Looking to the future
Thursday, March 29, 2007 4:20 PM PDT
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| Nancy Alvarado, Ontario School Board candidate and manager of the Ontario Oregon Employment Department works in the conference room Tuesday at the employment office. Alvarado is running against Pamela Russell for a position on the Ontario School Board. |
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a occasional, four-part series on the candidates for the Ontario School Board. The
second story on this issue will appear next week.
Jennifer Colton
Argus Observer
Ontario
Ontario School Board candidate Nancy Alvarado said she has a vision for the Ontario School District — linking together the school board and the voters through communication and business strategies.
Alvarado is running against sitting Ontario School board member Pamela Russell for one of two open seats.
“There are two seats available (on the school board), and it would be nice to get two new people with different ideas,” she said. “I’m hoping that my business experience and background would help me come up with some different solutions.”
The election is set for May 15. Alvarado grew up in Ontario, attending Alameda Elementary School, Ontario Middle School and Ontario High School before traveling the country — and Europe — as a computer and technology consultant. She returned to Ontario two years ago and now serves as manager of the Ontario office of the Oregon Employment Department. Last fall, Alvarado became involved with the Leadership Ontario program, an activity that she said helped make her decision to apply for the school board.
“(Leadership Ontario) is about new people moving to the community,” she said. “You spend one day a month learning about the area. We spent one day for education and one day we went to the prison. It was really sad to see the state of the school buildings, then going to the prison and seeing they have better facilities than our students do. That’s wrong.”
Alvarado then decided to try and make a positive change — becoming involved with the school district she grew up in.
“I think education takes the support of the community,” she said. “It’s not just about people with children. I think if we look at it like a business, how we’re going to make life better for everyone, this is something we need to support.”
Education directly contributes to the work force and the employment outlook in an area — and Alvarado said her experience can help link business and education together for the success of the community.
“There are a number of things we need for economic prosperity,” she said. “I think it begins with education.”
And it isn’t just in the classroom, Alvarado said, because businesses will look at the state of school district buildings as well.
“New business aren’t able to choose us and move here because they look at our schools,” she said. “They want to be where they can attract the best employees, and families are going to look at our old buildings and say ‘there’s a new school in Payette, so let’s send our kids there.’ There is a perception that new buildings are better schools.”
Alvarado said she would like to see the district pass a bond for new facilities, and community involvement in decisions plays a large part in that process.
“The first step is really getting the community behind the project and having folks believe in it,” Alvarado said. “Better communication between the voters and the school board. I know that I have a vision — which is to plan for the next 20 years, to have better facilities for our kids. Even if I’m not elected, I volunteered to serve on the finance committee. I’ll be really happy doing that.”
