Four out of five positions on the Sisters School Board are up for grabs in the May 19 special election, with contested races for two seats and unopposed candidates in the other two.

Those elected will start July 1 alongside a new superintendent. The board recently hired a search firm to help replace Superintendent James Golden, who accepted an offer from Greater Albany Public Schools in March.

Some of the candidates have experience working in education, while others feel compelled to serve after watching their own children go through the school system.

Sisters School Board Chairman Don Hedrick said it’s not unusual for school boards to have members who have not been educators. His position is the only one on the board not up for election in May.

The new board members will face challenges.

Voters rejected a bond measure last fall that would have paid for upgrades and repairs to district buildings and improved technology resources. Enrollment has declined since the recession and state funds continue to drop.

“Most districts, including Sisters, are going to have to cut the budget,” said Hedrick. “There’s not enough money to keep what we have. … The problem of course, when districts have to cut the budget, it almost always has to come out of personnel.”

Here’s a look at the candidates:

Position 2: Two-year term

Two candidates are contesting the position currently held by Jeff Smith, who is running in the May election for Position 3.

Lachlan Leaver, 54, serves on the Sisters School District budget committee. He is the academic director at J Bar J Youth Services, a nonprofit that provides services for at-risk youth throughout Central Oregon. He has a long history working with special-needs children.

“I feel I understand schools and the community needs around schools pretty well,” Leaver said.

If elected, Leaver said, he wants to keep Sisters schools focused on academic excellence and continuing to integrate art into the curriculum. He said it’s also important for schools to have a vigorous mental health component.

“Sisters has done a good job reaching out to Deschutes County for mental health (services),” Leaver said. “When students come into the classroom, the focus should be on learning, not other stressors outside of class.”

Greg Zadow is a physical therapist and the owner of Green Ridge Physical Therapy & Wellness in Sisters. He came to the United States from Australia in 1992 and moved to Sisters in 2001. One large factor in his decision to move to Sisters was his two daughters: He wanted them to benefit from attending the Sisters School District.

“As a community member and business owner, I feel the schools need to be strong for the overall strength of the community,” Zadow said. “To keep businesses here thriving, you need good schools.”

If elected, Zadow said, he’ll try to be conscious of the community’s priorities when dealing with future budgets. He provides physical therapy outreach to Sisters schools, he said.

Position 3: Four-year term

Jeff Smith, who was appointed after Justin Durham stepped down in December, is running unopposed. Smith is a former college professor and held a seat on the Sisters School Board from 1999 to 2011.

Position 4: Four-year term

Two candidates are running against incumbent Stephen King.

King was appointed to the board in August after Kay Grady stepped down. He is the CEO and president of OpenMake Software. He could not be reached for comment.

Steve Mathews volunteers with advanced art students at Sisters High School and serves as a board member for the Sisters Folk Festival. Now retired, he worked as an art teacher in Beaverton schools for 18 years and has run camps for at-risk kids. Mathews spent more than three years researching high school dropout rates and helped open an alternative high school in Beaverton, he said.

“My strength is looking outside the box and having ideas. Education doesn’t have to look like it did in the 1950s,” he said.

Mathews doesn’t have an agenda, but standardized testing would be his main concern if elected. He considers such tests the antithesis of individualized education and believes kids should be taught critical thinking. He hopes to have some influence on the new superintendent and other school administrators.

Karan Swaner moved to Sisters after retiring in 2012 from a career with the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer. Her daughter graduated from Sisters High School in June, and she realized the schools in Sisters are a “core element of what makes Sisters special.”

Swaner’s largest concern is maintaining high-quality education in the face of declining enrollment and increasing budget constraints. The new state mandate for Oregon schools to provide full-day kindergarten is a good idea, she said, but it will add to the financial strain already felt by a district whose members rejected last year’s bond measure.

“We need another bond measure,” she said. “I hope it will be smaller and more comprehensible for the public as part of a longer-term plan for how we’re going to manage the budget in the next three- to five-year period.”

Position 5: Two-year term

Amanda Clark is running unopposed. She has two children in the Sisters School District. She worked for St. Charles as a lab technician in the emergency room, and as an emergency medical technician for a private ambulance company.

— Reporter: 541-383-0354, jrockow@bendbulletin.com

Name: Greg Zadow

Age: 45

Residence: Sisters

Background and 
experience: Bachelor of Applied Science in physiotherapy, University of South Australia; Doctor of Physical Therapy, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.