Document text
Kinsella, Ankerberg vie for Medford School Board Jeffrey Kinsella, left, and Curt Ankerberg Tuesday May 2, 2017 at 12:01 AM Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune @teresathomas_MT Local certified professional accountant Curt Ankerberg is resolute, despite eight failed attempts for public office since May 2009, and is on the ballot once again. This time, he’s running against longtime educator Jeff Kinsella for Position 1 on the Medford School Board. “Two of the main functions of the school board are to create the school district budget and to negotiate contracts with the employee unions (in addition to hiring the superintendent and setting district policy), both are financial functions,” he said in an email to the Mail Tribune. “As a longtime CPA, I have specialized financial and management skills unique to the school board and unmatched by my opponent.” Ankerberg also has a history of unpleasant confrontations with other candidates, officials, school employees and others. In 2010, Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker filed a complaint with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office against Ankerberg following a confrontation in Walker’s office over disputed petition signatures. Walker said that threats made by Ankerberg caused her and her staff to feel physically and verbally threatened. Ankerberg in turn called Walker "incompetent, crooked and corrupt." During a 2013 endorsement interview at the Mail Tribune, he told one of his opponents in a school board race that she was illiterate. Ankerberg’s only “prior governmental experience,” according to the voters’ pamphlet, involved working as a tutor for the Medford School District. District records indicate that he volunteered at McLoughlin Middle School, and district officials have confirmed reports that during his stint with the school district, Ankerberg had personal disagreements with staff and was asked to leave. His opponent, Kinsella, 67, earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at California State University, Northridge, and later took graduate courses at National University in Los Angeles. He taught in Los Angeles for eight years before moving to Medford, where he worked first at McLoughlin Middle School and later at Jackson Elementary School. Of his 21 years with the Medford School District, 19 were spent at Jackson, where he was both a classroom teacher and, later, Title I specialist. He has two adult sons who both attended Medford schools and graduated from college. Although he retired from teaching last year, Kinsella kept his foot in the door, volunteering at Jackson and on the district’s Budget Committee. And while he’s been offered other positions within the district, Kinsella said he feels he can “make more of a difference on a large scale” by serving on the board rather than in another capacity. “I have an understanding of behavior management, curriculum and the challenges facing teachers, so I think I can bring that perspective to the School Board when they’re talking about this or that … and talk about what has and hasn’t worked,” he said. Kinsella said he's pleased with Superintendent Brian Shumate’s vision for the district, including the expansion of career and technical classes at the high school level. However, he said he’d like to see the district put more focus on kindergarten through third-grade education and work with parents to prepare kids for kindergarten. “You can’t see the immediate result of increased graduation rates (by investing in K-3), but you’ll see it pay off in the long run because you have created a system that keeps kids in school longer and helps them to graduate,” he said. Kinsella said teachers also need more training around classroom management, restorative justice and identifying children who have suffered from adverse childhood experiences in order to address behavioral problems earlier. He was endorsed by the Medford Education Association. In an email to the Mail Tribune, Ankerberg, 63, expressed his disappointment in the school district’s “poor track record of academic performance” and financial management. “The school district also consumes, and wastes, a lot of public resources,” he said in an email. “It could be operated more effectively and efficiently.” Ankerberg believes the district could save money by transforming Central Medford High School into a middle school (in lieu of building new schools), getting more “return” from teachers by increasing the number of instructional days but not their compensation, and controlling salaries and benefits. “The district is top-heavy with unnecessary and highly-paid administrators,” he said. “I want to reduce the number of administrators, control costs, reduce financial waste and use all the savings that I can to hire more math teachers.” Some of Ankerberg’s other ideas for improvement include increasing the number of math classes needed to graduate, eliminating “the short school years for seniors,” reducing classroom sizes, demanding more involvement from parents, increasing students’ interest in school “through more interesting class offerings,” and converting North Medford High School into a polytechnic high school — similar to Toppenish High School in Yakima County, Washington — with more science and trade classes. Ankerberg has a degree in business administration/accounting from California State University in Los Angeles and has held CPA licenses in Oregon, Washington and California. —Reach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/teresathomas_mt.