OSBA leadership set for 2022
New OSBA Board members and officers and Legislative Policy Committee members take their seats Jan. 1.
Scott Rogers (Athena-Weston School District) will move from the president-elect position to president, and Maureen Wolf (Northwest Regional Education Service District) will serve as past president. In September, the Board chose Sonja McKenzie (Parkrose) to be president-elect, Erika Lopez (Hillsboro) as vice president and Patti Norris (Crook County) for secretary-treasurer.
OSBA finished counting votes this week for 12 regional Board positions and all 20 elected LPC positions. Emily Smith (Helix) won the Gorge Position 2 while Rogers serves as president, and Jeff Davis (Alsea) will take over the Linn/Benton/Lincoln Position 10. Melissa LaCrosse ran unopposed for the Marion Position 12 but has since resigned from the Jefferson School Board. Her Marion seat will be appointed by the Board in the new year.
The Legislative Policy Committee, which will be asked to take a more active role in legislative advocacy, also will have new members. Bruce Kevan (La Grande), Judy Richardson (North Wasco), Sara Crawford (Phoenix-Talent), Candice Voynick (Glide), María Hinojos Pressey and Ashley Carson Cottingham (Salem-Keizer), Elizabeth Durant (Parkrose), and Marvin Lynn (Tigard-Tualatin) are new to regional positions. The North Coast and one Multnomah position had no candidates and will be appointed.
Incumbents filled the rest of the Board and LPC seats.
OSBA’s Board and LPC will be leading school boards through turbulent times as educators continue to deal with sometimes divisive pandemic and equity issues.
Members of the OSBA Board unanimously approved in concept a new “call for equity” during their Dec. 3-4 meeting in Salem. They are expected to adopt final wording at their February meeting.
The equity work is an extension of a Board goal adopted in September 2020. The new statement includes wording on empowering students to thrive and supporting school boards’ efforts to remove obstacles. At the same time, OSBA is also seeking to fill a new position of deputy executive director/equity officer.
At the December meeting, Executive Director Jim Green said that in coming months he looks forward to OSBA Board members sharing with their regions the importance of equity work and the reasoning behind it.
“This is a big step in the journey of this association,” Green said.
- Jake Arnold, OSBA
jarnold@osba.org