LA PINE — The Bend-La Pine Schools board on Tuesday night nominated a retired superintendent of school districts in Oregon and abroad to represent southern Deschutes County as a board member.

Stuart Young, who holds a doctorate from the University of Oregon, was superintendent in Creswell, as well as in systems in Japan, Thailand and elsewhere. The board selected from five candidates who applied after the resignation of Mike Jensen this summer. The board voted 4-1 to appoint Young.

Speaking in favor of the appointment, board member Ron Gallinat said Young would complement the current strengths of the board.

Peggy Kinkade, the lonedissenter, said she believed Young is qualified, but she thought Michael Way, a former math and computer science professor, was the “better choice.”

Young was not at the meeting to comment.

In other business, Brad Henry, the district’s chief operations and financial officer, updated the board on the district’s roughly $135 million budget after this autumn’s surge in student enrollment.

The additional students, Henry noted, will bring the district about $1.5 million in additional state funding. However, Henry said more students means more staff and salaries, adding to the district’s expenditures.

Because of these costs and others associated with an increased number of special education students, Henry said the projected 2014-15 fiscal year end balance is now around $6.6 million, about $76,000 below what the district had budgeted for.

“We will work hard to get that number up to what we budgeted if we can,” Henry said, noting the district will face additional costs in the 2015-16 fiscal year, when two new schools are scheduled to open and the state will begin requiring districts to offer full-day kindergarten.

The district could find additional revenue in two properties the school board Tuesday night expressed interest in potentially selling.

One of the properties, a nearly 1-acre parcel known as Troy Field, is located downtown on Bond Street. The other site is a narrow 1.64-acre lot across from Ensworth Elementary on Full Moon Drive.

Before the land can be sold, the district will have to hold a public hearing.

Superintendent Ron Wilkinson said revenue from any sales probably would help to pay for a new elementary school.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160,

tleeds@bendbulletin.com