P4 THE SPOKESMAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021
School board: Candidates for Positions 1-2 discuss priorities, including after the pandemic
Continued from P1
“Our kids have been through
trauma,” said Hunter, 46. “We need
to prioritize individual attention, es-
pecially for kids who have not done
well.”
Teachers’ mental health is also
something Hunter worries about.
If elected, she’d push for providing
counseling for teachers, donating spa
gift cards and enforcing a more rea-
sonable work-life balance.
“I think it should be normalized
that teachers don’t work evenings and
weekends,” Hunter said.
One of Hunter’s strengths is her
drive to connect with the Redmond
community and bring their ideas to
the table, she said.
“I have been a bridge-builder for 20
years,” she said. “I will go anywhere
and I will talk to anyone.”
Position 2
As a teenager in Redmond, Mi-
chelle Salinas had to temporarily
drop out of school to take care of her
younger sisters after her parents aban-
doned them.
Salinas eventually re-enrolled at
Redmond High School, earned her di-
ploma and now serves as the assistant
branch manager at Bank of America
in Redmond. She wants to be on the
school board so local schools can bet-
Hartfield
Hunter
Salinas
ter assist students who went through
tough times like she did.
“I was an underprivileged child
who had to struggle for everything,”
said Salinas, 40. “I want more repre-
sentation of those underprivileged
children.”
Salinas has two children at Hugh
Hartman Elementary School. She was
also the co-chair and manager for the
political action committee that helped
pass the Redmond schools bond last
November.
Some of Salinas’ biggest con-
cerns are keeping students safely in
schools in-person, addressing post-
COVID-19 learning loss and support-
ing the equity task force.
A state legislature-approved bill,
awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature,
would allow school districts to vote
on whether or not to continue to al-
low permitted, concealed firearms on
school property. Redmond School
District currently does not have a pol-
icy addressing visitors carrying weap-
SOLUTION
Crossword on Page 2
Summers
Visinoni
ons in schools, but staff and students
are banned from doing so.
Salinas said she was unsure how
she felt about banning visitors from
bringing concealed guns to schools.
“As someone who comes from a
family who owns guns, I don’t want to
see our rights being taken away,” she
said. “With that being said, I think it’s
so important for our students to feel
safe and be safe.”
Michael Summers, owner of Bend-
based Summers Flooring and De-
sign, said if elected, he hopes to heal
the divide between school staff and
some local families. The tension be-
tween the two groups got heated after
COVID-19 mandates from Oregon
Department of Education required
students to learn online, he said.
“Teachers and administrators just
got beat up last year,” Summers, 39,
said. “I felt like I can come in and
help.”
Summers has three daughters in
Redmond schools — two in middle
school at Redmond Proficiency Acad-
emy and one at Hugh Hartman Ele-
mentary.
One thing Summers wishes Red-
mond schools did better is keeping
parents informed. For example, even
though he was happy to hear of Mo-
saic Medical hosting vaccine clin-
ics inside schools, he thinks parents
weren’t given enough information
about them.
“I feel like if parents can trust the
board to keep them in the loop – es-
pecially on health-related things —
that would ease so much tension,” he
said.
The board should also be more
clear to parents about the goals of the
equity task force, Summers said. At
the moment, some conservative fam-
ilies in Redmond are anxious about
it, and they may want more involve-
ment, he said.
“If they feel their input is taken into
account, and they have a choice, then
that unnecessary tension is diffused,
and we can get somewhere,” Summers
said.
Summers didn’t know enough
about the guns-in-schools bill to have
a strong opinion on it, he said.
If elected to the school board Ra-
chel Visinoni — an office assistant
and mother of a kindergartener at
Tom McCall Elementary — said she’d
push for more opportunities for open
dialogue between parents and the dis-
trict.
“We need to find that sense of
community again, and a sense of
compromise between the parent’s
voices and the school board,” said
Visinoni, 44.
Like Hartfield, Visinoni wants more
extracurricular activities for elemen-
tary students. She also wants to host
teacher-parent sessions, which could
ease tensions between the groups, she
said.
“If we need to do something like an
open forum, where parents can ask
teachers anything they need to, I think
that would be incredibly beneficial,”
Visinoni said.
If the Redmond School Board must
make a decision on visitors bringing
guns into schools, Visinoni would ad-
vocate for banning firearms on school
property.
“I am 100% pro-second amend-
ment, always have been, but I can-
not think of any reason why a par-
ent would need to bring a concealed
weapon to a basketball game or par-
ent-teacher conference,” she said.
“Keep them in the car.”
Lacey Butts, whose name will ap-
pear on the ballot, is no longer run-
ning for office.
More candidates on P5
LETTERS AND COLUMNS
MILESTONES
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Joe A Lochner Insurance Agency Inc.
Joe Lochner, Agent
123 SW 5th Street
Redmond, OR 97756
Bus: 541-548-6023
joe.lochner.h5mi@statefarm.com
Fax: (541) 548-6024
State Farm, Bloomington, IL
1211999
Committed to Redmond Community
A Redmond High graduate with two children attending
the district. Co-chair for YES! For RSD kids PAC 2020
ensuring much needed funding for our schools.
Vote Michelle Salinas for Redmond Schools.
Paid for by MichelleSalinas4Redmond