KLAMATH FALLS — Kathy Hewitt, a longtime educator and Klamath Falls City Schools board trustee, has been appointed to the Klamath Community College Board of Education, Zone 2. She will take her oath of office at the college’s next board meeting, Oct. 27. Hewitt, a long-term resident of San Diego before moving to Oregon, has been an accountant in Klamath Falls for several years, owning her own accounting firm and teaching accounting and personal finance at KCC. She graduated from San Diego State University in accounting and later obtained her masters from Phoenix University. She operated Hewitt Bookkeeping and Tax Service (formerly A2Z Accounting) and after retiring from the business, was elected to the city school board. Hewitt has been an adjunct instructor at KCC from 2004 to 2006, joined the faculty fulltime in the fall 2006 until retiring in early 2021. Most recently she taught personal finance as an adjunct until the summer of 2026. “I retired for two reasons; the Covid pandemic and I had a newly born great-grandson,” she said. When she heard about the Board of Education opening, she applied, noting, “What better way than this where I can help make a difference. I believe in KCC’s mission and I can help bridge the gap between the city schools and higher education. “KCC serves as a vital training ground for young adults to explore career options affordably,” she said. Hewitt plans to remain on the Klamath Falls school board and run for another term in the spring. She will also have to run for the KCC trustee position next year as well. On the issue of student preparedness for college, Hewitt said she is aware it has been a problem. “We're very aware that our test scores aren't as high as we'd like them to be, and that's why we’ve started a new educational program in two of our schools; Mills Elementary and Ponderosa Middle School,” she said. “We really believe it's going to help bring up the test scores. And if it is successful, we will roll it out to the other schools,” she said. As a city board member, Hewitt wants to see high school graduates be work-ready or college-ready, and not have to take remedial classes for college-level studies. “Klamath Community College has been a foundational, positive turning point for this Basin, and I want our city's kids to leave school and be ready for the next chapter in their lives, whether it be work, the military or college,” she said.

For more information about KCC and its programs, visit www.klamathcc.edu.

---

_Submitted by Gerry O'Brien, Klamath Community College (OBrien@klamathcc.edu)._