8
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
SCHOOL BOARD:
Election is set for
May 19
Continued from page 6
certainly take a look at that,”
he says.
Karan Swaner
Like many parents, Karan
Swaner came to Sisters for
the schools. After a lengthy
career in the foreign service,
which took her all over the
world, Swaner chose Sisters
Country to settle in and raise
sheep.
“My daughter graduated
last June,” she says. “We
moved here because of the
school district. I think the
school (district) is the glue
that holds us all together. The
schools define, to me, the
Sisters Country.”
Swaner’s work with NGOs
and the State Department
brought her family into a
range of different types of
schools — public, private,
international, large and small.
That breadth of experience
gives Swaner a unique per-
spective on the possibilities
of education.
She is also a strategic
thinker, and she believes the
school district needs that in
this time of transition and
challenge.
“That is an area where a
superintendent often needs
more support from a board,”
she says.
Swaner was initially acti-
vated by talk of consolidating
Sisters schools with a larger
district — a prospect she cat-
egorically rejects.
“I absolutely believe that
Sisters School District must
remain independent,” she
says.
That requires squarely
facing up to challenges
Kalin Emrich & Katie Crabb
541-549-2882
— including enrollment that
is no longer climbing precipi-
tously, but which is still not
strong enough.
“I am a firm believer that
we should not be anticipating
growth,” she says.
Sisters has a harder time
attracting young families than
it does retirees.
“When I look around I see
a lot of new residents who are
my age,” she says.
She recognizes that the
district will have to decide
what to do with the aging
Sisters Elementary School
building and will have to con-
tinue to find ways to deliver
mandated services for spe-
cial-needs students.
It is not easy to maintain
a high level of academic
achievement while accom-
modating the varied needs of
students — some of whom
are headed for Ivy League
schools, some of whom will
go to community college and
some of whom want to get
straight into the work world.
Swaner comes into her
candidacy with little baggage,
which she believes will help
her dispassionately and strate-
gically take on difficult deci-
sions ahead.
“I’m not coming in with
any special affiliations …
to any particular program or
sport,” she notes.
Voters have ballots in hand
for the election. They are due
May 19.
Festival welcomes two songwriters
Two outstanding song-
writers will be performing in
a double bill at The Belfry in
Sisters (302 E. Main Ave.) on
Saturday, May 16, at 7 p.m.,
presented by the Sisters Folk
Festival (SFF).
Steve Poltz has thrilled
audiences worldwide with his
wacky, over-the-top stage per-
formance and heart-wrench-
ing, soul-stirring songs. At the
SFF in 2013, Steve engaged
festival audiences through-
out the weekend, at one point
even crowd-surfing — a first
for SFF.
As a road-tested trouba-
dour armed with whimsy, curi-
osity and a healthy respect for
the absurdities of existence,
he is unafraid of saying yes,
unafraid of letting his relent-
less, giddy energy fill a room,
and he is unafraid of letting
his streams-of-consciousness
take him wherever he needs
to go.
Poltz is legendary for his
improvisational songwriting
and timeless, original classics.
Oh, and he’s a pretty good gui-
tarist too. His shows are the
stuff of legend — no two are
alike — and can take an unsus-
pecting audience from laugh-
ter to tears and back again in
the space of a single song.
Since first emerging in
the early ’90s as the front-
man and songwriter of the
Kick Yor Hools Up!
LIVE MUSIC
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Friday, May 8 at 7 p.m.
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Friday, May 15
1 p.m. & 6 p.m.
Best Western Ponderosa Lodge:
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OR/UT (valid in WA) $80
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internationally acclaimed trio
Grant Lee Buffalo, Grant Lee
Phillips has been drawn to the
conflicts at the heart of the
American experience. Origi-
nally from California, Phillips
signed to the Boston-based
indie label Rounder Records
and launched a solo career,
issuing Ladies’ Love Oracle
online in 2000. His first full-
length LP, “Mobilize,” was
released to critical acclaim in
2001. Being praised as much
for its gentleness as much as
Buffalo were for their rock,
it featured Phillips’ talents
on many instruments, includ-
ing both dreamy pop and
dark but comforting ballads.
He says of his most recent
record, “Walking in the Green
Corn,” released in 2012 and
his seventh solo recording,
“History and legend have
often found their way into my
songs, but sometimes I don’t
have to look quite so far to
find inspiration.” The album’s
10 songs are drawn from
photo provided
Steve Poltz.
Phillips’ intensive investiga-
tions into his native lineage.
Phillips, who is Muskogee
(Creek) Indian, explores the
intersection of past and pres-
ent, personal and political.
For more information or to
purchase tickets, visit www.
sistersfolkfestival.org/sff-
presents, or call the festival
office at 541-549-4979. Tick-
ets are $20 advance, $25 at the
door, and $10 for youth 18 and
under.