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Chuck Lee seeks fourth term representing Keizer on school board

Chuck Lee is running for a fourth term on the Salem-Keizer School Board (Courtesy/Chuck Lee)

Salem-Keizer’s longest-serving school board member announced Friday he intends to seek a fourth term.

Chuck Lee, who has represented Keizer on the board since 2007, said he wants to continue work to improve graduation rates and expand career-technical education programs in the district’s schools.

On a board with three members in their first term, Lee said he believed his long tenure would “give the board a sense of stability.

Lee is president of the Mountain West Career Technical Institute, which runs Salem-Keizer’s Career Technical Education Center in partnership with the district.

If re-elected, Lee said he’s like to focus on student behavioral issues, which are becoming more of a concern for teachers and staff. As a board member, that would mean focusing on ways to support teachers dealing with behavioral problems during the budgeting process, he said.

“We need to give that a priority,” Lee said.

Three board seats are up for election in May, and filing for candidates opens next week. Lee is the first to announce his candidacy.

Marty Heyen, school board director for zone two, which includes McKay High School, said she intended to run for a second term. Heyen is a stay-at-home parent who also serves on the Marion County Parks Commission.

In zone four, which represents the Sprague High School area, school board director Jim Green said he does not intend to seek a third term.

After three years on the district’s budget committee and eight years on the board, Green said he’d like to spend more time with his family. As the parent of a current high school student, he said it won’t be the end of his involvement with the district.

“They’re not done with me,” he said.

Correction: This article originally listed the opening day for filing incorrectly.

Reporter Rachel Alexander: (503) 575-1241 or [email protected]

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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.