Lopez selected to take vacant seat on D21 School Board
Adrian Lopez was selected to fill the vacant Zone 1 seat on the North Wasco County School Board on Monday, March 7. He is a resident of Mosier and graduated from The Dalles High School.
By Tom Peterson
The North Wasco County School Board unanimously selected Adrian Lopez of Mosier to fill the vacant Zone 1 Board seat on Monday, March 7, after they held a public interview of three candidates at the work session.
Bill Ketchum, Mary Morehouse and Lopez had all applied for the position after Board Member Rebecca Thistlethwaite resigned in January.
Lopez will fill Thistlethwaite’s position for the next 15 months, and an election for the seat will occur in May, 2023.
Board member Brian Stevens made the motion to select Lopez after noting all of the candidates were well qualified and committed to the community.
He also added that Lopez, who resides in Mosier, “checked the box” for representing the people of Zone 1 as Mosier is the densest area of the population in that zone.
Lopez, during the interview, also stated that his son attended Mosier School.
“I have been a resident of Mosier for 25 years,” he told the board during his interview. “I want to offer my insight of being a local kid that wants to help the community and school district. I am a local guy and graduated from The Dalles and when the two districts joined, and I know the community;I know these people around here and the problems I faced when I went to school. I would like to fix some of those and give a different perspective on that.”
Lopez said the biggest challenge the Board faces is “bringing more of the community together for their insight and comments and many, many parents are not very involved. That is the one area that should be fixed.”
Lopez said he wanted everyone - parents and students - involved, and those people to be comfortable commenting on school issues and not feeling ignored.
He said student problems need to be heard and students “need to be listened to so they all will be able to succeed with their school and have a drive to succeed in their path to the career they want and opportunity.”
“I am a qualified applicant because the diversity I bring, the experience of going to school locally here my entire life, and be able to communicate with the different communities - very different sometimes,” he said.
“My intention is to help as much as I can to help the community with whatever my insight can bring.”
To read more about the other candidates click on our original story
To watch all of the interviews on the District’s YouTube channel, click here.
