SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 13 Ismay is the MHS basketball Garbage Man McNary’s Knight of Arts SEE PG. A10 SEE PG. A8 SECTION A MARCH 13, 2015 Lee runs for third SKSB term By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Chuck Lee likes to joke his goal is to fl ip-fl op the name of the Salem-Keizer School District. He’s looking for another chance to do so. Lee confi rmed to the Keizertimes on Tuesday he’s running for a third term on the Salem-Keizer School Board. Lee left the Keizer City Council in 2007 to take over the Keizer representative seat vacated by Mike Basinger on the school board and won his re-election bid in 2011. Last fall, Lee came up short against Bill Post in the battle to take over the State House District 25 seat vacated by Kim Thatcher. The election for the school board race takes place on May 19. Candidates have until March 19 to fi le; as of press time Wednesday, no one else had fi led to run against Lee for his Zone 6 seat. “I enjoy it,” Lee said of why he’s running again. “If elected, it will be 19 years in Keizer politics for me. I resigned from the city council with one year left on my term to run for the school board. I decided to go ahead and switch over. I feel like I’m making a good contribution. I want to be involved.” Lee is the former president of Blanchet Catholic School but is currently president of the Mountain West Career Technical Institute. Lee is working with former McNary High School principal John Honey to launch the Career Technical Education Center Lee this fall. CTEC is a private- public partnership being done in conjunction with the school district. Lee doesn’t feel getting the new center running will Pinot for the Parks coming on Friday By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Have some wine and food, help a playground project. The third annual Pinot for the Parks fundraiser takes place Friday, March 13. The event, put on by the Keizer Parks Foundation, runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road N. Tax-deductible tick- ets are $25, with proceeds be- ing dedicated to the Big Toy project at Keizer Rapids Park. In the past two years $10,000 has been raised at the event, leading to a $10,000 check from the KPF to the playground project. Jeanne Bond-Esser with the Keizer Parks Foundation said last year’s event raised $6,500. “It is a great event,” said Parks Foundation member and Keizer City Councilor Marlene Quinn, who also chairs the Community Build Task Force overseeing the project. “There’s nothing like this in Keizer. It’s a very af- fordable wine tasting and it’s a social event. We’re the only one that does this kind of thing in Keizer. It is fun. It’s great knowing it all goes to parks, plus it is fun too.” Four local wineries (Arcane detract from his school board duties. “I’ve got my side and John has his,” Lee said. “It’s really no different than being at Blanchet and serving on the council at the same time. You have extra things going on all the time while at a high school. I’m pretty much working with the community during the day to build support for (CTEC). I’m in control of my calendar.” There are a couple of key school board issues Lee is keeping a close eye on for the future. “It’s important for us to successfully implement full- day kindergarten (this fall),” he said. “It will be a challenge. We are also looking at a lot of crowding at schools in the east side of Salem, which continues to concern me. A lot of it is built around budgets and budget priorities. We will be looking at hopefully more money from the legislature. We’re also looking at what we can do to lower class sizes. When you make those decisions, you have to keep in mind the budget.” Lee continues to point to the November 2008 passage of the school district’s $242 million bond as his proudest moment as a school board member. “My job was to rally the community,” he said. “That has been the most signifi cant thing these last eight years. We were able to take care of maintenance and repairs plus build four new schools. Without that, this school district would be in diffi cult shape.” 50 CENTS in side Comcast to support the Big Toy (Page A2) Benny loves babies in town (Page A5) MHS boys, girls lose in playoffs (Page A8) One shot to light up stage KEIZERTIMES fi le/Lyndon A. Zaitz Participants take part in last year's Pinot for the Parks fundraiser at Keizer Civic Center. This year's event takes place Friday, March 13 starting at 6 p.m. Cellars at Wheatland Winery, Illahe Vineyards, Mia Sonatina Cellars and Willamette Valley Vineyards) will be on hand to offer tastings and wine by the glass, bottle or case. In ad- dition, The Growl Movement will offer tastings and glasses of microbrew beer. Four food vendors will be on hand with $5 food plates. Extreme Chocolates will have pulled pork sand- wiches, Incredible Edibles will have wood-fi red pizza, Big Town Hero will have seafood sandwiches and Willamette Cheese Company will have craft cheese. There will also be a silent auction for gift baskets, din- ners and jewelry. Tickets are available at Big Town Hero or by contacting Bond-Esser at (503) 362-6414 or KeizerParksFoundation@ gmail.com. The event was moved to Keizer Civic Center last year due to the large crowd at the inaugural event in 2013. For more information about the Keizer Parks Foun- dation, visit the KPF website at www.KeizerParksFounda- tion.org/ KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald McNary High School's drama department is holding its second One Act Festival March 13-14. Top: The cast of The Courtroom. Above: Annie Purkey and Erik Halvorson in Small World. Right: Kailey Fritts and Natalie Wade in Crash Course. Below: Cameron Garrison and McKinley Friesen in Philosophical Inquiry at the Edge of a Cliff. Two of the scripts were written by McNary students and all of them are student-directed. Keizer PD uses old Roth’s for training By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Since the Roth’s grocery store closed in Keizer nearly three years ago, it hasn’t been unusual to see offi cers with the Keizer Police Department meet up in the parking lot. Inside the former grocery store, though? That hasn’t happened much. But that’s just what hap- pened over a two-day period last week as all KPD offi cers went through some training scenarios in the vacant build- ing. Offi cers went through var- ious scenarios and got imme- diate feedback, as well as the opportunity to explain what they saw. “We’re putting offi cers through some drills,” Sgt. Bob Trump said as offi cer Dave Babcock started the training. “This is an on-duty cop. We pulled him off the road from his patrol. He’ll go back out Students direct, write MHS One Acts KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Sgt. Bob Trump (left) with the Keizer Police Department debriefs with offi cer Dave Babcock (right) after a training scenario March 4 at the former Roth's grocery store in Keizer. The KPD used the vacant building for two days of training. when he’s done here.” The fi rst scenario involved hand-to-hand fi ghting, with Darsy Olafson doing the training and evaluation. “It’s practicing defensive tactics,” said Olafson, who has been doing the training since 2004. “I can evaluate how well they’re picking it up.” Please see KPD, Page A9 The McNary High School drama department is hosting a One Act Festival Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14. Tickets are $3 and available at the door. Curtain time is 7 p.m. each night. The line-up includes two plays that were written by Mc- Nary students. Each one act is also directed by a student. Junior Morgan Hoag scripted Crash Course, a story about moving on after a fatal crash that killed one of her friends. Senior John Bryant directs. The Courtroom is scripted by sophomore Alohi Tomble- son and directed by Morgan Raymond. In her tale, the main character ends up on trial by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Senior Julia Fegles directs Small World, in which several characters go on blind dates and fi nd themselves intricately interconnected. Bailey Norbo directs Philo- sophical Inquiry at the Edge of a Cliff, which fairly well sums up the intent of the play. The One Act Festival gives the upperclassmen in the de- partment a shot in the di- rector's chair and generally features freshmen and sopho- mores taking the spotlight.