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Bond would
go toward
new, larger
elementary
in Sisters
MAY 18 ELECTION
EQUITY, MENTAL HEALTH,
COMMUNITY: Redmond’s 11
school board candidates tackle
some top issues facing the district
BY JACKSON HOGAN • The Bulletin
T
he Redmond School
Board races are the most
competitive in Central Oregon
this year. Eleven candidates are
vying for four seats in the May 18
election, and only one — board
chair Shawn Hartfield — is an
incumbent.
This is a sharp turnaround from the
2019 board elections, where one incum-
bent ran unopposed and the other in-
cumbent only had one challenger.
The Bulletin asked the Redmond
School Board candidates the same
questions about guns in schools,
COVID-19, the district’s new equity
task force, and more.
Position 1
With the school board guaranteed to
have at least three new members next
school year, Hartfield said her nearly six
years of experience would serve Red-
mond schools well.
“Whether I get elected or not, we’re
going to have a very new board,” Hart-
field, 50, said. “It’s important to have
somebody there with the knowledge
and experience that I have.”
Besides serving on the board, Hart-
field works in human resources for
Buckstop Truckware, a Prineville auto
bumper manufacturer, and teaches
business classes at Central Oregon
Community College. She has three kids
in Redmond schools: one each at Sage
Elementary and Obsidian and Elton
Gregory middle schools.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic sub-
sides, Hartfield wants to push for more
extracurricular activities for elementary
students, she said.
“In our elementary schools, we have
not done a great job in developing ex-
tracurricular activities,” she said. “Chess
club in each school, bringing music
back in … It would build a community
of parents that want to bring their kids
to school every day.”
Hartfield and the Redmond School
Board also created an equity task force
for the district in September, intended
to address inequities in local schools,
combat explicit and implicit racism and
Building would ease crowding,
place all 3 schools on 1 campus
diversify the district’s work force.
The task force has done well getting
set up this year, Hartfield said, but she’d
push them to set concrete goals if re-
elected.
“That way it’s not a task force in idea,
it’s a task force that’s actually moving
forward to doing something that would
be measurable to all students,” she said.
One of the equity task force’s mem-
bers, Stephanie Hunter, is Hartfield’s
lone challenger.
Hunter is a behavioral specialist at
the Opportunity Foundation of Cen-
tral Oregon, a Redmond nonprofit
that supports people with disabilities.
She is the mother of a senior at Red-
mond Proficiency Academy charter
school and a foster son who is in a
post-graduate high school program
for students with developmental dis-
abilities.
Many of Hunter’s top concerns have
to do with helping schools and students
recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those include making sure attendance
bounces back next year after a sud-
den drop, improving school air filtra-
tion systems to prevent the spread of
COVID-19 and investing in students’
mental health.
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
Voters in the Sisters area will decide
May 18 whether or not to fund a brand-
new, larger building for Sisters Elementary
School by voting on a $33 million bond.
Sisters School District leadership say
that the proposed new elementary would
allow for more room for the crowding
school; it will make the elementary a true
K-5, instead of K-4; and it will create a co-
hesive, three-school Sisters campus on the
west end of town.
And if those perks don’t convince vot-
ers, perhaps this will: passing the bond
won’t raise taxes. It will simply retain the
tax rate that’s been in place since residents
passed a bond in 2001 to build Sisters
High School.
Curt Scholl, superintendent of Sisters
School District, said he was hopeful Sisters
voters would approve the bond.
“We have a strong partnership with the
community, so we are optimistic,” he said.
The current Sisters Elementary build-
ing — built in the ’70s — only has enough
room for grades K-4, unlike a typical K-5
elementary.
See Sisters / P2
See School board / P4
NeighborImpact
receives $800,000
in relief to expand
food bank warehouse
After this month’s competitive Redmond
School Board elections, the board is
guaranteed to have at least three new
members next school year.
Jackson Hogan/Bulletin background photo
Bulletin staff report
NeighborImpact will receive $800,000
in federal COVID-19 relief funds to go to-
ward expanding the nonprofit’s food bank
warehouse.
On Monday, the nonprofit in an an-
nouncement credited state House Rep. Jack
Zika, R-Redmond, with dedicating the dis-
cretionary funding toward the cause.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the
number of people using the food bank has
increased from 22,000 monthly to a peak of
34,000, according to NeighborImpact.
To keep up with the increasing demand,
NeighborImpact, which serves all of Cen-
tral Oregon, is trying to raise $5 million
to expand its warehouse. The project will
add 6,400 square feet to the existing ware-
house, as well as improve loading and un-
loading areas and upgrade to rooftop solar
to make the building more resilient.
Between the COVID-19 relief funds,
private donations and a grant from the
Maybell Clark Macdonald Fund, the orga-
nization has secured $1.04 million toward
the $5 million expansion campaign.
The Spokesman uses
recycled newsprint
Events in and around Redmond
The Redmond Spokesman welcomes event information for
its community calendar. Submissions are limited to nonprofit,
free and live entertainment events. Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday
for the following Wednesday’s paper. Items are published on a
space-available basis and may be edited. Contact us at
news@redmondspokesman.com or fax 541-548-3203.
WEDNESDAY 5/12
Ave., Redmond; go.evvnt.com/774289-1 or
541-382-4682.
E. Harrow; 6-7 p.m.; online; go.evvnt.
com/769983-0 or 541-306-6564.
Safe Medication Use in Older Adults: A
free, instructor-led webinar that’s designed
to help anyone who cares for an aging
Oregonian learn about safe medication use,
pain management and medication reviews;
1-4 p.m.; online; go.evvnt.com/778117-0 or
1-800-930-6851.
Redmond School Board Budget
Committee Meeting: The budget committee
will meet virtually; 5:30-7:30 p.m.; online;
go.evvnt.com/780574-0 or 541-923-5437.
Know Islands — Island Archaeology and
the Anthropocene: Examine ancient human
impacts and future sustainability; 6-7 p.m.;
registration required; online; go.evvnt.
com/769142-1 or 541-312-1029.
Puzzles ............. 2 Obituaries ....... 7
Police log ........ 2 Classifieds ....... 8
THURSDAY 5/13
Volume 111, No. 37
USPS 778-040
Teen Volunteer Opportunity: A day
of working in a garden planting veggie
starts and building a simple trellis for peas
at MountainStar in Redmond; 3-5 p.m.;
registration required; MountainStar Family
Relief Nursery Redmond, 2724 SW Timber
LandWatch Virtual Open House: What’s
next for Central Oregon? Learn about how
we can defend and plan for Central Oregon’s
sustainable, livable future; 6-7:30 p.m.;
registration required; online; go.evvnt.
com/771244-2 or 541-647-2930.
Out of This World Book Club: Discussing
“The Once and Future Witches” by Alix
Food Trail Development Workshop —
Culinary & Agrotourism and Regional
Resource Panels: The workshop will explore
how the local culinary and agricultural tourism
See Calendar / P8
INDEX
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