Former instructor and Peace Corps alum vie for board seat

Candidates for the MHCC District board Zone 1 seat are Susie Jones and Sharon Barker, running in the May 21 special election. The winner’s four-year term would begin in June.

Susie Jones

A former MHCC student and longtime faculty member, Jones seeks a board seat to represent the community and occupy her time during retirement, she said.
Jones left Mt. Hood in 2011 after spending 12 years as a full-time music instructor. Prior to that, she spent 17 years in both the North Clackamas or David Douglas school districts.
“I feel strongly about community service and I feel this would be the best use of my talent and knowledge,” Jones said.
“I have a pretty good understanding of what students in our community need. (I) will keep that focus and the recent experience that I had and always share that with the board as we make policies and goals,” she said.
Jones was a student in the MHCC music program in the 1970s before she earned both a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in music and composition from the University of Portland.
“Not in her wildest dreams” during her student days at MHCC did she imagine running for the district board someday, she said.
“I thought, in my department especially, it was incredibly successful, and the college had a great vibe when I was a student here. I’ve seen some of that erode… I would like to bring back some of that sparkle,” Jones said.
In the 80s she was a part-time MHCC faculty member before she returned to finish her career. “I really have a long history here. I really have a strong passion for this college,” she said.
Jones is the president of the Gresham Mt. Hood Jazz Association that produced the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. She is also on the writing team for a new version of the National Standards for the Arts.
“I would like to make sure it’s known that I will be a very good listener and take in information from students, from staff, from community and work collaboratively for the betterment of the college,” she said. “I think team-building is essential for the success of the college.”
Jones aims to use her inside knowledge to help represent the public. “I think you need a variety of people on a board to be effective and I think it’s very beneficial to have a teacher, especially one with recent experience,” she said. “Everybody needs to have a voice – students, faculty, community, administration – and having a tie to any of those groups, I feel, is helpful.”
She said her goal is to support the mission of the college.
“This will be a time for the board and the president to work together to look at the vision of the college and make sure it’s relevant, (to) make any adjustments that need to be made,” she said. “Times change, and I think you need to review every once awhile where you’re going and make sure you’re still headed in the right direction.”

Sharon Barker

When Sharon Barker attempted to take several free-of-tuition classes offered for community members of the age of 65, she was caught off-guard by required fees she said she could not afford.
She has chosen to run for the MHCC board as an opportunity to eliminate fees on courses for seniors.
“I’m not bothering the professors. I’m not taking their tests… I’m adding experience. I pay taxes,” Barker said, explaining what she hopes to offer. “He (the instructor) doesn’t have to do anything but take my knowledge. He doesn’t have to do any extra work.”
Barker has 17 years of experience with the City of Portland, working primarily in payroll, management and budgeting, as well as serving on various committees and associations.
She joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Poland where she started the first Youth Volunteer Corp, which won the Corps’ First Democracy award, she said.
When she returned home, she adopted and raised her four grandchildren. She has moved on to help caring for her great-grand children.
She uses her life and work experience as a selling point.
“The work that you have done in your lifetime, and the volunteer work, the work with the community and with young people, that’s the foundation,” she said. “But, it’s the caring and the concern and the interest that will help with the board.”
Also while attempting to attend MHCC, Barker had sought a school library card. But when library staff demanded a social security number, something she believes is unnecessary given her experience as a former Social Security employee, she refused to provide the information.
“The students have to, because they’re already on file… but (community members don’t) have to, or shouldn’t have to,” she said.
Barker has a bachelor’s degree in business from Portland State University and hopes to finish her thesis for her master’s degree in law and public administration at Lewis and Clark next year.
Besides eliminating fees for seniors, Barker hopes to help working families in transition and better inform the community about the resources MHCC has to offer.
“The college has a diversity of programs, things that will get you actual jobs, and that’s what people need,” Barker said. She suggests more partnerships with the community to help graduates and veterans find jobs.
If elected, she intends to make sure the community knows who she is and that she will bring its voice to the MHCC board, she said.
“They have a theater arts program here that I don’t think the community comes to enough, because I don’t think (the residents) know,” she said. “If I am on the board, they definitely will know. At least in my district, they will know.”
“I don’t want to represent just me, because I have lots of ideas, but my constituents may have different ideas,” she added.
Barker said that promoting Mt. Hood to potential students within the college district is important, as well as those in Portland Public Schools.
She has enjoyed talking to community members during the election run-up, which has been a new experience for her.
“I’ve always been on the other side of it, doing volunteer work. I’ve never run a campaign for myself,” she said. “This has really been interesting.”