News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Sisters School Board is having second thoughts about naming the auditorium in honor of the late Lloyd Brogan, father of Marlene Rognlien of Sisters.
“The school board realizes that we have created a hornet’s nest in the community and we are going to revisit the naming of the auditorium,” said school board member Jeff Smith.
The board will meet Monday, September 26, at 7 p.m. to discuss the naming procedure and to hear public comment. The meeting will be held at the Sisters High School Lecture Room.
According to Smith, the auditorium naming came up as an indirect result of the decision to name the Outlaws’ football stadium “Reed Stadium” in honor of Bill and Jan Reed, who were killed in a plane crash in July.
The Reeds were strong supporters of Sisters schools and Bill was an avid supporter of Outlaws football.
“We plan to go forward with the Reed memorial. There seems to be good support for that,” Smith said.
According to Smith, the public is less supportive of naming the auditorium after Brogan, former owner of the Lazy Z.
“The community doesn’t know much about Lloyd Brogan,” Smith said. “Long-time residents don’t know about his contributions to the community.”
Brogan paid for light standards to be placed at the football stadium. According to Smith, a promise was made to name the stadium in his honor.
That promise came up as a committee composed of board member Glen Lasken, Superintendent Ted Thonstad and Reed family friends Kathi Helser, John Tehan and Bob Shaw deliberated on an appropriate memorial for the Reeds.
“It was the first time I ever heard of this promise,” said Smith.
The committee and school board, with the agreement of Brogan’s family, agreed to naming the stadium for the Reeds and the auditorium for Brogan.
Smith acknowledged that the board has a facility naming policy that was not properly applied in the process.
“We do have a policy,” he said. “We didn’t follow that policy as well as we should.”
That policy directs the superintendent to solicit names from staff, students and community and to set procedures and a timetable for naming to lessen community pressure and factionalism.
Smith said that many community members have suggested that others would be honored more appropriately by the naming of the auditorium, though, “nobody is, I think, lobbying for any particular choice.”
The naming of Reed Stadium will go forward, Smith said, “because there is overwhelming support to do this for the Reeds. The family has made arrangements for a Homecoming evening celebration (October 21) and we have support for that decision.”
Smith acknowledged that the board has put itself in an awkward position.
“It will be embarrassing,” he said.
“I think we were so focused on the Reed memorial and didn’t anticipate the community reaction.”
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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