Appointments fill out OSBA Board, Legislative Policy Committee

OSBA's officers took office Jan. 1, with everyone but Chrissy Ritz of the Hood River County School Board new to their position.

The Oregon School Boards Association, like school districts, takes its cues from a board of volunteers committed to supporting public education.

In a special meeting Tuesday, Jan. 6, the OSBA Board filled out its ranks, appointing two people to the OSBA Board and two to the Legislative Policy Committee. The final open Board seat will be filled by a run-off election just in time for the new Board's first in-person meeting of the year Jan. 23-24.

Like a school district board, the OSBA Board provides the association with strategic direction and hires the executive director. OSBA, and by extension the Board, has no regulatory control over Oregon school board members. Instead OSBA Board members act as advocates, intermediaries and explainers.

OSBA Board members are on the front lines of education discussions with the state and federal government, offering insight on schools' functions, needs and leadership challenges. OSBA Board members, who are elected by local school boards by region, are information conduits, bringing information to their communities and sharing local concerns with policymakers.

OSBA holds elections each year, with new Board members and officers officially taking office Jan. 1. About half the Board is elected each year for two-year terms, but vacancies can create races for single-year terms. When no one is nominated for an open seat election, the Board can fill the position by appointment.

On Tuesday, the Board added Mike Selvaggio of the West Linn-Wilsonville School Board to help represent the Clackamas region and Clinton Nelson of the Gaston School Board to help represent the Washington region. For the LPC, the Board named Will Cahill of the Lake County ESD board to represent the Southeast region and Lu Ann Anderson of the McMinnville School Board to represent the Yamhill/Polk region.

The OSBA Board consists of up to 22 regionally elected members, two caucus representatives and five nonvoting ex-officio members. OSBA has divided its member school districts, education service districts and community colleges into 14 geographic regions. School boards within a region vote as a unit for their OSBA Board representative.

OSBA's five officers serve terms of one calendar year. Each year, usually in September, the OSBA Board elects a president-elect, vice president and secretary-treasurer for the next year. The current year's president becomes the past president, and the current president-elect becomes the president.

If the president or past president is from a region with only one position, that region can elect an additional representative.

The Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus and the Oregon Rural School Board Members Caucus choose their own Board representatives. The nonvoting ex-officio members represent the National School Boards Association, the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts, the Oregon Community College Association and the Oregon State Board of Education.

All voting OSBA Board members are automatically part of the Legislative Policy Committee. An additional 20 representatives from the 14 geographic regions and two from the caucuses sit on just the LPC. Members are elected for two-year terms starting every even year.

The Legislative Policy Committee works with OSBA's advocates to set the association's agenda in the Legislature. They are also another key communication bridge, carrying regional concerns to OSBA and the Legislature and relaying information to districts from OSBA.

OSBA Board and LPC members also act as public education ambassadors throughout the year, attending conferences, hearings, trainings, workshops and legislative meetings on behalf of OSBA.

- Jake Arnold, [email protected]