School board members highlight “Promise” at Capitol

OSBA and local board members Bobbie Regan and LeeAnn Larsen gave legislators what may have been their first glimpse of “The Promise of Oregon” campaign during committee testimony Dec. 10.

Regan (OSBA vice president, Portland Public Schools Board) and Larsen (OSBA Board member, Beaverton School Board) joined Jim Green (OSBA deputy executive director, and a member of the Salem-Keizer School Board) in testifying before the Senate Interim Committee on Education and Workforce Development on challenges facing Oregon’s largest school districts.

Regan noted that nearly one-fourth of Oregon’s K-12 students attend the three large districts providing testimony, and she referred to those students as “The Promise of Oregon.”

Larsen described the governor’s proposed budget, which allocates $6.9 billion for grades K-12 for 2015-17, as “disappointing” and “a cut to our district.”

“Please invest our state dollars in education,” Larsen said. “Our students deserve it as they are truly ‘The Promise of Oregon.’”

A video copy of their full testimony can be found at http://oregon.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=7792&view_id=6&embed=1&player_width=480&player_height=360&entrytime=2827&stoptime=4718&auto_start=0

School boards across the state are also showing their support by passing resolutions backing the campaign. Already, 59 districts and the OSBA Board have passed “Promise” resolutions.