EDUCATION
SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES DISCUSS
BETSY DEVOS, LOCAL FUNDING SHORTAGE
May 16 election to fill three open 4J school board positions
BY JESLYN LEMKE
C
EVANGELINA SUNDGRENZ
MARY LEIGHTON
PHOTOS BY TODD COOPER
andidates in the race for the Eugene’s 4J School
District board — a four-year-long commitment
— are not happy about the Feb. 7 appointment of
Betsy DeVos as the nation’s secretary of education.
Add to this the recent protests of Latino fami-
lies lobbying the 4J school board to do more against the
harassment of immigrants, and the May 16 board election
has some weighty issues to address.
As of Feb. 9, four people have filed for one of three
open positions on the seven-member board, which makes
decisions on funding and hires the superintendent for 4J’s
Eugene schools.
The candidates are Jerry Rosiek, Evangelina Sund-
grenz, Mary Leighton and incumbent Anne Marie Levis,
but others could file before the March 16 deadline. Rosiek
and Leighton are competing for the position three seat,
while Levis and Sundgrenz are running for positions two
and six, currently unopposed.
“It’s a sad day for public education when somebody
who doesn’t seem to believe in public education or un-
derstand it is now in charge,” Levis says of the DeVos ap-
pointment.
Rosiek is a professor of education at the University
of Oregon. He says his initial motivation to run for the
school board was precisely because of the treacherous wa-
ters ahead due to the Trump administration.
“After the Nov. 3 election and the things we started
seeing at the national level — not just in the field of edu-
cation but across the board — my sense of obligation to
get involved in politics intensified,” Rosiek says. “It’s not
good enough to call my senators. Many of our public insti-
tutions are going to be under attack.”
Rosiek says he’s against DeVos’ idea of voucher sys-
tems that allow parents to transfer their children to private
schools with a stipend from the state. Critics argue that
vouchers pit public education against private education, to
the advantage of wealthy families.
Rosiek says that, if elected, he’ll take a strong stance
for better state funding of the 4J school district.
Chronic issues that face the district are similar to those
confronting other urban school districts in Oregon, such
as the ongoing shortage of money from the state govern-
ment, says school board chair Mary Walston. This means
huge class sizes throughout 4J’s 19 elementary schools
— a 27-to-one student-to-teacher ratio — as well as the
district’s eight middle schools, four high schools and mul-
tiple alternative schools.
Steadily growing enrollment (16,400 and counting)
has the board planning to build a new North Eugene High
School and new Edison Elementary School by seeking
voter approval for a bond in the coming years.
Sundgrenz sits on 4J’s budget committee and says she has
firsthand knowledge of the budget obstacles facing the area’s
schools. While Sundgrenz says she is going to “wait and see”
when it comes to the long-term effects of DeVos’ confirma-
tion, she says one of her concerns as a potential board member
is the rise of poverty and homelessness among 4J students.
“I would like to look at ways to deal with chronic un-
derfunding,” Sundgrenz says. “There’s about 300 home-
less families in 4J alone. These are families that need
more resources and support.”
Leighton, now retired, was previously the executive
director of Network Charter School. She still teaches a
course called Lane County Economy and Employment at
the University of Oregon that connects 4J teachers with
local businesses to gain ideas for their classroom lessons.
Leighton says she is interested in helping schools col-
laborate with community organizations to help enrich stu-
dent education, but couldn’t specify which organizations or
which subjects she is interested in. She too agrees with Levis
that Secretary DeVos “doesn’t know beans about education,”
but stressed that the failure of Measure 97 this past fall in
Oregon was a more urgent matter than national politics.
“I am more worried about the results of the choice of
the people of Oregon to not take this last opportunity to
fund their own schools,” she says.
The May 16 special election will also feature candi-
dates for Bethel School District and other area school dis-
tricts. Currently 4J and Lane Community College are the
only districts that have contested races.
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