The new face of the Sisters School Board

In a quiet revolution, the character of the controlling majority of the Sisters School Board changed completely during the month of July. The five-member board acquired three new members who are different in significant respects from their predecessors.

The last domino fell Wednesday night, July 27, when the board chose Steve Rudinsky to replace Tom Coffield, who resigned as of August 1 (see story page 1).

The three outgoing members were known throughout the community. Two chose not to run for another term — the late Bill Reed, 56, owner of a prominent Sisters real estate firm, and Nugget publisher Eric Dolson, 55. Both had been in Sisters for more than a quarter-century. The youngster of the group, Tom Coffield, 50, until recently executive director of SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation), came to town about 11 years ago.

By contrast, none of the three new members has hit 50 yet. Rob Corrigan and Mike Gould are both 43 while the new appointee, Rudinsky, is 45. The new guys also boast high-tech vocational credentials that are “new age” compared with the more traditional fields of their predecessors.

Corrigan worked for nearly two decades as an executive with several “technology startups” in the San Francisco area. Gould is a radio man who operates a ratings and research firm serving stations in small markets across the country.

And Rudinsky is in computer sales and marketing. He works for Sun Microsystems, which is based in California but encourages its employees to work away from the home office.

The three new men are also relative newcomers to Sisters compared with those they replaced.

Corrigan and his family arrived here three years ago. Gould and his family moved here in 2000 and Rudinsky and his family came in 2001.

All have children in Sisters schools, predominantly the elementary school.

Both of the two holdovers, Jeff Smith and Glen Lasken, have served on the board for six years. At age 60, Smith, a retired university professor, is clearly identified more with the outgoing group in terms of defining characteristics. He is the board’s chairman for the coming year.

Lasken is not as removed from the newcomers by age; he’s 47. In private life he is a workers compensation attorney.

Smith and his wife moved to Sisters in 1995 while the Laskens came a year later. Lasken has two sons in the local schools, one entering the seventh grade and the other the eighth grade this fall.

So, does this mean the new majority will use its power to turn the schools in radically different directions? Probably not. As candidates, all three spoke highly of the school system and the then-current board. They all stressed academic excellence and praised the community’s support for its schools.

While it would be foolish to read too much into a few political tea leaves, it is nonetheless probable that the new board will be somewhat different from the old, in ways not easily predictable.

A sign of that came last Wednesday when the partially new board (with Corrigan and Gould in office) selected its fifth member.

It took two nights to interview the eight applicants for the position Coffield was vacating.

Rudinsky was the last to be questioned, and he did well, exhibiting a good salesman’s combination of knowledge and enthusiasm.

But when the board took its first vote, with each member marking his top three choices on a paper ballot, the top vote-getters were Rudinsky and Christine Jones, a former World Bank economist with a Harvard Ph.D. and other impressive credentials, including membership on the Sisters Elementary School Site Council.

A betting person might have guessed that the board would do the politically correct thing and choose Jones. After all, the board has no female members and hasn’t had since Heather Wester resigned in 2002. But instead, the final round of voting produced three votes for Rudinsky and only two for Jones.

The interesting thing is that the two new board members, Corrigan and Gould, went for Rudinsky, while the two holdovers, Smith and Lasken, voted for Jones.

The deciding vote for Rudinsky was cast by Tom Coffield, in his last significant act before leaving office.