Gleason named to Sisters School Board

Guy Gleason, a retired educator and resident of Black Butte Ranch, has accepted a post on the Sisters School Board. Gleason will serve an interim term until 2002, replacing Jan van den Berg, who has moved out of the district.

Gleason brings to the board 30 years of experience as a teacher and administrator. He started his teaching career at Sunset High School in Beaverton, and then served in the Hillsboro School District as a teacher, athletic director and central office administrator.

He and his wife, Sally, have lived at the ranch for the past three years after vacationing in the Sisters area for 18 years.

"I have a lot of learning to do initially," Gleason said. "I'd like to see the district perform in a way that all the residents and taxpayers can be proud of, and I see a lot of that in the current operation."

Gleason is committed to providing policy guidance and direction for the district, but he does not want to micromanage the schools.

"I am not interested in, nor do I think it's a board member's role, to act as a hands-on administrator," he said.

Gleason sees the challenges facing all of Oregon's schools present in the Sisters School District. He is concerned about school funding, and about how schools are to meet state standards for education in the 21st Century.

He is also concerned about student conduct, and the kind of social problems usually associated with big city schools, but also a threat to small-town schools like Sisters'.

"All those things we'd like to think don't happen in Sisters do happen in Sisters," he said.

Gleason will be sworn in at the April 13 meeting of the Sisters School Board.