Five candidates are running for two contested seats on the Eugene 4J School Board in this month’s election.
Four of the candidates say they’re running to protect public education from both federal and local funding challenges.
KLCC’s Love Cross spoke to reporter Rebecca Hansen-White about the 4J School Board election.
Love Cross: So who are these candidates running for these seats?
Rebecca Hansen-White: For position 2, our candidates are Ericka Thessen, Danny McDiarmid and Alan Madden.
Both Thessen and McDiarmid are 4J parents. Thessen was appointed to the seat in 2023 and works as a physical therapist.
McDiarmid, who works as a case manager for the Oregon Department of Justice, says he’s very focused on listening to workers at 4J, and making education better for his child, and their peers.
Madden has not replied to KLCC's requests for comment.
For position 3, we have two experienced educators running for the seat, incumbent Judy Newman and challenger Donald Easton.
Newman has been an advocate for education for a long time, she co-founded Early Childhood CARES at the University of Oregon, which is an intervention for children with disabilities. When I asked her why she was running – she said it was to continue the progress the current school board is facing.
Judy Newman: "We haven't cut budgets since 2008 in our school district. I think that process is extremely painful. We feel like we're starting to get some traction and I would love to work to try to keep as much traction as we can as we're looking at a reduced budget. I think my experience and my stability and steadiness would be an asset right now."
Hansen-White: Easton has been a teacher at 4J, has taught career and technical education for years, and now teaches at Lane Community College.
Donald Easton: "I still work in the classroom [and] I talk a lot of CTE because it works. So there are certain things that I feel that we are not doing correctly, but I think my background would really help the school district move forward.”
Cross: What are the top issues for these candidates?
Hansen-White: All of them are really concerned about threats from the Trump administration to defund schools and programs, especially those that help marginalized students. They’re also really concerned about school funding at the state level and local level, there’s a budget crisis here in the 4J School District.
When I talked to Thessen – she said her goal in running for school board is to be an advocate for 4J against mandates from the Trump administration.
Ericka Thessen: "I am not somebody that is going to shy away from a fight and right now that's what we need. These are unprecedented attacks and we are dealing with that on top of decades of disinvestment, underfunding and understaffing and what you need is my experience."
Hansen-White: McDiarmid said he was hoping to address both the federal, and local budget challenges by finding community partners to fill in the gaps.
Danny McDiarmid: "You know how the PTO runs fundraisers to help out with different things around the school. I would look into talking with the Chamber of Commerce, [to see if] local businesses, or even state businesses, can front up assisting with kids getting fed."
Cross: Are there any endorsements voters should know about in this race?
Hansen-White: The union that represents teachers has endorsed Easton, Thessen and Maya Rabasa, who is running unopposed.
Cross: Are there any issues that really set these candidates apart?
Hansen-White: These candidates want a lot of the same things, as far as budget stability and preserving school funding from federal cuts. I think one of the areas that they differ is what they’re most passionate about.
Newman is really really focused on the stability of the school district as a whole. The District has been through a lot of superintendents over the years, and in the past, has had some discord on the school board.
Newman: "We have just hired a new superintendent. I think it's to the advantage of the success of that new superintendent to have the board that hired her, and have a stable board that will work closely, because the relationship between the superintendent and the board is very important to the functioning of a district."
Hansen-White: Easton is a big advocate for career and technical education, and sees more investment in that as a potential solution for attendance issues and as a way to boost graduation rates.
Easton: "Students who participate in CTE offerings, whether it was my classes, business or natural resource classes, increased their attendance rates. Students that were often seen as ones that would not necessarily finish school or graduate, graduated.”
Hansen-White: Both of these candidates have also said they’re really concerned about 4J employee morale and said they want to reduce the impacts of budget cuts on students, and staff as much as possible.
Thessen is also very focused on improving programs for students with disabilities, and access to mental health services. McDiarmid said he’s worried about transparency at the school district, and said he’d like leaders to do a little more work to include the public, and make it easier to follow, and understand the work they’re doing.
Unopposed candidate
KLCC also spoke with Maya Rabasa, who is running unopposed for position 6 on the 4J board.
Rabasa volunteered for years before joining the school board. She said she’s running for another term to look for ways to help already stretched school district staff.
“I would love to see us focus on improving staff morale,” she said. “We have a collection of several thousand people who are tasked with guiding our youth and it feels like we need to do the institutional version of put on your oxygen mask [first.]”
She said she’s hoping to look for ways to make sure that school workers are feeling respected, and valued and make sure they have the tools they need to do the work they’ve been hired for.
Rabasa said she's also concerned about cuts to federal funding, and the looming budget challenge the district is facing.
