Thought you were done with elections after voting for president? Think again.

We just spent hours meeting with candidates in all eight of the contested School Board races on the May 19 ballot. These are the folks who get no pay yet oversee hundreds of millions of tax dollars and tens of thousands of students from kindergartners to adults attending community college. And while you may not recognize their names, they play an important role.

Ballots are mailed May 1. Here are our picks:

Portland Public Schools

The two biggest challenges facing the state’s largest school district aren’t under the School Board’s control. But all seven board members are responsible for responding to those problems: a recession that threatens the statewide K-12 budget and declining enrollment in PPS at the high-school level.

Superintendent Carole Smith has been on the job for almost two years. In that time, she has made few, if any, sweeping changes. Next year could be different. The board plans to ask voters in May 2010 for a multimillion-dollar bond issue for school construction. And the district will be redesigning the structure of its high schools.

Zone 4 (North Portland): Martín González
González, a longtime education activist who works for TriMet as an outreach coordinator, was appointed to fill a vacant seat in August. Since then, he has shown an independence that demonstrates his willingness to dissent. His roots in Portland’s Latino community make him an asset as the board struggles to fix the district’s program for educating English-language learners—more than 10 percent of the district’s 46,000 students.

Rita Moore, who unsuccessfully sought the appointment González got, is a mother of a Winterhaven K-8 school student and a supervisor for court-appointed child advocates. She has earned the powerful endorsement of the Portland teachers union. She’s smart, and should continue her current role as a school volunteer. She simply didn’t offer a compelling reason to replace González.

Steve Buel, a School Board member from 1979 to 1983 when the district crafted its voluntary desegregation plan, presents a challenge for WW. Buel, who also sought González’s appointment, is the brother of WW’s founding editor and publisher. We also endorsed Buel in 2005 when he ran for this same seat, writing, “Buel knows more about Portland schools than any of his opponents, and on a board stocked with team players, he wouldn’t be just a rubber stamp.”

Four years later, Buel’s bomb-throwing has zero appeal to anyone but the Bill Ayerses of the world. González is the best fit now.

Zone 5 (Northeast Portland): Pam Knowles
This vacancy is being created by the departure of Sonja Henning, a Nike executive who dared to endorse Bill Sizemore’s merit-pay initiative in November and who regularly riled the teachers union with her hard bargaining.

Both candidates to replace Henning are knowledgeable about schools and dedicated to making them better. They were well versed in the district’s history and experienced school volunteers.

But both also have their drawbacks. Pam Knowles is chief operating officer and general counsel for the Portland Business Alliance, a group that stood firmly with former Superintendent Vicki Phillips even as Phillips wreaked havoc with her Mayor Sam Adams-like haste to get things done—dissent or common sense be damned.

Scott Bailey is an economist who’s enough of a player that he’s got political consultant Mark Wiener working for him and the endorsement of the teachers union. But his wife teaches at Lincoln High, which is a conflict of interest in our eyes. If Bailey weren’t also in love with his own voice, we might be willing to give him a chance.In a close contest, we lean toward Knowles, who strikes us as the more appropriate successor to Henning. Bailey’s views are already well represented by Ruth Adkins and Dilafruz Williams.

David Douglas School District

Far smaller than PPS, David Douglas has 10,300 students. But the east Portland district is one of the state’s most diverse, with about one-quarter of its students studying English as a second language. Almost 74 percent of its students qualify as low-income. In 2006, voters rejected a $45 million construction bond issue. Some schools are still bursting at the seams. Next year, longtime Superintendent Barbara Rommel will retire.

Position 1: Eric Nelsen
A logistics consultant for companies wishing to import goods, Nelsen has three daughters in David Douglas schools. He is also the brother of John Nelsen—a Reynolds School District board member who ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature last year.

Nelsen’s opponent is Cheryl Scarcelli Ancheta, an insurance sales executive for Providence Health Plan who also has deep roots in the district and a passion for public education. Like Nelsen, she graduated from David Douglas High School. Her children both graduated from the high school, too.

We’re going with Nelsen because he can more articulately express the scope of funding problems facing the district, which is sometimes overshadowed by PPS and needs a strong voice in Salem.

Position 6: Annette Mattson
Mattson, a government affairs specialist in Clackamas County for PGE, has served on the David Douglas School Board since 1995. She knows the district well and is currently the president of the Oregon School Boards Association. Her opponent, Charles Freeman, has the support of Oregon Right to Life, the anti-abortion group.

We see no reason to replace Mattson, who is serving students well.

Multnomah Education Service District

Oregon has 20 education service districts, which act like co-ops for area school districts to pool services like special education, health programs and, more famously, Outdoor School. Former Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto is running unopposed for Position 1 in the MESD, which takes in all eight Portland-area school districts. Somehow we suspect this usually low-profile board is about to get a lot more interesting. Position 2 (at-large): Sean Schafer
Schafer, a medical epidemiologist, was appointed to fill a vacancy on the MESD board last June.

He faces two opponents, the strongest being Charles Moffit, a retired City of Portland accountant who was asked to run by members of AFSCME Local 1995, the union that represents MESD workers. Eric Holmes is a writing instructor with good intentions but little to no knowledge of MESD.

Schafer has learned fast in the 10 months he’s served. He should stay.

Position 4 (mid-Multnomah County): Jean Haliski
Haliski has served four terms on the MESD board. Before that, she spent 12 years on the board of the Parkrose School District in Northeast Portland.

Her opponent is 24-year-old Casey Kostman, who is enthusiastic but unrealistic about the job ahead; she has attended one MESD board meeting and her interest in politics stretches back only as far as 2008

Education advocates need an experienced leader like Haliski.

Portland Community College

As the economy continues to worsen, community colleges like PCC face two complicated sets of scenarios: budget cuts from the state creating downward pressure on campuses and increased enrollment caused by displaced workers, creating more demand for classes. In 2008, voters approved a $374 million construction bond issue for PCC.

Zone 4: Jim Harper
Harper, executive director of a nonprofit that helps low-income Oregonians file their tax returns, has served one term on PCC’s board, including one year as board chairman. His opponent, Joshua Dennison, works in automotive sales and has next to no knowledge of a board member’s role. Re-elect Harper.

Zone 6: Jaime Lim
Lim, a professional engineer who is also publisher of The Asian Reporter newspaper, was elected for the first time to PCC’s board in 2005.

Gene Pitts, who does technical marketing for Intel, wants to see more integration of technology in PCC’s classrooms. That might be a good idea. If it is, we think Pitts should volunteer in some other role at PCC to study how that could be accomplished.

Lim, though, should keep his seat.