Steve Riehl for Oregon City School Board Position #6

Steve Riehl for Oregon City School Board Position #6 I am a father, uncle, and cousin to kids in the district. Kids and education must be the only agenda!

05/17/2023

Tonight is the night! You have until 8pm to drop ballots off at the Election Office drop box.

Thank you very much to everyone who has supported me, helped with campaigning, asked questions, took time to talk with me about their concerns, and who voted!! I truly appreciate each of you!!

05/16/2023

Just got word this evening from some rural friends that they were sent ballots for the Molalla School District. It took them going through a couple people at the elections office before they got the confirmation that they are in the Oregon City School District, which they already knew because their kids to go OC schools. They have to go to the elections office tomorrow to get new ballots. The elections office initially told them that there was some redistricting done, but that turned out to be not true. I wonder how many other people are going to run into this today and tomorrow.

05/15/2023

Just a reminder in case anyone missed it...

Did you know that the School Board positions are (supposed to be) non-partisan?

Did you know that I am not affiliated with any political party? That means I am not beholden to anyone EXCEPT FOR THE PARENTS AND STUDENTS of the Oregon City School District. I don't play political games. I don't play favorites. I don't let things get swept under the rug.

Politics have no place in schools or school boards.

Don't forget to vote!!! It does matter!!!

04/25/2023

The more I've been thinking about it, many issues the OC School District faces stem from lack of transparency and accountability in previous years. If elected, I look forward to partnering will all board members to identify root causes and develop action plans to address issues to the best of our abilities.

What is the most important issue to be addressed for you and why? I would love to hear! Discussion is welcome. Be civil or you get the boot.

04/18/2023

Installment 4 & 5 of where I stand on things:

Accountability & Transparency

These seem like they should be easy to do, but not if your goal is to only get your way. Whether or not you have seen issues with accountability and transparency in the OCSD, they are essential. I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to ensure both of these occur.

Accountability:
All district staff and students are responsible for their actions.

Disruptions to the education process should be handled immediately and appropriately to the type of disruption.

Everyone must clearly understand the consequences of their actions.

School staff MUST clearly and effectively communicate with one another regarding students who potentially jeopardize the safety of fellow students or classes.

Teachers must remain objective at all times in front of students - they should be there to support all students, not prioritizing specific groups because of their beliefs at the expense of others.

Policies and rules apply equally to everyone and everything.
Issues cannot be allowed to be swept under the rug.

Transparency:
All non-confidential meetings must be available to the public in an easy to find way regardless of whether or not people will be upset by the information.

No secrets, unless it involves sensitive personal information/security concerns, etc.

Knowledge is power. Parents need this in order to help make the best decisions for their kids whether that is voting for School Board members, advocating for action or change, or just supporting school events and functions. As a parent, I want to know where my tax money is going for school funding. I want to know what teachers are teaching my kids. I want to know that students and teachers are being held accountable for their actions, both positive and negative. This gives us faith and confidence in the institution. Secrets do not. I want OCSD to be the most successful and desired school district in the state. It won't happen overnight, but with small actions.

As always, feel free to like, share, and comment! I welcome feedback and different perspectives. Discussion makes us stronger. We don't have to agree on everything, but we can respect one another's ideas.

04/15/2023

Installment 3 of where I stand on things:

Voice of the Parents & Parents' Rights

As a parent of two children who have gone through the OC school system in recent years (one of whom still is a student at OC), I have experienced some of the frustrations I hear about first hand. As parents, we don't always know what rights or recourse we have for the different situations we, and our children, face. I want to improve this. I will be an advocate for those who don't know what to do, where to go, or how to proceed. Some of my expectations as a parent, and as a School Board Director, are/will be:

NO SECRETS FROM PARENTS by school staff or district staff.

Parents' rights matter!

Parents' and students' concerns must be heard and reasonable action taken.

There should always be an easy mechanism for parent issues to be voiced and discussed.

Follow-up on issues must occur and information made readily available to everyone.

Parents should know and understand their rights when fighting for their children's educational needs and should never be left to fend for themselves.

IEP's MUST be addressed - no parent or child should ever be left to navigate these murky waters alone.

IEP's should NEVER be brushed off, forgotten, downplayed, or marginalized.

I know the struggles with IEP's first-hand. I know that there are a number of parents who are in the same boat as my wife & I were. I will be here to support those parents to the best of my abilities and advocate for them as well. You are not alone!

As always, politics have no place in these areas. ALL parents must have a voice and resources to advocate appropriately for their children.

Please feel free to like, share, and comment! I would love to hear feedback from you on anything related to the School District. Open and honest discussion and communication is essential!!

Got the first batch of signs!! I know I owe some of you one and I'll be reaching out individually!
04/14/2023

Got the first batch of signs!! I know I owe some of you one and I'll be reaching out individually!

Beautiful day for a track meet! Go Pios!!
04/13/2023

Beautiful day for a track meet! Go Pios!!

04/11/2023

Installment #2 of where I stand on things:

Pillar II: Remove Politics from the Classroom

Ultimately, we want our children to be able to think for themselves learn/practice critical thinking skills. They are extremely impressionable and it's easy to sway the decision-making process and opinions. To that end, it is extremely important that the district reinforce the teaching of these skills and the teaching of information only. No slant. No agenda other than to provide ALL sides of a topic and show students how to reason through things. Yes, this is a job for parents at home, but it should be mirrored in the classroom as well. There are many teachers who do an excellent job of this, but it is important that it become engrained in the learning culture. Here is some of what I would like to see:

Teachers should not be influencing students with their own morals and values.

Education must be non-partisan.
• If education isn't non-partisan, students are only learning information that aligns with that teacher's belief system.

School board is supposed to be non-partisan with directors who can remain objective even when faced with issues that do not align with their belief systems.

Hurt feelings do not constitute a safety risk.

Encourage respectful discussion and dialogue between students and teachers with conflicting opinions - a skill social media has ruined.

Require true history courses and constitutional studies - if we don't know where we came from, we are bound to repeat our mistakes.

Remove all group specific banners/flags - Only the US flag, State of Oregon flag, and school flag (if applicable) should be displayed - unless the banner is for a school-specific activity or event.

As always, please feel free to like, share, and comment! Ultimately, I am here for you and your students. Just because I believe something, doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Next Up: Voice of the Parents & Students

04/09/2023

As a parent, one of my biggest frustrations this school year has been with the school transportation. Yes, it is frustrating to have your child's bus route canceled, but that isn't my main concern.

The problems I have with it are the 5am to 7am notifications that a route has been canceled and that there has been no communication that I have seen as to what is being done to address and fix the problem. I understand there is a shortage of drivers and that people call in sick. However, with the district being required to provide transportation to students, we need a clearer understanding of the goings on. We need transparency and more communication. We need to know there is action being taken.

Based on the emails/texts I have received starting 11/6/2022, there have been approximately 28 days where both morning and afternoon bus routes were canceled (almost 60 total routes) in approximately 85 school days. That is closing in on 1 route (am or pm) per day since November. Please keep in mind that these numbers are just based off the emails/texts I could find and are not in any way official.

I also want to identify how many school days are missed by students because they did not have transportation. We are not setting students up for success if they cannot get to school because their route was canceled and if they have no other means of getting to school.

As a member of the School Board, I will work with the Directors to do all we can to address this issue. I can't (and won't) promise it can be fixed immediately. What I can promise is to keep this issue at the forefront and keep parents informed on any updates and efforts to address this issue. I also want to address the last-minute route cancelations to help parents be able to better plan for this ahead of time.

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Oregon City, OR

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