Phillips to step down from school board post
BY JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 10:14 AM PDT
ONTARIO — After eight years sitting on the Ontario School Board, Dr. John Phillips is turning over the reins to somebody else.
Phillips did not throw his name in the ring for the position 2 seat, paving the way for three newcomers — Linda Torruellas, Renae Corn and David Knight — to compete for the open slot in May’s election.
“I just decided eight years was enough,” Phillips said, factoring in his age, his interests and his “36 hour days.”
He added he and his wife agreed, when he first took his seat on the School Board, two four-year terms would be all he would serve.
The time commitment was the biggest challenge to Phillips, who is a practicing internal medicine physician in Ontario.
“That was one of the hardest things,” he said. “I really still had to be a doctor and a farmer and a parent.”
When he reviewed his two terms, Phillips said if he could have done anything different it would be to spend more being active in the community as a board member. But he said thinks his participation in meetings was what he was elected for primarily, and he focused a lot of his attention on the business end.
“I’ve enjoyed it very much,” Phillips said of his tenure. “I’ve enjoyed mostly the relationships I’ve developed with people. It’s a tough job.”
Phillips said he believes it is community members’ responsibility to become involved in local institutions and to participate at some level.
Two of the candidates for Phillips’ seat, Corn and Torruellas, said they felt it was important to run during this “critical” time for public education in Ontario and the state.
“I think it’s not a very good thing to cut a teacher and make class sizes bigger when there could be other options,” Torruellas said regarding funding for education. She also said, if elected, she wants to be accessible to teachers and parents to hear their thoughts concerns. Torruellas added, however, while she is interested in the Ontario School District, and has one child still in the system, and has concerns, especially about the high school, she does not have an agenda for running.
“It’s not like I want to go in there and change everything they’ve done,” she said.
Corn also said she is running for a number of reasons. She said she has had children in the system for a number of years — her seventh is in high school now; she has been a parent volunteer through the years; and she is very interested in the type of education children will be getting.
“I feel this is a different type of volunteerism I can do,” she said.
Corn said she didn’t decide to run until the week before the filing date because she needed to factor in her other commitments she has, including sitting on the high school site council and her volunteer work for FFA. She said, after reviewing her priorities, she feels her schedule is more flexible than in the past.
Corn said, she too, is not running for any specific reason.
“We’ve been to the board meetings and voiced our concerns, but I’m comfortable that the current board is doing the best they can do,” she said. “I don’t always agree with the positions they take, but I’m sure people won’t always agree with me.”
Corn and her husband, Bruce, attended public hearings regarding the school uniform and block scheduling issues and questioned whether a change from block scheduling to a more traditional one would hurt children’s opportunities in high school.
“I see this as a very pivotal point with our district,” Corn said, adding the hiring of a new superintendent, the tough economy and the needs of the school district, especially regarding facilities, while staying within fiscal means, are all important issues.
Corn said she chose to run for the vacant position because she feels incumbent Ann Easly-DeBisschop is doing a good job, and incumbent David Cox has strong support in the community. Corn said she has run against an incumbent before for School Board, and she simply wants to put her name out as somebody who is willing to serve.
Retired accountant Knight said he opted to run for the School Board because it seemed to be a good chance to do something meaningful for the community.
“This looked like a golden opportunity since there were three open seats,” he said. “I have plenty of time on my hands to actually be active on the board.”
Knight said he does not have any particular agenda except he would like to see students’ grades improve and the graduation rate percentage increase.
“I would like Ontario to be known as the No. 1 school district in Eastern Oregon,” he said.Of the other two School Board positions up for election, Ramon Rodriguez Jr. is trying to unseat Easly-DeBisschop, and Cox is running unopposed.
