Incumbents stay on board

It’s been a historic and difficult school year for the Eugene School District in many ways, and school board members have come under fire for some of the decisions they’ve made.

But when board members take their seats behind the dais at the district’s Education Center next fall, they will look a lot like the board members who will take those seven seats at tonight’s regularly scheduled board meeting.

That’s because of the three board members whose seats were challenged in Tuesday’s primary election, all three — Chairman Craig Smith, Vice Chairwoman Alicia Hays and Mary Walston — were re-elected, and by comfortable margins.

For Smith, 66, a business attorney with the Eugene law firm Hershner Hunter, July 1 will be the beginning of his fifth four-year term on the board. But this election was the first time he had faced more than one challenger. In fact, he faced three who wanted to unseat him. Was he worried?

“Yeah, I was,” Smith said Tuesday after the initial returns showed him with 53 percent of the vote for Position 4 over his closest challenger, parent Mark Callahan, who had 22 percent of the votes.

“It was a serious campaign, and there were a lot of issues for voters to consider,” said Smith, who had gathered with fellow supporters of the city income tax for schools at Davis’ Restaurant in downtown Eugene.

Smith, who has been on the board since 1995, also raised and spent more money on a campaign than ever before. As of Tuesday, he had actually spent $1,000 more than he had raised, having raised $10,175 and spent $11,071, according to disclosure reports with the Oregon secretary of state.

“Even though the board made a lot of controversial decisions (this school year), I think voters showed a lot of confidence in the board structure,” said Smith, who also came out ahead of challengers Linda Hamilton, a Lane County parole and probation officer who had 17 percent of the vote, and stay-at-home mom Natasha Hennings, who had 7 percent. “I just thank the voters for having faith and re-electing me, and I look forward to serving four more years,” Smith said.

Following Superintendent George Russell’s recommendations, the school board voted on Feb. 2 to close four elementary schools — Coburg, Crest Drive, Meadowlark and Parker — at the end of this school year; to lay off as many as 109 teachers, as well as 10 percent of the district’s classified and administrative staffs; to use up to $5 million in reserves; and to reduce materials and supplies and general fund support for athletics, among other cuts. The district is facing a record $21.7 million budget shortfall for 2011-12.

Thus, it was a bittersweet victory for the three incumbents as voters on Tuesday rejected the city income tax that they all supported. Their celebrations will be short-lived, said Hays, 51, director of the Lane County Department of Children and Families, who arrived at Davis’ late after a long meeting at the county offices.

“We have another school board meeting,” said Hays, referring to tonight’s meeting, in which the board will deal with three proposals from buyers wanting to purchase the district-owned Civic Stadium property, one of many issues on the board’s plate.

In the Position 1 race, Hays’ closest challenger, south Eugene contractor and rancher, Greg Stallings, raised three times as much money for his campaign as Hays, who was seeking a second term.

As of Tuesday, Stallings had raised $16,613 and spent $11,544, while Hays had raised $5,362 and spent $4,989, according to the disclosure reports.

But as of 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Hays had 64 percent of the vote to Stallings’ 23 percent, with another 12 percent going to Elmira High School Principal Gary Carpenter, who lives in the Eugene district and has children who attend Eugene schools.

“Obviously, it’s great,” Hays said of being re-elected. “Especially given the tough decisions we made this year. But it’s kind of sad, too, given that the (city income) tax didn’t pass. More work cut out for us. We’re going to have to figure out what to do with less money.”

Walston, 60, resource development manager for United Way of Lane County, was leading with 61 percent of the vote for Position 7 as of 10:45 p.m., far outpacing her challengers, Sherry Callahan (22 percent), a sales associate for Symantec, and software business owner and University of Oregon computer science professor Matt Ginsberg (17 percent).

Although she has been on the board for almost two years, this was Walston’s first time running for a board seat. A member of the district’s budget committee, she was appointed to the board in the fall of 2009 to replace Yvette Webber-Davis, who stepped down for health reasons.

“I’m very grateful for the support,” said Walston, who was also at the Davis’ Restaurant gathering. “I think I’ve worked hard, but the real hard work’s ahead. We’re going to have to figure out what to do next. I think we have a good team, and we’re prepared to move forward.”