Voters can’t necessarily go wrong in the May election for Zone 6 election of the Bend-La Pine School Board. But there is a clear difference in vision between current board member Melissa Barnes Dholakia and her challenger Chet Wamboldt.

We recommend a vote for Dholakia.

If we had to sum it up, Dholakia would strive to continue and improve on much of what the board has done recently. Wamboldt would push for changes.

Dholakia is a former teacher and principal and has had children in the district. She helped to lead the effort on the search for the new superintendent and the most recent bond campaign for new schools and other improvements.

She is proud that the district was one of the first large districts in Oregon to get students back in school after the shutdown in the pandemic. It was a complicated time. It’s much easier to know now what might have been the best practices than in the middle of it.

The first goal she mentioned to us was higher student academic achievement. The district is using data better to be able to identify students who are not performing well.

Take graduation rates, for instance. Dholakia would be the first to tell you that although the rates have improved slightly, they are not high enough. The district is working on a variety of initiatives to improve them, including focusing on pathways for students in career and technical education. That can be a key way to keep students interested in school and set them up for success.

Students in that pathway have some of the highest graduation rates in the district. Dholakia wants to do what she can to ensure those options are available.

Wamboldt is a safety consultant. He has worked as a firefighter in California and worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help people after disasters.

His desire to run was born, in part, of frustration. Frustration with getting access to school board meetings. Frustration that schools were closed for so long during the pandemic.

He said he wants to do what he can to open up school board meetings to allow more public comment — even limiting the board recesses taken during public comment during meetings if comments get heated. He is an advocate for school choice within the district, meaning within some practical space limits families could choose where their kids go to school. He believes that would lead to higher performing schools. Wamboldt feels like the views of teachers and unions are already well-represented on the board. He hopes to represent the views of parents.

If you feel like Wamboldt does, we can’t fault you for voting for him. But we do recommend Dholakia. She has a better grasp of the district’s challenges and the tools for improvement.