Two years ago, four progressive candidates were elected to the Salem-Keizer School Board. As I said in a a blog post congratulating them on their victories, this was a big win for quality education.
Pleasingly, each of the four progressive candidates ended up winning -- an amazing accomplishment.
Amazing, because Oregon Right to Life and its associated PACs (political action committees) went all out this time around, as they have in previous school board elections, in support of a conservative slate of candidates.
...With the four Salem-Keizer school board victories (assuming Cottingham survives the recount), progressives will end the nightmare of the current conservative school board majority being at endless war with both students and the Superintendent.
Now the other three school board seats are up for grabs in the May 16 election. Once again, there are two contrasting candidates competing for each of the seats: a progressive and a conservative.
These are the highly qualified progressive candidates. I urge you to vote for them. Here's a brief bio for each and a link to their web sites that I got from the Progressive Salem candidate page.
Cynthia Richardson has served students in Salem-Keizer Schools for 25 years, including as Principal of North Salem and McKay High Schools. She holds a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Texas. Her most recent service was as Director of Student Equity, Access and Advancement. Having recently retired from that position, Cynthia is ready to lend her decades of professional expertise to the School Board to continue to serve our students.
Kelley Strawn is as Associate Provost at Willamette University where he has been a professor and administrator for the past 15 years. He holds a Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin. He and his wife have educated two sons in Salem-Keizer schools. Kelley wants to bring his expertise in education and experience as a parent to the Board in order to support teachers and families in delivering the best possible education to our students.
Larry Scruggs served as an administrator for over two decades at the University of Portland. He holds a Ph.D. from Portland State University. Now retired, Larry works as a substitute teacher in Salem-Keizer classrooms where he has experienced firsthand what our students need for a great education. He is running for the school board to ensure that all our children have equal access to a quality education to prepare them for whatever field of endeavor they choose.
To learn more about the candidates, check out the descriptions of two candidate forums reported on by the provocatively-titled Salem-Keizer Proletariat.
Salem-Keizer School Board Candidate Forum
Student-run Salem-Keizer School Board Candidate Forum
This substack newsletter is written by Andrew Hickey, who describes himself this way:
Andrew Hickey is a journalist and communications professional living in Marion County, Oregon. He writes Salem-Keizer Proletariat, a digital newsletter focusing on the Salem-Keizer area and written from a progressive, working class perspective.
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