Best for district: Adkins

In the wake of Vicki Phillips' abrupt resignation announcement, Portland parents and students have become acutely aware of the issues that will face her successor. Among them, the none-too-trivial tasks of completing Phillips' massive, half-finished K-8 reconfiguration, and implementing a common curriculum in the classrooms.

The next superintendent is going to need a lot of help, and that is going to mean enlisting the energy and enthusiasm from the diverse communities that make up Portland Public Schools, but this will also be no easy task.

Many parents and students were none too pleased with the manner in which Phillips' sweeping changes were handled over the past couple of years, and with most of those changes still in need of resolution, some have become understandably jaded.

Portland Public Schools needs to prove to the public that it knows how to listen, and right now the best thing that could happen to the school district would be to have Ruth Adkins on the school board.

A founder of the Neighborhood Schools Alliance and PTA president, Adkins knows what it means to engage the community in the process and understands that a cookie-cutter approach is not right for this city. Her input would be critical in helping to find an effective superintendent.

JASON BASKIN Northeast Portland