As of January 9, five names are in the running to fill the vacant seat at the Corvallis School Board: Dan Dowhower, Deb Mott, Sadie Slocum, Shauna Tominey, and Luhui Whitebear.
The five finalists were selected from a list of 14 candidates to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Brandy Fortson in November. According to a press release from the board, each member selected three candidates they wanted to interview based on their applications and references. The results were tallied, and every candidate to receive three hash marks made the final cut.
Four of the five candidates have connections to Oregon State University. Dowhower and Tominey are both members of the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Mott is the director of the Memorial Union, and Whitebear is the assistant director of the Native American Longhouse Eena Haws. All four have children enrolled in the Corvallis school system, and Dowhower and Tominey hold PhDs in Public Health and Human Development and Family Sciences, respectively.
The outlier is 18-year-old Sadie Slocum, who admits that she’s the “underdog” of the race. A recent transplant to Corvallis, having moved here in 2017, Slocum believes that currently many students “become ‘lost’ or overlooked because of the high number of students in most schools.”
The final selection process will occur at the board’s next meeting on January 16.
By Brandon Urey
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