M.D. who takes seat on Ashland School board knows district inside and out
By JONEL ALECCIA
ASHLAND -- John Maurer may be a newcomer to the Ashland School Board, but he's certainly no stranger to local schools.
The 55-year-old orthopedist appointed this month to Position 3 has already seen three children move from elementary through high school. Now he's working on No. 4, a 12-year-old at Ashland Middle School.
"By the time Tessa graduates, I'll be pushing 30 years of having kids in the school district," he says, sounding a bit amazed at the number himself.
But longevity alone isn't the reason board members appointed Maurer from among 10 applicants for the vacant post.
They cited his breadth of community involvement, which has included a stint as president of the Jackson County Medical Society, more than a dozen years on the YMCA board, and long nights on the sidelines at Grizzly football games, where he taped ankles and examined knees as the team's volunteer doctor.
"That's sort of unusual, to have someone from the medical community who's that involved," says board member Dan Thorndike.
That's all very flattering, says Maurer, a silver-haired guy in jeans and boots perched on a stool in an exam room. But the truth, he insists, is that he gives as good as he gets from the community he chose as home in 1975.
Fresh out of the Marines, where he'd been a flight surgeon in Vietnam, Maurer racked up air time toward his commercial pilot's license by flying from the naval base in San Diego to cities throughout the West.
"I was looking for a place to spend the rest of my life," he says. "I wanted a community small enough to have influence over its direction."
For the young man raised in Akron, Ohio, and educated at a parochial high school and a Jesuit college before medical school, Ashland was such a place.
Joining the school board 22 years later, he says, is just another way to realize that dream of community.
It's also a way of tackling the twin challenges of rising expectations and declining funding now common in Oregon schools. Maurer says he wants to make sure future students have the same opportunities his kids have had.
"From observing the district over the years, I know it's not afraid of setting lofty goals" -- and living up to them, says Maurer.
Though he could well have afforded to send his children to private schools -- as some in this high-income, high-expectation community have done -- Maurer considered it and then opted to invest in the public system.
His children -- Carter, 24, Anya, 21, and Tessa, 12, and step-son, Ian, 20 -- have flourished.
The strength of the district lies in its flexibility, he says.
"We have children who are super-achievers and one who's bright and still challenging," he says. "I've found there's a place for you; there's a place for everybody."
But the district's pliancy can cause problems as well.
"It's a liberal school district. It encourages diversity, it encourages free thinking," he says. "But being open to everything means the possibility of anything."
And it results in a district whose "zero-tolerance" drug rule continues to draw fire from students, parents and community members who disagree. Maurer's first board meeting Monday saw petitions signed by some 500 opponents to the rule. But Maurer says the dialogue is the point.
"With something like zero-tolerance, you're going to get up the ire of some people, but they're talking about it," he says.
The biggest -- and most positive -- change he's seen in the school district during his kids' tenure has been a switch to team teaching at the middle school. The old system, which required students to switch several classes daily, made for some rocky times for his older children, Maurer says.
Those who have worked with Maurer on other public panels characterize him as a careful, stable contributor. Lisa Molnar, executive director of the YMCA, says Maurer balances concern with compassion.
"He's a noble man. He's one of my all-time favorites," she says. "Sometimes you'll have people who kind of jump to a decision or get real emotional about a situation, but John is just really, really thoughtful."
Apparently that care doesn't manifest itself as caution in the off-hours life of the man who courts danger through whitewater rafting and other perilous pastimes.
"I can remember coming around a corner of the Illinois River and seeing his raft sideways against a cliff," board member Thorndike recalls.
Maurer grins at the characterization, then admits: "I've always said: `The closer to the edge, the better the view.' "
Students in the Ashland district are free to push their own edges because of fundamental community support, both financial and social, says Maurer.
As an example, he cites the string of winning football teams the high school has produced under the guidance of coach Jim Nagel. But it's not the win-loss record Maurer's so happy about.
"I think it has instilled an incredible ethic, an ethic for setting goals for what's important today, tomorrow, this year," he says. "I've seen that spill over into the entire community. The spillover has been incredible."
