Two more candidates have emerged as contenders for the Portland school board races.
Three seats are up for election this May, giving voters a chance to change the makeup of the fractious board that governs Oregon’s largest school district.
This week political newcomers Jamila Singleton Munson, a former principal and trainer of teachers, and Virginia La Forte, a parent activist who got the district to take action on lead safety, kicked off campaigns, though La Forte described her efforts as a “soft launch.”
School board chair Tom Koehler and board members Pam Knowles and Steve Buel all are nearly the end of their four-year terms. Knowles and Koehler haven’t announced if they’ll run for re-election, while Buel has said he will.
Candidates must file by March 16. So far no one has.
But school board candidates are already setting up Facebook pages, sending out press releases and answering parent questions on social media in hopes of garnering votes.
Singleton Munson and La Forte joined Scott Bailey and Rita Moore, both longtime members of district advisory committees, in saying they are actively seeking a spot on the seven-member board.
So far only Koehler’s seat hasn’t drawn a rival.
A product of Portland Public Schools, Munson is running for Buel’s seat, where she’ll face the incumbent and Moore.
Munson graduated from Grant High, and the University of Oregon and works in education. She is currently a senior managing director for Teach For America. Before returning to her hometown, Munson was principal of KIPP Spirit College Prep in Houston, a charter school. The Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, is a nonprofit network of charter schools that focus on underserved students.
“I am running because I believe in the power of education to transform the lives of children, and I think Portland Public Schools has some growth to do,” Munson told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “In addition, there is a level of leadership that needs to be demonstrated on the board around setting a vision and really working collaboratively toward that vision.”
Munson says she has a lot to offer as someone who has clocked 15 years of experience as an educator who has been devoted to supporting students from low-income families and students of color.
Munson credits Portland Public Schools with her own success, noting she benefited from nonprofit Self Enhancement’s mentoring program with the district.
La Forte is running for Knowles’ seat and, while Knowles hasn’t said if she’ll run, there will be competition. Bailey, who has long been involved in Portland Public Schools including serving on budget advisory committees, is running for that seat.
She and her husband own Columbia Fresh Transportation and La Forte also does marketing for Craft Brew Alliance.
“I feel compelled to run because I’ve been so involved in some of the issues that have really boiled to the top,” La Forte said.
Those issues? School safety and making sure students have equal access to services.
La Forte spent three years working to get the district to fix lead paint at the playground at Alameda Elementary, which finally happened this summer.
“That experience really taught me that one person can really make a difference if you just stick with it,” La Forte said.
She pulled her two children out of Portland Public Schools in 2014 because the district couldn’t meet her son’s learning needs, she said. Both children go to Portland Jewish Academy, a K-8, but La Forte says they intend to return to public school for high school. Her sons are in fifth and first grade now.
Despite no longer having a child in the district, she’s stayed involved.
She’s on the stakeholder committee looking at how to craft a construction bond to improve Portland Public Schools’ buildings.
“So many schools are missing the basics. It’s unacceptable,” La Forte said. “Every day we fail to act on these issues its another day we fail the community.”
— bbarnes@oregonian.com
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