Seeking candidates for school boards

Sisters School District will have three board positions up for election on the May 16 ballot. If Sisters conforms to statewide trends, most or all of the positions will be uncontested.

According to the Associated Press, a professional association is hoping to get more people excited about school board elections in Oregon. The Oregon School Boards Association reports that nearly three-quarters of the seats for school boards, education service districts, and community college boards were uncontested during the last round of board elections in 2015 and eight percent of available seats drew no candidates at all.

With such low turnout, the association has launched a campaign to recruit more candidates to take part in the upcoming school board elections in May, AP reports.

Association spokesman Alex Pulaski says it's unclear why people aren't interested in some races, though there is little interest in seats in rural Oregon. Pulaski says the association is working to educate people about how school boards affect policy in hopes of energizing new candidates.

In Sisters, positions 1, 2, and 5 on the school board are elected for four-year terms. The candidate filing period ends March 16. Interested candidates must file with the Deschutes County Clerk no later than 5 p.m. on March 16.

Forms are available at the Sisters School District administration office, Deschutes County Clerk's office and online at https://www.deschutes.org/clerk/page/candidate-measure-filing-forms.