Public Service: Education in good hands as Veldhuisen Virk leaves after 18 years of dedicated service

If ever a pair of shoes was tough to fill, public service-wise, it is Virk’s, but Truax is clearly up to it.

Virk served for 18 years on school board, often as the board chair, and during some of the toughest periods of the district’s last two decades.

Virk deserves a huge thank you from the entire community for her tireless and compassionate work for education in Hood River County. On more than one occasion, she spent her day and evening on district business on what were her daughters’ birthdays. She used her bully pulpit to praise students and district programs, to praise staff as well as speak to problems and her own worries, and to advocate for something she felt strongly about — community support for public education. She listened frequently to patron and staff criticism, and kept things calm on more than one occasion.

Virk provided the leadership the district needed through transitions between a total of five superintendents and two interim superintendents, through three capital bond campaigns (all successful) and voter passage and retention of the Local Option.

She did this while serving as a hospice nurse and raising three daughters. The schools’ ability to sustain and succeed, through very difficult years, is in disproportionate measure due to Virk’s dedication.

It is fitting that her tenure of 18 years matches the length of time a child grows to adulthood.

Thank you, Jan, for your daily gift of service.

Virk began as a community volunteer at her school level. Her appointed successor Rich Truax, scheduled to take the oath of office Feb. 8, comes to the position through the same kind of path. An engineer, Truax has served as the board president of the Cooper Spur Race Team and on the Port of Hood River’s budget committee. He currently sits on the Hood River County School District’s finance advisory committee, has served on both Local Option and Capital Bond campaign committees, was a long-standing member of the school district budget committee, and helped local efforts to support funding for public education by organizing and coordinating advocacy to Salem legislators.

Every public board has one or two people who regularly attend meetings out of basic interest and concern, not simply because of a particular issue or topic. Truax has been a frequent attendee, listening and learning, making him the natural choice to take up the important work in Position 7 of the school board. He is as well prepared for the task as any appointee to public office could be, and he serves as an example of continued, low-key service to the community via the basic act of regularly showing up.

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This is all worth considering this spring as the May 16 special districts election approaches. Numerous Hood River County agencies will have openings on boards and commissions, including the county Library District, which last week took the step of putting out word that candidates are needed for the board.

Watch Hood River News for details on openings and opportunities on this and other boards. You might not like what you see happening at the national level, but the chance to have a positive impact on decisions and policies in your own community, by stepping up for local elections, will come this spring.