As a mother, doctor and policy maker, I wrestle with hard decisions like budgets, program funding and grapple with high stakes decisions that can impact lives every day. When I show up, I believe that centering the people actually doing the work is foundational to strong outcomes in our communities.

This is why I stand with the Beaverton Education Association and the Oregon School Employees Association, the unions that support Syed Qasim, Eric McGuire and Karin Stark for the Beaverton school board. As teachers, they understand the dynamics of the classroom, the influence of geopolitics on our kids and a deep connection to the physical and psychological safety of our students every day.

When teachers were given the opportunity to engage in hiring the leader of their district, they talked about students living in fear of their immigration status, families struggling to make ends meet, a connection to the community and a serious concern for the cuts in federal funding that will impact families across Beaverton.

As your school board member, I hear stories about:

• Students afraid for their families’ safety due to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Washington County.
• Students who have family in regions outside the United States suffering famine and war conditions.
• Students struggling to get their special education accommodations.
• Students navigating bullying in the playground and on the bus.
• Families who are scraping together child care and after school care while balancing their jobs.

Some people believe that when we bring these issues into decision-making at the school board that we are “playing politics”. The reality is that we know these issues are impacting our students — whether our privilege prevents us from seeing it or not. We need leaders who will take these issues head-on and move us forward with compassion and decisiveness.

Syed Qasim is a father to three children — his public experience in climate justice coupled with his work experience in technology will be critical in thinking of the future.

Eric McGuire is a father to three children — his decision to keep his kids in Beaverton schools and his 30 years of experience as a teacher in Beaverton and now in the Centennial School District will be critical to developing strong policy that is centered on teacher voices.

Karin Stark is a mother to four children — her experience navigating school closure conversations and engaging families during the protracted contract bargaining have helped bring a shared understanding to the community that will surely unite us.

As we are impacted in Beaverton by uncertainty at the federal level, I am looking to organizations committed to justice locally. One important voice in that space — maybe the important voice — is our unions. As belief in our two party system wanes, unions, now more than ever, represent the voice and the power of the people.

Join me and our teachers unions (and many other unions) in supporting our teachers by voting for Syed Qasim, Karin Stark and Eric McGuire for Beaverton school board.

---

Tammy Carpenter is a Beaverton resident and a member of the Beaverton school board. The views expressed are her own.