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Horner, Killen, Husted vie for Medford School Board Kevin Husted, left, Sally Killen, Jim Horner Thursday May 4, 2017 at 4:25 PM May 4, 2017 at 5:29 PM Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune @teresathomas_MT Three candidates are competing to serve out the last two years of former Medford School Board member Janet Lightheart’s term. Lightheart resigned last June, only one year after she was elected to Position 6. At the time, the remaining six members of the board were unable to come to a consensus on a candidate to replace her, so they opted to operate as a six-member board until the May 16 election. Now retired Hewlett-Packard executive Jim Horner, retired English teacher and former board member Sally Killen and local businessman Kevin Husted are vying for the vacant seat. Horner, 73, has served five years on the district’s Budget Committee, as well as on the Save Ruch School Committee, formed in 2012 to draw support for the school, which was in danger of closing. “There are basically three reasons (why I’m running for the board),” he said. “One, I care a lot about kids. They are our future, and we need to do a great job of educating them. Two, I think I’m really qualified. And, three, I have some fresh ideas.” Horner earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and executive credentials from Stanford University, served in the U.S. Army for two years to fulfill his ROTC commitment and later climbed the ranks of Hewlett-Packard, now HP Inc., retiring in 2007 as vice president and general manager of quality for Agilent Technologies, a HP spin-off. He said he feels he is qualified for Position 6 because he has experience overseeing a division comparable to the Medford School District in the number of employees and size of the budget. Furthermore, he grew up in a family of educators — his father was a former superintendent of the David Douglas School District in Portland, and his brother was a University of Oregon education professor — and he has been immersed in educational issues "since I was just a little guy." Given his technological career, Horner said he’d like to see more teachers utilizing technology in the classrooms and more students accessing online classes. “Adding an online school could mean (that the district) doesn’t need to build another school and could save millions because more kids are learning at home,” he said. Teachers also should be receiving more support in the classroom from community volunteers and support staff to relieve their burden and allow them to work with more students individually, he said. Horner was endorsed by the Medford Education Association. After six years on the board, Killen took a two-year hiatus to garden, read, visit with family and recover from the 2014 teachers' strike. Killen, 71, a retired teacher, said she lost a lot of friends during the strike and needed some time to recover but is now eager to resume her place on the board. “I feel I still have a lot to contribute to the district, and I still want to share my perspective as a teacher on the board,” she said. All four of the district's public charter schools were approved during Killen's board tenure, and she said she is interested in the direction of those schools and the issues facing them. “I don’t see charter schools as competition, but I do feel that they should only exist if they can provide something that our district cannot, which is why I voted no on Kids Unlimited Academy and The Valley School and yes on Logos and Madrone Trail public charter schools," she said. Killen said she also would like to see the district evaluate its state-recognized English Language Learner program to see whether there are ways to continue to improve it and help students who are new to the district and country be successful. And while she is impressed with Superintendent Brian Shumate's Pathways Program, she thinks the district should track its graduates to see how effective the program is in helping them attain an industry certification or college degree. Killen retired in 2007 after 36 years as an educator. During her career, she taught in Clackamas; Casper, Wyoming; Pe Ell, Washington; Green River, Wyoming; and for 20 years at Hedrick Middle School. She and her husband, John, just celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary, which “shows that I can make a commitment,” she said. Kevin Husted is the owner of a small freight brokerage, Rogue Logistics and Consulting, and the father of five children, including two South Medford High School graduates, two McLoughlin Middle School students and one Oak Grove Elementary School fourth-grader. He and his family moved to the area about seven years ago from Brookings. He said he felt compelled to run for the School Board after witnessing the damage caused by the teachers’ strike. “There weren’t good relationships before the strike, and then (they) had to negotiate this (contract), and it got a lot uglier than it ever needed to become,” he said. “If we can work together as a team — and that means board members, teachers, parents, students and the community — then there’s better relationships all around, and we’ll get a better outcome.” Teamwork, stronger leadership on the board and his business expertise, he said, will help the district to navigate forthcoming decisions, such as whether to move sixth-graders to the middle schools, and financial challenges, such as those surrounding PERS increases, the possible local-option levy and the construction of a new school. If elected, Husted said he would like to see more interventions in the early grades, less focus placed on graduation rates and more on preparing students for the real world, and more flexibility for teachers to teach passionately. “I would also like to see less testing,” he said. “I’m not sure whether that is doable or not because of what is passed down from the state, but creating the best test-takers we can is not what we’re after." — Reach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/teresathomas_mt.