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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2005)
may 6. 2005 ’ jllSt Ollt DMdJIPJfSS'Jnews an Ryan has challenged rhe typi cal belief that parents are on their own in raising kids. Ryan, who is gay and childless, has an 18-year commitment to working on issues relevant to education and queer causes. Ryan works as development director of Port land State University, serves on the Small Schixils Council, was on the grant committee for the Oregon Safe Schools Initiative and has participated in volunteer teaching. He helped launch the Gay Straight Alliance at Roosevelt High School (his alma mater), trained teachers about homophobia and facilitated a monthly Freshman Forum. Today, he is busy earning votes for Zone 4 of the Portland Public Schools board. these last eight years prepares me because 1 have firsthand insight of what it’s like for a teen-age kid who is attending a school with challenges. It’s a school that predominately doesn’t have much parental support, with a lot of English lan guage learners and some very hardworking par ents—many times single parents that do not have time to get involved in sch<x)l because they’re just trying to survive. Jaymee R. Cuti: What sparked your pas sion for public service? Dan Ryan: I was conditioned for public serv ice at a very young age. I was raised a culturally liberal Catholic. My mom tixik us to places like soup kitchens to work. 1 volunteered for political campaigns, and 1 was president of my 4-H Club. In 24 hours, you have eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of free time. With that free time, you should devote some of that to service, especially if you don’t have the responsibility of raising children. JRC: What have you learned about the campaigning? DR: That you put yourself out there like never before, and rhe reward of that is you’re exposed to a lot of intelligent people that are extremely passionate about this city and our public schools. I’m convinced more than ever that we’re going to figure this out. We want to have the strongest urban public schcxil system in the country, and we’ve all got to get behind this effort. It’s the most important, No. 1 thing for our economy. JRC: What has prepared you for the school board? DR: Working in the nonprofit sector for over 18 years, I’ve often staffed boards of direc tors. That gives me a lot of insight. Being a prod uct of the Portland Public Schcxfls prepares me. Being a fourth-generation Oregonian prepares me. Volunteering at Roosevelt High School JRC: Why would someone without kids have an interest in public schools? DR: 75 percent of the voters and taxpayers are in that category. To me, the most important public resource we support is the sch<x>l system. These are people who are going to be your future neighbors, employers and employees. This is our future. Nothing is more important. P rime for P ublic O ffice School board candidate proves parents aren't alone by Jaymee R. Cuti JRC: What should schools do differently if they have more funding? DR: We need to have more instructional time in front of stu dents, meaning smaller classes, more teacher-to-student contact. You want to give teachers freedom from drown ing in paperwork and the students fcxrused on rigorous and exciting cur riculum. Learning is fun. When you match the students up to a passionate teacher, the work is being done. going to give their neighborhixxJ sch<x>l a shot. I want to encourage rhe capture rate for schools in North/Northeast Portland to increase during my tenure. Accountability to voters is the second issue. As a board member, 1 will make certain that our policies and budget are transparent to voters. There’s nothing to hide. Finally, 1 will stay focused on the achieve ment gap. All children have the potential to JRC: What are your creative funding solutions? DR: Clearly we have to raise the Dan Ryan enjoys himself at the Oregonians Against level of state support. There’s a con Discrimination Luncheon. centrated effort to get $5.4 billion statewide. We cannot allow class sizes to grow learn. There’s nothing more important than and school years to be cut. It’s rime to come up installing all day kindergartens and pre-K in with a long-term, stable solution. low-performing clusters. Then you have very intensive reading programs. From there, a child JRC: What are the top three problems fac has the opportunity to excel in all subjects. It’s ing Portland Public Schools? important to have principals that are culturally DR: We need to make certain to gain par competent and to inspire and train teachers to ents’ trust so they continue to send their kids to have that same degree of cultural competency. neighborhood schools. We need to celebrate the No one should ever kx>k at a child and make many success stories: The North/Northeast clus assumptions on how they can learn. JH ter itself is led by the most inspirational leaders I’ve seen, and I’m also seeing younger families Staff Writer JAYMEE R. C uti cun be reached at visiting with their principal because they’re jaymee@justout.com. Laminated Wood Floor Installed for $2.99 sq.ft. Granite Kitchen Counters Installed starting @ $1,500 (3 pieces 26”x96") Ensured Proper Fit SHOWROOM FURNITURE WITH WAREHOUSE PRICING RIGHT UNDER THE HAWTHORNE BRIDGE AT THE CORNER OF 2ND AND SE MADISON. PORTLAND'S ORIGINAL 1’1 LLSERVIGE GOITER HOI SI’ \\D YARASIIOP. WE DO ALL REMODEL JOBS! 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