For Bend-La Pine School Board Zone 6: Peggy Kinkade

The choice in this race is an easy one. Peggy Kinkade has dedicated countless hours of service to the local schools both as a board member and a volunteer for the Bend-La Pine Education Foundation. Before that, Ms. Kinkade worked diligently to pass the school construction bond that helped alleviate the serious overcrowding in the district. Most recently, she has served as the board's chairwoman, which has put her in the high-profile position of acting as the head of the board and the liaison between the elected officers, the administration and the public. By all accounts, she has served admirably in that position.
She's also a mother with children in the schools who has been impacted by the decisions that the administration and the board have made on her watch, including the recent boundary brouhaha that resulted in one of Kinkade's children being moved out of her neighborhood school at Pine Ridge next year and bused to Pilot Butte. She also has two children at Summit High School who will be impacted by the move away from the popular block schedule format to a traditional seven-period day. Kinkade isn't thrilled about that, but believes it to be necessary given the budgetary challenges facing the district, namely a $15-million shortfall next year. In other words, it's not an easy time to be a public schools parent or a school board member, but Kinkade wears both hats well and her experience and perspective is needed at this time when the schools are facing difficult decisions.

We don't want to dismiss the interest or enthusiasm shown by Kinkade's challenger, Kim Page, a local realtor. But Ms. Page, who home-schools her son because of his travel schedule, doesn't have the experience or the vision that Kinkade has demonstrated over the years. For all those reasons, we're urging you to return Ms. Kinkade to the board for another four years.