Parent Advocates Elect Salem-Keizer’s First Latinx School Board Members

A story from Health & Education Fund grantees Pineros y Campesinos del Noroeste and Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality.

The four Salem-Keizer School Board members elected in 2021: Osvaldo Avila, Ashley Carson Cottingham, Karina Guzmán Ortiz and María Hinojos Pressey.

School board members across the U.S. make important decisions about our children’s education. They allocate budgets, influence education policy, and hire and evaluate superintendents. So, it is critical that school board members understand and advocate for the needs of the children in their community. Yet, across the nation, the racial and ethnic makeup of school board members often is not reflective of the communities they serve. For example, Salem-Keizer School District, in which almost half of all students identify as Latino/a/x, didn’t have any Latino/a/x school board members until 2021.

In recent years, the Salem-Keizer School Board has attracted increased attention due to incidents of racism and concerns about failures to address issues voiced by students and communities of color, including concerns around police presence in schools and disciplinary practices that disproportionately impact Black and Brown students in the district. These tensions have driven a call for school board leaders who are more representative of students and families in the district, and who will center equity, family voice, and Black, Indigenous and communities of color (BIPOC) in decision-making.

Local community organizations, including Health & Education grantees Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) and Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE), came together to achieve three goals: 1) increase Latino/a/x representation on the school board, 2) increase Latino/a/x parent voter turnout in school board elections, and 3) shift oppressive voting structures in Salem-Keizer schools that have historically diluted and suppressed Latino/a/x votes. 

In fall 2020, these organizations recruited and endorsed four school board candidates–Osvaldo Avila, Ashley Carson Cottingham, Karina Guzmán Ortiz and María Hinojos Pressey–three of whom identify as Latino/a/x and all of whom are working parents of current and future students in the Salem-Keizer School District. Parent advocates led voter outreach efforts, increasing voter turnout from 16-22% in past elections to 27.83% in 2021 and doubling the percentage of Latino/a/x votes from 2019.

Thanks to these efforts, all four candidates won their elections and took seats on the Salem-Keizer School Board in July 2021. They plan to push for increased opportunities for public engagement during board meetings, improved community trust in the Board, and improved graduation rates for marginalized students in the district. They also all support changing the voting structure in the district to a more equitable elect-by-zone structure rather than the current at-large voting structure. The incoming members take their positions at a pivotal time, as the district navigates multiple challenges including how best to support children returning to school during COVID-19 and reworking what disciplinary practices and school safety look like in the district.