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Christy Splitt was appointed to the Portland Public Schools Board by a 4-2 vote at a special meeting on Monday night. She will represent Zone 1, which covers much of Southwest Portland, including Ida B. Wells High School.
Splitt’s appointment follows the departure of Andrew Scott, who announced his resignation in November after he’d moved out of his zone and could not serve out the remainder of his four-year term. There will be a special election to fill his seat in May. Splitt will serve until June 30. At that point, the winner of the May election will complete Scott’s remaining two years.
Splitt is government relations coordinator for the Oregon Department of Energy and has also been president and treasurer at the Hayhurst Elementary School PTA. She has about 20 years of experience lobbying the Oregon Legislature, which board members said would come in strong as they head to Salem to advocate for school funding. That also was an underlying motivation for Splitt’s board run: “I feel like bringing fully funded schools back to Oregon is my life’s work,” she said.
“To me, public schools are the foundation of our communities, the foundation of our democracy. It’s not where you just learn math or you learn science, but you learn critical thinking. You learn how to make friends,” Splitt said in her opening statement. “Any time we are falling short because of a lack of resources or a lack of effective policy or implementation, it’s not just our kids we’re letting down, it’s really our entire community.”
Three candidates applied for the position. The other two were Jazzmin Reece, a real estate broker who has served as treasurer of the Bridlemile Elementary School PTA, and Jasmine Wirz, a nonprofit executive who’s currently in health care but has also led efforts to expand access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. All three are residents of Zone 1 and parents to students at PPS.
It took three rounds of voting to appoint Splitt.
In the first round, the board was split in a three-way tie, with each candidate receiving two votes. In the second round of voting, board chair Eddie Wang changed his vote from Wirz to Splitt, eliminating Wirz. In the final round of voting, board members Michelle DePass, Patte Sullivan, Julia Brim-Edwards and Wang voted for Splitt, while board members Herman Greene and Gary Hollands voted for Reece. Student representative JJ Kunsevi, whose vote is symbolic, voted for Wirz but later changed his vote to Splitt.
Brim-Edwards, who voted for Splitt across all three rounds, said she was confident Splitt could help run a successful campaign for the district’s upcoming $1.83 billion bond, which will appear on the ballot in May.
“Christy has a lot of experience running and winning campaigns and I think that would be an asset,” Brim-Edwards said. “She also knows her ways around Salem. She knows legislators. It’s going to be a sprint, and it’s going to be a huge lift to do both of those things.”
Splitt is the only candidate who has so far publicly indicated interest in running for the permanent Zone 1 position in May. Her campaign website features endorsements by state Sen. Kate Lieber, new Multnomah County Commissioner Meghan Moyer, and Tiffany Koyama Lane, a Portland city councilor who represents District 3.
She was sworn in ceremonially Monday night but will be officially sworn in Tuesday morning.
“May every kid feel about school how my kids feels, that’s the goal,” Splitt said in her acceptance speech. “My job as a board member will be to listen and reflect what I hear from the people who spend the days in our schools.”