Your monthly support provides voters the knowledge they need to make confident decisions at the polls. Donate today.

Rita Moore

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
BP-Initials-UPDATED.png
This page was current at the end of the official's last term in office covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Rita Moore
Image of Rita Moore
Prior offices
Portland Public Schools Board of Education Zone 4

Contact

Rita Moore was an at-large representative on the Portland Public Schools school board in Oregon. She won in the at-large general election on May 16, 2017. She left office on June 30, 2021.

Biography

Moore has served on multiple committees in Portland Public Schools. As of the school board election in 2017, she was serving on the Community Budget Review Committee.[1]

Elections

2017

See also: Portland Public Schools elections (2017)

Three of the seven seats on the Portland Public Schools school board in Oregon were up for at-large general election on May 16, 2017. Since no incumbents filed for re-election, the board was guaranteed to see three newcomers elected. These new members were tasked with hiring a new superintendent and overseeing the implementation of a $790 million bond. A total of 11 candidates filed for the three seats.

In Zone 4, two candidates filed for the seat: Rita Moore and Jamila Munson, with Moore winning the seat. Three filed for the Zone 5 seat: Scott Bailey, Traci Flitcraft, and Virginia La Forte. Bailey won the seat. Six candidates filed for the Zone 6 seat: Zach Babb, Ed Bos, Julia Brim-Edwards, David Morrison, Trisha Parks, and Joseph Simonis, with Brim-Edwards winning the race.[2][3][4][5]

The Portland school board consists of seven members elected at large to four-year terms. While elected at large, each seat on the board has a zone number associated with it, and candidates must live in the zone for which they run. The seat numbers correlate to geographic areas in the district, and serve to separate the elections for each seat on the board into its own race.

Results

Portland Public Schools,
Zone 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Rita Moore 57.63% 55,209
Jamila Munson 41.66% 39,915
Write-in votes 0.71% 676
Total Votes 95,800
Source: Clackamas County, "Special District Election," accessed June 12, 2017, Multnomah County, "Multnomah County Election Results," accessed June 12, 2017, and Washington County Elections, "Statement of Votes Cast by Contest," accessed June 12, 2017

Funding

Campaign Finance Ballotpedia.png
See also: Campaign finance requirements in Oregon and List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2017

The filing deadline in Oregon for a campaign transaction is typically no later than 30 calendar days. However, beginning on the 42nd day before an election day and through the date of the election, a transaction is due no later than seven calendar days after the date it occurred. The dates for the beginning and ending of the seven-day reporting period for the 2017 Oregon school board elections were:[6]

  • April 4, 2017 (Seven day campaign finance reporting begins)
  • May 16, 2017 (Seven day campaign finance reporting ends)

A school board candidate in Oregon must form a candidate committee unless he or she meets all of the following conditions:[7][8]

  1. The candidate elects to serve as his or her own treasurer.
  2. The candidate does not have an existing candidate committee.
  3. The candidate does not expect to receive or spend more than $750 during a calendar year (including personal funds).

A candidate committee must file a Statement of Organization with the Elections Division of the Oregon Secretary of State within three business days of first receiving or spending money. A form including campaign account information must accompany the Statement of Organization.[7][9]

Candidate committees that expect to receive or spend $3,500 or more in a calendar year are required to report all transactions. A committee that does not expect to receive or spend this much is still required to file a Statement of Organization and designate a campaign bank account, but does not have to file transactions. Instead, they must file a Certificate of Limited Contributions and Expenditures.[7][10]

Endorsements

Moore received official endorsements from the Portland Tribune, the Portland Association of Teachers, Portland Federation of School Professionals, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, and Portland Public Schools board member Paul Anthony.[11][12]

Campaign themes

2017

Moore published the following statement on her campaign website:

I’m running for the School Board because Portland needs a school district that works – for kids, for families, and for the community. I want to ensure that our schools provide all our students with what they need to thrive as students and into adulthood.

I’ve been in the PPS trenches for the last 15 years as a mother, an advocate for foster children, and a policy leader. In that time, I’ve seen many good ideas undermined by poor implementation and a negative organizational culture.

With new leadership, we can learn from past mistakes and make PPS a more effective, collaborative, and transparent district. As a member of the School Board, I will draw on my years of experience listening to school communities to promote positive change in four priority areas:

Equity: Keep equity at the center, focusing on strong execution of proven strategies that keep students engaged and improve outcomes. Implement strategies that actually change students' experience rather than just talking the talk.

Good stewardship of our fiscal resources and board activity: Ensure that our budget is aligned with our values and grounded in a longer-term, strategic perspective, and build a new culture of collaboration and transparency that focuses on serving students.

Health and safety: Pass a second Bond to rebuild our schools. Establish and maintain a realistic annual maintenance budget to halt the deterioration of our facilities.

Make our schools safe havens: Protect the most vulnerable of students, particularly students of color, undocumented and refugee children, those facing homelessness or food insecurity, LGBTQ students and those with disabilities.

We owe it to our children and to this city to make PPS the district it can be: a model urban school district that has a clear vision for the kind of education our children need and an effective and efficient system to deliver it.[13]

—Rita Moore (2017)[14]

See also

External links

Footnotes