School candidates will face off in forum

Sisters area residents will be able to hear -- and question -- school board candidates at a forum Thursday night, May 1.

Sponsored by the unions representing teachers and classified employees, the forum will begin at 6 p.m. in the lecture-drama room of Sisters High School.

Each candidate will be asked to make a brief presentation, to be followed by several questions prepared by union representatives. The meeting will then be opened to questions from anyone in attendance.

Three positions on the five-member board will be filled at a May 20 election, for which ballots will be mailed out May 2. One of the positions is held by Eric Dolson, publisher of The Nugget, who is unopposed. He will serve the two years remaining in the partial term to which he was appointed last June to replace Heather Wester, who resigned.

Two challengers signed up for the position now held by Board Chairman Jeff Smith, a California university professor who commutes by air during the academic year.

But one of the challengers has withdrawn in favor of the other. Tom Harpham, the Central Oregon director of Recruit, Inc., no longer seeks the office and is throwing his support to Del Erlandson, president and owner of two Sisters companies -- Strategic Mortgage and Fishcraft Outfitters.

Harpham appeared in an Erlandson ad in The Nugget last Wednesday, April 23, in which he explained: "Although my name will appear on the ballot, I have chosen to support Del Erlandson for Sisters School Board position No. 4."

He confirmed that decision by telephone, saying he didn't realize Erlandson was going to file for the same position he did. He said no one asked him to step aside; he volunteered. Both he and Erlandson would like to see Smith replaced, Harpham acknowledged, but he saw "no point making it a three-way race."

He said Erlandson is well qualified, has been in the community longer than he and has better name recognition.

Harpham withdrew too late to remove his name from the ballot. According to the county elections office, the March filing deadline itself was the last day to withdraw.

The third position on the Sisters board is open because incumbent Steve Keeton chose not to seek a second term. Vying to succeed him are Tom Coffield, a former teacher and business owner who is now the director of SOAR (Sisters Organization for Recreation and Activities), and Steve Matthews, a retired teacher who spent most of his career with the Beaverton school district. Both men have backgrounds in vocational education.