Election 2023: Meet Eugene 4J position 7 candidates Morgan Munro, Timothy Sean Sutherland

Editor's note: The Register-Guard spoke with all eight candidates running in the May 16 election and over the next several days will run articles on the candidates for each of the open positions. This is the fourth of four such articles.

With the 2023 special election coming May 16, eight candidates are vying for four positions on the Eugene School District 4J Board of Directors.

For position 7, business owner Morgan Munro is running against district sales director Timothy Sean Sutherland.

Appointed board member Michelle Hsu chose not to run for the seat.

Morgan Munro

Munro, 41, was born and raised in Eugene. An alumni of Parker Elementary Roosevelt Middle where her mother taught social studies, and South Eugene High, she went on to earn her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and her master's degree from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

She previously taught in the small business development center at Lane Community College. Now a business owner, Munro has two children, one at Adams Elementary and one at Roosevelt Middle.

Munro is currently on the Lane County Charter Review Committee and previously served on the Lane County Independent Redistricting Committee. She is also involved with her local parent teacher association, serving as PTA president at Adams.

"The more I learned about what was happening day to day in school, and the more I heard from friends who are educators and talked to other parents, it really just became so clear why we have the challenges that we have, and how hard the challenges we're facing are," Munro said.

Munro said she would like to reevaluate the board's role in the district. As a business owner, she values her problem-solving abilities.

She would like to see a continued push for higher graduation rates, higher proficiency in literacy and other core subjects, culturally responsive materials and "true equity." Munro also said she believes in the power of social emotional learning, mentioning a program she has admired at César E. Chávez Elementary.

"(The program is) helping kids learn how to have a feeling and name their feelings, and then be able to sit with that discomfort," Munro said. "They're really looking at practical ways to help kids really be able to do hard things, which I think is really amazing."

Munro believes there is sufficient data available to address student needs, but she believes the current board may not be asking the right questions.

At her business, Munro specializes in strategy and organizational development. She loves numbers and said her skills in that area would be useful if elected. She is also looking forward to an opportunity to help manage the budget.

Munro said she sees incorrect and incomplete histories being taught around the country, and she hopes 4J would continue to make efforts to provide fact-based education to its students. She wants to see her children and the rest of 4J students become informed, critical thinkers.

"Seeing what our kids are dealing with really made a strong case to me that none of this is easy," Munro said. "But what we could use, really, are a group of community members who care deeply about our schools and the children and are up for having some really hard conversations and making some potentially tough decisions so that our kids and our schools and our staff and our community has a great public education system that really puts kids first."

Timothy Sean Sutherland

Sutherland, 62, moved from Houston to Eugene in 2010 to be closer to his son, 13. Originally from Lexington, Kentucky, he attended the University of Kentucky where he earned a bachelor's degree. Sutherland now works for the Assurance Group.

Sutherland is also a foster parent.

His son, who was diagnosed with a learning disability several years ago, has struggled "both academically and mentally" at 4J. He left 4J last year, having found the most success for his son's needs at Willamette Leadership Academy.

While he's seen a couple of great special education teachers at 4J, he said they are all overmatched due to class sizes. Sutherland would like to find better ways to support students in special education.

"The only way we could find help was to pay for it," Sutherland said. "There wasn't any kind of help available to him through the school. They organized the help, but we ended up having to pay for it. And I thought to myself, 'What about all these other families that can't do that?'"

Sutherland said the board is out of touch with parents.

"We need a parental voice. We need somebody that's in the trenches with the kids," Sutherland said. "Sometimes I think by what they (the board) do in the policies they set, they don't even live in the same town as me."

Sutherland would like to see more parent input in the regular meetings. He sympathizes with parents who have three minutes to speak for public comment with no feedback from the board after. He said the meetings don't need to be longer, but more meaningful. He suggested the meetings not be hosted at the administrative building on Monroe Street, but could instead rotate among school campuses.

He would push for the return of school resource officers in 4J schools. SROs were removed in 2021, as approved by the board. He would also like to see a return of trade classes.

Sutherland ran for the Oregon House of Representatives' District 13 seat in November but lost to incumbent Nancy Nathanson.

"It's about the kids, our kids are not thriving," Sutherland said. "The reason they're not thriving is they're not getting proper leadership, and they're not getting proper common sense. I desperately want to reach out to the other board members and find out what's best for these kids.

"While they're bickering, our kids are suffering. Nothing can happen until that stops."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Election 2023: Munro, Sutherland vie for Eugene 4J position 7