Progressive candidates appear likely to hold a majority of seats on the Salem-Keizer School Board, with incumbent candidates fending off challengers who said the district needed a radical course change to improve student reading and security.

Initial results Tuesday evening showed progressive candidates Lisa Harnisch, Karina Guzmán Ortiz and Mel Fuller leading in their races, with conservative candidate Jennifer Parker also ahead.

Their challengers, conservatives Anthony Mitchell, Jason Kroker and Jeremiah Radka, and progressive Angelo Arredondo Baca, were behind.

But just a few hundred votes separate most candidates, and results could change as county election officials count more ballots in the coming days.

Results

The board oversees Superintendent Andrea Castañeda, who is in her second year, and weighs in on big picture decisions that guide the education of the district’s 38,000 students.

The school board is a nonpartisan office, but the races pitted two ideologically opposed slates of candidates against one another.

Community for Salem-Keizer Schools, a coalition of union and progressive groups, backed the progressive slate, while Marion + Polk First, a conservative political action committee, backed conservatives.

School board directors represent a specific zone within the district, but they’re elected at-large.

School board members are volunteers and serve a four-year term.

They will take office July 1 and join current school board members Cynthia Richardson, Satya Chandragiri and Krissy Hudson, whose terms end in 2027.

Improving student reading and safety in schools were major focuses of the campaign, though candidates had significant differences in their approaches. 

Progressive candidates generally said they wanted schools to focus on ensuring students feel engaged, safe and welcome through mental health support and meeting the needs of students of diverse backgrounds.

Conservative candidates favored stricter discipline policies and restoring police officers to schools, though none articulated specific budget cuts they would favor to pay for those officers.

If initial tallies hold, the school board will have a 4-3 progressive majority, with Harnish keeping the seat she was appointed to last year and Guzmán Ortiz winning a second term. Fuller, a longtime parent volunteer with students at Highland Elementary and Parrish Middle School, would join that group, which also includes Richardson. 

Parker joins fellow conservatives Chandragiri and Hudson, who have urged the superintendent to do more to focus on school security and said the school district should not risk cuts to federal education funding by maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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