School boards on the ballot in Lane

If you haven’t registered to vote or need to update your information, there’s still time – but not much. Voters must register or change their registration by Tuesday, April 29. 

“We want all people who are eligible to vote ready to participate in the May election,” said Lorren Blythe, acting county clerk. 

Ballots will be mailed locally starting May 1, and The Chronicle will publish its election content that week. This will include a Q&A with all participating candidates in print and online, a column outlining their campaign in their own words, and brief biographies. Additional prompts will be published exclusively on Chronicle1909.com. 

Within our coverage area, there are three notable contested races on the ballot, including those for the Springfield and South Lane school boards and the Lane Community College Board.

Springfield School District

Board candidates include Heather Quaas-Annsa and Sarah Bosch for Position 2, Jonathan Light and Justin Martin for Position 3, and Amber Langworthy, Bob Brew and Robert Morgan for Position 5.

• Position 2: Quaas-Annsa is the appointed incumbent, the director of philanthropy for Community Supported Shelters. Bosch is a qualified behavioral professional and a kindergarten teacher.

• Position 3: Light is a retired music teacher and business owner. Martin is a healthcare portfolio manager and commercial banker. 

• Position 5: Langworthy received a general associate’s degree from LCC. Brew is a retired higher education executive who served as Deputy Executive Director of the Oregon Higher Education Commission. Morgan is the production manager for Allan’s Coffee & Tea.

South Lane Schools

 Board candidates include Diane Hicks and Rayla Campbell for Position 2, Sherry Duerst-Higgins and Chris Holloman for Position 2, Colleen Valley and Tony Lefler for Position 5, and Jeff Gowing and Bill Parsons for Position 7, which is a 2-year term. 

• Position 2: Hicks is a retired SLSD elementary teacher who served on the Oregon State Assessment Task Force. Campbell is a farmer, a homemaker, and a dance and cheer instructor.

Position 4: Incumbent Duerst-Higgins is a realtor who served on the Lane Education Service District Board and other educational organizations. Holloman works in agricultural irrigation and is on the South Lane County Fire & Rescue Board.

• Position 5: Incumbent Valley holds psychology, communications, and clinical and organizational psychology degrees. Lefler is a service manager at Brad’s Cottage Grove Chevrolet.

• Position 7 (2-year term): Incumbent Gowing is the former mayor and city councilor of Cottage Grove and a retired journeyman millwright. Parsons is a retired fire captain and Cottage Grove High School alum.

Lane Community College 

The board has three of its four seats up for contest. Jeffrey Cooper and Jerry Rust contend for Zone 1, Devon Lawson and Julie Weismann for Zone 3, Austin Fölnagy and Richard Andrew Vasquez for Zone 4, and Jesse Alejandro Maldonado is the sole candidate for the at-large position. All other zones are four-year positions. 

• LCC Zone 1: Cooper is the COO at Paramount Ironworks LLC and was previously a plant operations manager at Mohawk Metal. Rust served as a Lane County Commissioner from 1977 to 1997.

• LCC Zone 3: Lawson is a McKenzie River Community School senior and an appointed Lane Community College Bond Oversight Committee member. Weismann is the finance director for the Hope & Safety Alliance, where she previously served as executive director.

• LCC Zone 4: Incumbent Fölnagy is a business and employment specialist and president of the Oregon Community College Association. Vasquez is a self-employed legal and educational consultant. Maldonado is an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon.

Registered voter counts as of March 2025 show that nonaffiliated voters – not to be confused with the Independent Party, a registered political party in Oregon – remain the largest voting block in our coverage area. 

Of the 44,171 registered voters in Springfield, 17,513 are nonaffiliated, 13,560 are Democrats, and 9,603 are Republicans.

Of the 7,551 registered voters in Cottage Grove, 2,988 are nonaffiliated, 2,050 are Republicans, and 1,891 are Democrats.

Of the 4,112 registered voters in Creswell, 1,556 are nonaffiliated, 1,288 are Republicans, and 968 are Democrats. 

While excluded from voting on partisan positions in primaries, nonaffiliated voters have the same voting rights as any other registered voter regarding school board and other nonpartisan elections in Oregon. 

Circling back to voter registration, submitting that form in person must be delivered to the Election Office at 275 W. 10th Ave., Eugene, by 5 p.m. on April 29. If mailing the form, it must be postmarked by that date. For online registration through oregonvotes.gov, you must complete the process by 11:59 p.m.

Even if you are registered, Blythe advises that “it’s still a good idea to double-check your registration and correct any errors ahead of time – that helps us make sure the voting process goes as smoothly as possible for voters.”

Voters may return their ballot by regular mail, at any ballot drop box in the state, or the Elections Office. To track the status of a ballot, visit oregonvotes.gov/MyVote. 

Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid postmark by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Voters with questions can email [email protected] or call 541-682-4234.

Have a question you want the candidates to answer in The Chronicle? Email it to [email protected]. 

Uncontested races

CRESWELL SCHOOL DISTRICT

■ Director 4, Mike Anderson; Director 5, Tim Rogers; Director 6, Lacey Risdal

PLEASANT HILL SCHOOL DISTRICT

■ Director Position 2, Drew Gottfried; Director Position 4, Russel (Rusty) L Rexius; Director Position 5, Stephen Hammond

LOWELL SCHOOL DISTRICT

■ Director Position 2, Kevin Finch; Director Position 4, Jim Chapman

SOUTH LANE COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE

■ Director 1: Debby Stumph; Director 3: Ron Hood; Director 5: Thomas Munroe

CRESWELL WATER CONTROL DISTRICT

■ Ryan Nossaman, Ralyn Nossaman, Carla Smart

LANE LIBRARY DISTRICT

■ Lisa Linnell-Olsen, Andrew Morgan, Eric Cullander

GLENWOOD WATER DISTRICT

■ Karen Reinhart and Andrew Rollins

MARCOLA WATER DISTRICT

■ Patrick Watson, Tim Sanders, Dawn Cole

BLUE RIVER WATER DISTRICT

■ Shanon Goodpasture-Lehr and Anthony Able

PLEASANT HILL GOSHEN RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT

■ Tom McCellan and Terry McDiarmid

LOWELL RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT

■ Bob Burr, Liz Annis, Trystan Pierzina, and Max Baker

MCKENZIE FIRE & RESCUE

■ Raymond Byrne Jr., Bruce Daniel, and George Burnette Dillion

LORANE RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT

■ Gary Lutman, Patrick Harris, and Berneda McDonald

LANE FIRE AUTHORITY

■ Peter Holmes and Mark Boren

DEXTER RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT

■ Tim Strinz, Rich Stronach, and Larry Severance

MARCOLA SCHOOL DISTRICT

■ Brandon Floeck, Jim Smith, and Roxanne Ericson

CROW-APPLEGATE-LORANE SCHOOL DISTRICT

■ Darren Willits, Jeff Ramp, and Troy James Jentzsch

WILLAMALANE PARKS & RECREATION DISTRICT 

■ At Large Positions: Kiersten Muenchinger, Cj Mann and Brook Reinhard