Saxton’s school switch turns heads

Address change raises fairness, access questions

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Sep 26, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Ron Saxton, Republican candidate for governor, moved his family across town to help his son gain entry into Lincoln High School in 1996.

L.E. BASKOW / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ron Saxton used the address of his Southeast Portland home to run for his seat on the Portland school board 10 years ago while at the same time using a downtown residential address to enroll his son at Lincoln High School in Southwest Portland.

Saxton and his wife, Lynne, wanted to enroll their son at Lincoln’s competitive International Baccalaureate program — the only one in Portland at the time — for the 1996-97 school year. But when they tried to transfer their son, Andy, into the program, he was turned away because Lincoln was overcrowded.

In response, the family decided to move from its Mount Tabor home to an apartment on the South Park Blocks for a year to establish residency there, so Andy could enroll at Lincoln as a neighborhood student.

It was perfectly legal as long as it was their primary residence for a year, according to the school district’s policy.

The family moved back to its Mount Tabor home at the end of Andy’s freshman year, in the summer of 1997 — shortly after Saxton was first elected to the school board by the district where the family’s permanent home is located.

Andy continued attending Lincoln by commuting across town in following years. He graduated in 2000 with an IB diploma, went to college and works as an engineer.

Now, as the Republican nominee for Oregon governor, Saxton has said public-school students should be allowed to attend any school, regardless of where they live, whether it’s across town or in another district.

“Erase the boundaries,” he told the Portland Tribune last month. “Just break down the wall.”

See related story, 'Saxton pushes for open enrollment', 8/22/06

www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=115621000398772500

By moving his family so that his son could attend a certain school 10 years ago, Saxton essentially has become a poster child for his own platform. While nearly everyone has a story of a family they know that tried to work the system to get into a certain school, the issue is especially critical at Lincoln, which is constantly overcrowded.

But even former Lincoln Principal Peter Hamilton was surprised to hear this week about the Saxtons’ move.

“While technically speaking, that may comply with district policy, it certainly raises questions about appropriate use of the transfer process and residency,” said Hamilton, who became principal in 2000, after Saxton’s son graduated.

“It’s a legal loophole … it wasn’t meant for people to rent an apartment and establish residency, knowing they have a home across town to move back to,” he said.

Others said they resent the fact that someone stressing equity in education had used the system to his advantage. The issue is particularly heated today, in the midst of concerns about the gap between rich schools and poor schools, and the search for balance between school choice and neighborhood schools.

“It’s another sad display of the fact that people with resources can use the system to their advantage and privilege their children in a way that average folks can’t,” said Russ Dondero, a political science professor of 31 years at Pacific University and currently an adjunct professor at Portland State University, who said he has not decided whom to support for governor.

“Most parents want the best for their kids,” he said. “But they can’t afford the best. So they have to do the best with what their options are.”

Saxton said he sought advice

When asked on two separate occasions to comment on the specifics of his situation, Saxton deferred to his wife, Lynne, and his campaign manager, Felix Schein.

Lynne Saxton explained that moving out of their 3,000-square-foot home into a cramped two-bedroom apartment in 1996 was a sacrifice they made because they believe all students should have access to the education they want, regardless of where they live.

She said they were open and transparent about living there. Ron, a business and energy attorney at a high-powered law firm, and Lynne, then working as a marketing director, held dinner parties at the apartment and furnished it with garage-sale furniture, she said. They let a family friend, a graduate student at the time, live in their Mount Tabor home rent-free in exchange for house-sitting services.

Said Schein: “They’re well-aware for the potential for this to look fishy and curious, but Ron went to great lengths to make sure this was aboveboard. His livelihood depends on him doing things according to the law. Not doing that would’ve put a rapidly expanding business in great jeopardy.”

It raises the question: Can a person have two legal addresses of residency at the same time, one for the purpose of school enrollment and one for candidacy?

As long as the address used for enrollment is the student’s primary residence, it was a perfectly legal move to rent the apartment and live there for a year, according to the school district.

But Saxton’s run for school board raises a more complex issue: the definition of residency.

According to the school district’s policy, board candidates must “be a registered voter and resident of the respective zone to which they seek nomination or appointment.”

According to Vicki Irvin, director of the Multnomah County Elections Office at the time, the office matches the candidates’ voter registration address with the one on their form to see if it matches. If it matches, and the address is within the geographic zone for which the person is running, no further checks are done.

Saxton signed his name on his candidacy form in December 1996 for the March 1997 election, using his Southeast Portland address. He had not switched it when he temporarily moved.

Citizens don’t necessarily have to change their voter registration address when they move as long as they intend to return, which allows people in the military, away on business or splitting time between homes a chance to register for the place they consider their residence, Irvin said.

“Registration must be at your residence, but your residence is a matter of your intent,” said Irvin, who served as elections director from 1984 to 2002.

As to Saxton’s situation, she said, “What we look at is if it’s legal. If it doesn’t present a problem, we have no reason not to put him on the ballot. Whether people think it’s right is a whole other question and doesn’t enter into the question of whether we should put him on the ballot.”

Saxton ran unopposed in the election from Zone 6, outer Southeast Portland. He was elected in March 1997, became board chairman in 1998 and served in that post for two years.

He ended his term on the board in 2001 to take his first run for governor. In 1996 he had co-founded the Portland Schools Foundation, and still serves as founding board president.

Dondero, the political science professor, said Saxton went to great lengths as a parent to fulfill his responsibilities. “But as a candidate running from your home address while you’re living at another address, to me, frankly, is hypocritical,” he said.

Schein said Saxton had sought advice on his residency situation from the secretary of state’s office before the election.

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