Page 2 Portland Observer, March 9,1983
Nine candidates seek School Board vacancy
(Continued from page I column 6)
he described the P ortland school
system as a "S200.000.000 business
being run seat o f the pants by part-
tim e. unpaid, well-meaning citi*
zens." He hopes to help this situa
tion by offering the board "an ana
lytical mind geared to the systematic
solution of problems."
Weiss feels that P ortland is " a
very long way toward integration of
public schools," and he offers
"comparability of program oppor
tu n ity " as a means to give all stu
dents access to the same high quality
instruction and reduce the need for
busing.
As representative from the
citizens' school advisory committee
from Area I, Weiss said he worked
closely with committees from Eliot
and Boise schools to redesign the
middle school program so it would
include the best parts of each.
" I think Ronnie Herndon," said
Weiss, "has caused Portland and
the School Board to wake up to the
educational needs of the black com
munity, and has done a valuable job
in causing solutions to come about
in areas where the people hoped the
problem would go away.”
Stephen K a fo u ry , corporate
counsel for a Portland trucking firm
and Irvington resident, is perhaps
closest to a "name" candidate in the
race for position four. He spent
eight years in the Oregon legislature
and ran unsuccessfully for Portland
City Council in 1973 and 1980
Kafoury said he lives in an inte
grated neighborhood "b y choice,"
so his daughters could have the op
portunity o f growing up with chil
dren from minority groups. " I am
very much committed to equality of
opportunity for all students," he
said.
K afo ury thinks " th e political
battles are pretty much over. I t ’s
lim e to get back involved in what
the School Board is all about—edu
c a tio n ." He wonders whether
schools should take care o f stu
dents' health and drug problems,
and provide free lunches to compen
sate for lack o f food at home.
"H o w many social problems can the
schools solve?"
He also thinks there is loo much
emphasis on technical education
now, which he says is comparable to
the panic following sputnik. "T h e
idea that we’ve got to put everybody
in high tech programs to solve our
unemployment problems is mislead
in g ." Educational decisions, he
said, should be based on "sound
reasoning, not fa d s ," and money
spent on reading instruction, not
"fancy hardware.”
Budget considerations are of pri
mary importance to Curt M artin, a
teacher's aide at Madison High
School who grew up near 16th and
Fremont.
M artin said that eliminating 342
jobs of special assignment teachers,
psychologists and community
agents could save tbe system over
$10 million.
Higher graduation standards are
also im po rtant, he said, and he
would elim inate the "m o d ifie d
diploma" which lets underachievers
graduate with their classmates
M artin is also concerned about
lax discipline in the schooh, and he
favors detention centers like the one
at M arshall, where students must
spend an hour studying for every
hour o f class missed. "K id s are
sm art," he said. " I f they see that
there’s no definition, nothing said
to them, they will keep on doing the
same thing."
He said the $5.1 million spent on
busing in 1982 could have been
better spent retraining teachers to
become more sensitive to the needs
o f m inority students. " I think we
could save money and better service
the kids by keeping them in their
own neighborhoods," he said. "W e
don’t have the massive social prob
lems in Portland as they do else
where that require busing."
Also, he said. Eliot School should
be closed because there aren’ t
enough students in the area to sup
port it, and "nobody knows where
they’re going to gel the money to
renovate Eliot.”
Bow Dey is co-owner of a proper
ty management company and lives
in the Lincoln High district. " I feel
the board needs a businessman,"
said Dey, who was a long-time
employee of Standard Oil Co.
Long-range planning is his big
p rio rity . It would help eliminate
"very unfortunate” disruptive dem
onstrations which he thinks are the
result of the public not being fully
informed by a board which suffers
from lack of direction. " A plan of
where the schools are going would
sure make things a lot easier," he
said. “ I think the people are tired of
management by crisis."
Concerning the budget, Dey said
the current adm inistration is top-
heavy and a significant amount of
money could be saved by eliminat
ing one of the five management lay
ers between teachers and ihe super
intendent.
Dey is a "strong believer in volun
tary integration:” He experienaed
mandatory busing when he lived in
D e tro it, where he said whites be
came a minority within four years.
They either moved to the suburbs or
put their children in private schools,
he said. " I t segregated the entire
school system."
Brummell represented urban In
dians on the Portland Desegregation
C om m ittee, and he thinks the
school district is headed in the right
direction by beginning to implement
some o f that com m ittee’s recom
mendations. Paramount, he said, is
the need to bring a quality educa
tional experience to each school
rather than rely on busing.
He thinks the Black United Front
has played a useful role, but the
place to express their concerns now
is in committees. "A s far as jum p
ing up and down on the desk, I can't
buy that. It sets a very bad example
for c h ild re n .. education requires
dignity," he said.
Bill Grenfell, an East more land res
ident, was a Portland fireman for 20
years, a slate senator for eight, and
now sits on the board o f Portland
Community College.
" I am horrified at the antics of
the School Board," he said. "They
act like a bunch of children. Bicker
ing and bickering over (wo middle
school sites that are ten blocks apart
is totally asinine."
Grenfell said that while the Black
United Front has done some good
things, he also thinks the BUF lead
ers are interested in higher office. " I
think in a lot o f ways they are using
the black community ."
Grenfell is also running for a seat
on the Metropolitan Service District
Board.
Boger Troen, a printer and resi
dent o f O verlook neighborhood,
said he thinks the public education
system should be abolished and re
placed with private free enterprise
classrooms. " I think you'd find a
lot o f good competition springing
up," he said.
Troen thinks that "c o n stan ts"
should be emphasized more in edu
cation "lik e the constitution," and
that words are used too carelessly in
the schools. As an example, he men
tioned "th e sun rising and the sun
setting. It sounds good to say the
run rises, but the world actually re
volves."
Another candidate. Bon M cC ar
ty, was unavailable for comment.
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