City school board fills empty seat.

Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran Jan. 11, 2007): A story on Page E1 Tuesday misspelled the name of Eugene School Board appointee Alicia Hays.

Alicia Hayes, director of the Lane County Department of Children and Families, was appointed to the Eugene School Board on Monday to take the seat vacated by Anette Spickard.

Hayes garnered five of six board member votes in the first round of voting, claiming the seat over four other applicants.

Hayes assumed the seat that Spickard gave up when she began her duties this week as the Lane County assessor.

A Eugene resident for 22 years, Hayes has a son in seventh grade at Monroe Middle School.

Among many volunteer activities, she served as president of the board of Mobility International USA from 2001-06 and sits on the Western Oregon Women's Conference Executive Committee, which she has served on since 2004.

"I think we have to include opportunities for all students," Hayes said in her comments to the board. "Most importantly, we need to look at closing the achievement gap, school funding, class size and increasing school-community relations."

She is now the sixth of seven board members - a position that is traditionally elected - to join as an appointee.

The most recent appointment came in May, when the board voted to appoint Yvette Webber-Davis to the position vacated when Virginia Thompson stepped down. Four other previous appointees - Spickard, Beth Gerot, Charles Martinez and Eric Forrest - went on to win when their seats next came up for election.

All board positions will be up for election in May, and Hayes said she will most likely run.

"I came into it with an assumption of the long term," she said. "As you look at the county and look at the strategic planning for 4J, there are just so many issues on the horizons, and so many decisions."

The other candidates represented a diverse range of experience: Ryan Darwish, a registered investment adviser and former adjunct professor at Lane Community College; Milo Mecham, the principal planner at the Lane Council of Governments and past president of the Eugene Education Fund; Ellen Singer, a local attorney and parent of a South Eugene High School senior; and Kieran Walsh, a long-time area soccer coach and retired investor.

The lone dissenting vote on Hayes' appointment came from board Chairman Tom Herrmann, who voted for Mecham.

Martinez took time after Hayes' appointment to acknowledge the highly qualified candidates and encouraged them to become district volunteers in other capacities.

Hayes said she is glad to have the opportunity to share her experiences with the board.

"I'm looking forward to lending my thoughts to the board to come up with the best possible solutions," she said.