Sisters' newest old teacher

Rob Corrigan has been involved in Sisters schools for many years, including a stint on the school board. Now he's taken his passion for education where it has direct impact: Into the classroom, teaching physics.

Corrigan finished his master's degree in education at George Fox in Redmond at the end of the last school year, and after a trimester teaching middle school science in Redmond he joined the staff at SHS in the second trimester of this year teaching chemistry and physics.

Corrigan, his wife, Merry Ann Moore, and their two kids moved to Sisters 11 years ago from Silicon Valley, where Rob finished off a successful career as a high-tech CEO, CFO and ultimately venture capitalist.

Emily and Drew were just in kindergarten and second grade when Corrigan swapped his 80- to 100-hour-a-week job for a ranch home in Sisters.

"I was missing years of my kids' life," said Corrigan, "We always had this distant notion of moving to some little town somewhere. We thought, if we are ever going to do it we had better do it now; so we listed our house, and it sold in three days, and we didn't even know what state we were moving to! The first time my wife and kids saw the house was with all of our stuff in it.

"I went from the roaster oven into the freezer," said Corrigan. "I started riding a bike, and I started getting involved with school stuff. It was just so fun! Because I owned my own time, when I was here, I was able to be the dad that went on the field trips."

Corrigan continued his domestic and international consulting work, but he also found time to coach a soccer team, and then get involved with the soccer club, and then the soccer board. Stints on the elementary school site council and then the middle school site council ultimately lured him to seek and win a seat on the school board.

"As I got more involved with schools I spent more time doing spreadsheets and going to meetings," said Corrigan. "I enjoyed what I was doing, but over time I realized that I was spending more of my time dealing with (upset) grownups than I was with kids, and that (the kids) was the fun part."

He resigned his board seat at the end of his second year.

Corrigan said, "It was not apparent to me what a big step it was (running for the school board). Before, I was on six committees and two boards all associated with the kids. I had the time and I had the interest. I thought of (running for school board) at the time as just one more notch of volunteerism.

"It took me some time to realize it, but because it is an elected position everything changes. People come to see you as a politician," said Corrigan, "(People) like volunteers, but people hate politicians. They know you have a hidden agenda, and that you are doing this to scam something because you are a politician. (They suspect) that you probably have aspirations ... to use that as a launching pad for higher office. That is bizarre.

"In my eleven years in Sisters I believe that all the people on the board do it because they want to do public citizenship, volunteerism, to help out. It is a real shame that they get treated like politicians."

No one is mistaking him for a politician now. He's a teacher, and he thrives on the interaction with kids.

"I'm here to learn, and I'm interested to see how is this going to work out," he said. "I am very consciously on my first lap of what I hope will be 15 to 20 laps. I'm learning so much every day. It is hard work!"

Rob would love to get the high school more involved in the burgeoning national STEM movement (Science Technology Engineering Math). Referring to the upcoming $1.3 million school budget cuts, Corrigan said, "I can read the tea leaves. We will be cutting science electives, right in the moment in time when everybody on the planet believes we should be focusing on them."