. It began serving Romania in 1993 and has raised more than $1 million for Romania since the ministry was founded.

Balsiger also does public service work in La Grande, where he is a president of the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Board.

Balsiger and his wife, Carol, have a son who is a student at La Grande Middle School. Balsiger also has a daughter who lives in Norway.

Balsiger, if elected to a full term, wants to continue helping the ESD work to get more high school students interested in attending college. He noted that he recently put together a meeting involving EOU, the ESD and school district representatives to look at this issue. One means is making it possible for high school students to earn college credit before graduating. Such programs are now operating and being fine-tuned.

Balsiger said that the Union-Baker ESD serves a valuable role because there are many small school districts in Union and Baker counties. Many can not afford things such as art teachers. Balsiger wants the ESD to work to help provide such teachers to small districts. This is just one of many examples Balsiger cites when discussing how the ESD can help.

"There are a myriad of ways we can meet needs of small school districts.”