Rep. Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, met recently on the House floor with Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene. Bowman says his term on the Tigard-Tualatin School Board has helped him in the Legislature. (Photo by Jake Arnold, OSBA)
Ben Bowman describes himself as a pain in the neck when he won a seat on the Tigard-Tualatin School Board in 2019. Bowman beat an incumbent, and like a lot of new school board members, he came in roaring to shake things up.“Ben and I bumped heads at the beginning,” said former board Chair Maureen Wolf. “We were all trying to figure out who we were and who we trust.”
Tigard-Tualatin faced a familiar school board challenge. A new member had big ideas about how schools should be but little idea of how a school board actually ticks. Veteran members had to figure out how to work with someone new without dousing a passion to help students.
Bowman, who was elected as a Democrat to the Oregon House in November, is leaving the school board this year after one term so he can focus on his legislative work. But because he found a collaborative path under Wolf’s mentorship, he is leaving behind a district profoundly changed by his student engagement vision.
In 2019, Bowman was 27 and working as a Coalition of Oregon School Administrators lobbyist. Bowman, who attended Tigard-Tualatin schools, is the son of a teacher. He earned a master’s in education policy and had worked for legislators. He wasn’t sure if he wanted a career in education or public policy.
“School board is the perfect overlap of those two things,” he said.
He started talking to local students he knew from the Oregon Association of Student Councils about district issues. Bowman’s campaign platform grew out of what they liked about their district and what they wanted.
Dozens of students pretty much ran Bowman’s campaign. Those students were so inspired, they formed the Tigard-Tualatin Student Union to keep working on issues. The original students graduated, but the student union continues to be a force. The students have championed district-guiding policies on equity, racial justice, sports fees, environmentalism and menstrual dignity.
Abdirahim Mohamoud worked on Bowman’s campaign and helped start the student union. He said Bowman’s respectful listening pushed him out of his comfort zone to be an advocate for student issues, even testifying before the Oregon Legislature. He is at Howard University studying political science and considers Bowman a friend and mentor.
“He changed my trajectory,” Mohamoud said.
Emily Phuong Tran, a former student union member, is at Harvard University. She said she didn’t realize until college how rare it is for students to have so much voice.
“It’s so unlikely to have the kind of support that Ben has offered, which is supporting the infrastructure of student voice,” she said. “It’s not just one or two students – he’s always shared our vision in sustaining and strengthening an organization of students.”
Bowman held the vision, but he had to engage fellow board members and the superintendent to make it reality.
Wolf, for one, was not initially comfortable with Bowman’s student involvement ideas. But rather than trying to shut him down, she fed him information and asked for his input. She also came around to some of his thinking.
Bowman credits Wolf, a former OSBA Board president, for her patience and leadership. He said he learned to be less adversarial and more collegial.
Wolf nominated Bowman for vice chair his second year on the board even though they were still sometimes at odds.
They both say bringing him closer to the decision-making helped foster the working relationship.
“At a point, you decide you are going to trust each other that you are trying to do the right thing for kids,” Wolf said.
The board and the administration have enthusiastically embraced student voice, creating a national success story. Bowman and Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith have spoken about Tigard-Tualatin’s engagement methods at conferences for OSBA, COSA and the National School Boards Association.
Rieke-Smith became superintendent the year before Bowman joined the board. She said her relationship with Bowman started rough, but she focused on his desire to help students.
“That told me out of the gate that he is going to be someone I can work with,” she said. “He has a fire in his belly for students.”
Rieke-Smith also saw a willingness in Bowman to listen and learn that marked him as an eventually effective school board member.
When elected, Bowman was believed to be the youngest board member in district history. He was also the first to identify with the LGBTQ+ community.
Bowman said he grew during his school board term and gained confidence. He said he saw how to get things done, to shift policy and to move budgets toward equity and shared opportunity.
Bowman became chair after Wolf left the board in 2021. Wolf joined the Northwest Regional Education Service District board, and this year won a seat on the Tigard City Council. She said she looks forward to continuing to work with Bowman.
Bowman stepped down as chair after he joined the Legislature because he didn’t think he could make the necessary time commitment. He is leaving the board now because he sees the Legislature as the best way he can give back to his community and Oregon.
Bowman said school board work is hard and really draining. But he also said he enjoyed the work immensely and could see himself running for school board again later in life.
“It’s a fun feeling to be in the middle of it and knowing you are making a difference,” he said.
– Jake Arnold, OSBA
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