Sisters schools: a family affair

Sisters schools have come to resemble a mom and pop organization. There are several husband and wife teaching teams and the district recently hired the superintendent's sister-in-law as a teacher.

"I think that's something you'll find in a small community," said district human resources coordinator Jan Martin, whose husband Bob is the district's construction project manager.

Martin said that the district makes everyone go through the same hiring process. Anyone hired for a job ¤ whether as a teacher, a secretary or a custodian ¤ must be fully qualified for the position.

Yet district officials acknowledge the sensitivity of hiring relatives of those who work in the district.

Superintendent Steve Swisher made a point of recusing himself from any involvement in the recent hiring of his sister-in-law, Barbara Kamrath, as a temporary elementary school teacher. That decision was made by Principal Tim Comfort with the help of a hiring committee.

Swisher informed the Sisters School Board of the hiring on Monday, May 14, so members could make any objections known. The board signed off on the hiring.

According to Comfort, Kamrath was one of 40 people who applied for a couple of Sisters Elementary School positions. The initial screening was "blind," the teachers on the selection committee did not know who the applicants were.

Kamrath was selected out of three finalists for two positions.

Being a relative of someone who works in the district isn't an automatic ticket to a job, according to Martin.

"We've had relatives apply that didn't make it through the screening. They get the thanks-but-no-thanks letter," she said.

"I know of at least one this year," she said.

Martin acknowledged that those doing the hiring can't really avoid being aware when a spouse or a relative is applying for a job. They have to be careful not to treat such an applicant too favorably, but they don't want to err too far on the other side either.

"We don't want to discriminate one way or another. We try to be neutral and it's tough, there's no question about it," Martin said. "Sometimes Portland looks really good ¤ you don't know anybody. But I wouldn't trade a small community for that."

Six married couples hold positions in the district. So far, the "family atmosphere" has not caused any problems for the district, according to Martin. No one who has missed out on a job given to someone with relatives in the district has ever filed any kind of grievance.

The district has established rules forbidding a relative to be in a supervisory position over another.

Martin said the district has never created a job position in order to hire a spouse or relative. In the high school, where teachers carry qualifications in multiple subject areas, it would be possible to shuffle jobs around to accommodate a particular person.

For example, a spot as a health teacher was found for Rod Jones when he was hired as a volleyball coach. He stayed for a year.

But that hasn't been done to make a spot for a relative, according to Martin.

"It's possible there could be a reassignment," Martin said. "I can't think of an instance where we did that."

In fact, Martin cited a couple of examples where spouses were either left out of a job or could not be kept on.

Glenn and Michelle Herron came to Sisters when the high school opened in 1993. She was hired, but Glenn, described by Martin as "a highly qualified science teacher," was not. There wasn't an opening for him. Two years later, when the school needed a science teacher, Glenn Herron went through the screening and was hired.

In another case, Shelly Randall was hired as a temporary physical education teacher. The wife of high school teacher Joe Randall, she lost her position when the person she was replacing returned to the job.

"We would have loved to have kept her," Martin said. "She was an excellent P.E. teacher, but there wasn't a position for her. We didn't create a position for her."

Teachers married to each other are a pretty common phenomenon in the profession. Many couples meet in college while they're studying for that career and they try to stay together when they get hired.

According to Comfort, at a recent hiring fair, four couples asked him whether the Sisters School District has a policy against couples. They were only applying to districts where husband and wife both had a shot at a job.

The prevalence of married couples leaves the district vulnerable to losing two employees if one leaves the profession or gets a job in another district.

"That's the risk you take," Martin said.

However, that has not proved to be a problem in Sisters, so far.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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