Redmond school board appoints new member

The Redmond School Board on Wednesday appointed Eric Lea, a resident of Redmond, to fill the vacated seat of Bob Perry.

Lea, a clinical researcher and a co-founder of Southwest Charter School in Portland, will serve the remainder of Perry’s term until June 30 after the board voted unanimously on his appointment. The seat will go back up for grabs in the May election.

According to Gina Blanchette, school board secretary, Lea has an extensive background in education.

The shortened term was caused by two resignations: First, Shawn Hartfield vacated the seat in September to move to Texas. And second, after his appointment to Hartfield’s seat on Nov. 9, Perry stepped down Dec. 30 for undisclosed reasons.

Lea was chosen using the same applications and rubric scoring system that was used from when Perry was appointed.

According to Blanchette, Lea, Perry and David Bergman tied for the seat in the November appointment with scores of 3.9 and had to move the scores to the hundredth decimal place to appoint Perry by 0.02 points.

At the Wednesday meeting, the scores were much more clear. Lea received a score of 4.40, beating out Bergman, who received a score of 4.25 from the board.

The board on Wednesday also discussed Superintendent Charan Cline’s contract.

However, board member Alice DeWittie said the board will reconvene Jan. 31 to go over specifics of the contract.