Our community is truly experiencing a rare occurrence. We have an abundance of interested candidates seeking a seat on Pendleton School Board District 16 R. What an exciting problem and/or gift to experience.

When I first joined our community, it was 1995 and I worked at the East Oregonian under the wise leadership of Amy Bedford. One early task was to visit the tribal school, Nixyaawii, to establish a relationship with classroom teachers and students to use the East Oregonian in classrooms as a teaching tool and source of news.

With strong leadership and commitment, Nixyaawii has continued to grow and develop into a very successful school. The decisions and guidance of tribal leaders and school board members were used to encourage trust from the community and commitment from the leaders. What a wise way to lead by example.

We educate our students in many ways. Personal responsibility, example and completion of commitments is a strong message and influence to our children, our neighbors and community members. Ms. Spencer is serving on Nixyaawii School Board. It is an honor to serve once and to be voted to serve a second term is reflective of the trust, confidence and leadership skills she has developed while serving and should honor her commitment by completing this term of office at Nixyaawii.

Mr. Gregg has shown interest in serving his community. He too values education and knows it is the pathway forward for our next generation. He has earned our trust in our community, his commitment to his family displays his values and his willingness to work hard reveals his commitment in all that he does.

How blessed our community is to have caring, committed candidates to serve on our school boards. Let’s be grateful and have both of these strong leaders serve and share their leadership skills and sense of responsibility.

Sylvia Clawson

Pendleton

The East Oregonian does not run endorsements of more than 400 words.

The East Oregonian will institute a deadline for letters to the editor, so we can be fair with all the letters we receive and allow for responses before Election Day, if necessary.

We run local letters of endorsement on a first-come, first-served basis. Please submit your endorsement letters to the editor by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 7. You can email them to editor@eastoregonian.com, or mail them to East Oregonian, c/o Andrew Cutler, 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801.

We will publish our last letters on Saturday, May 15. Any letters received after the deadline will not run. Election Day is May 18.