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9 persons are vying for the 4 open seats on the Atascadero faculty district’s board of trustees.
The seats up for reelection are presently held by George Shoemaker, Tami Gunther, Ray Buban, and Donn Clickard. Shoemaker and Gunther are operating for reelection, and two different candidates even have one thing that units them other than the remaining seven: Vy Pierce and Tracy Ellis-Weit have the assist of the SLO County Democrats.
“Each Tracy and Vy are operating for the appropriate causes, they’ve utmost respect for schooling and educators. Each are extraordinarily helpful members of the group already, however largely as a result of each are sane,” occasion Chair Rita Casaverde stated. “We’re seeing the assaults on faculty boards throughout the nation and know that many candidates are operating for political fringe causes and are thinking about bringing chaos to high school board conferences. Our schooling system doesn’t want that.”
The candidates had been endorsed on Sept. 12 after three months of interviewing and reviewing 15 candidates from native faculty districts who utilized for the county occasion’s endorsement earlier this 12 months. However not everyone seems to be on board with candidates receiving endorsements from political teams such because the SLO County Dems.
Incumbent Shoemaker says he’d favor somebody with an understanding of instructional coverage and district operational procedures.
“I’ve a priority that there are individuals operating that wish to take the varsity board and politicize it, that they’re coming in with an agenda that’s pushed by nationwide politics that doesn’t belong on the native stage right here,” Shoemaker stated.
Fellow incumbent Gunther, who has served on the varsity board for 16 years, echoed Shoemaker’s sentiment.
“Politics haven’t any place within the board room, aside from to share legislative updates or outcomes. Board members needs to be targeted on what’s greatest for youths,” Gunther stated. “The present board has a wonderful working relationship with our administrative staff, our lecturers, and our categorized workers, and my best hope can be that this belief not be broken by political agendas, causes, or private beliefs.”
No matter political endorsements, Pierce and Ellis-Weit have expertise throughout the Atascadero Unified Faculty District. Pierce has three kids within the faculty district and has been an lively classroom volunteer and member of a number of nonprofit organizations, PTAs, and college district committees such because the Native Management and Accountability Plan and the Superintendent’s Guardian Advisory committees.
“I’ve at all times had a technique to give again and pay it ahead. Due to my upbringing. My mother and father had been refugees from Vietnam after they got here to the US, they obtained help to rebuild their lives,” Pierce stated. “So I really feel prefer it’s my obligation to pay it ahead and create alternatives for different children who’ve challenges of their life.”
Pierce is not the one guardian operating for a place on the board. Rebekah Koznek, a guardian of two, stated she needs to be the parental consultant on the varsity board.
“My greatest factor is to have each guardian have a say of their kid’s schooling which I really feel has been misplaced,” Koznek stated. “We all know our kids, so we all know how our children be taught greatest. I actually assume that we will have a very sturdy working relationship with mother and father, lecturers, and the varsity district.”
Ellis-Weit retired from educating in 2019 after a profession that spanned 32 years within the Atascadero elementary, center, and excessive colleges. She stated she observed then that there weren’t any lecturers on the present faculty board.
“And I used to be simply amazed that there was no instructor sitting additionally on the board. You realize, nobody to possibly ask questions that I’ve positively had sitting within the viewers,” Ellis-Weit stated. “One way or the other I put that out within the universe. And it got here again and located me.”
Whereas that is Ellis-Weit’s first time operating for a seat on the board, this is not Pierce’s first rodeo. The mom of three beforehand ran in 2020 and misplaced to incumbents Mary Kay Mills, Terri E. Switzer, and Corinne C. Kuhnle. However Pierce stated that this election 12 months is just a little totally different.
“The endorsements [this year] are totally different,” Pierce stated, referring to endorsements from the Atascadero District Academics Affiliation, Central Coast Labor Council, and the native Dems. “After I misplaced in 2020, individuals got here as much as me and requested me to run once more. That turned out to be encouragement to strive once more, since there’s two open seats, there’s an actual alternative for a brand new individual to be on the varsity board.”
Ellis-Weit, who has additionally been endorsed by comparable teams equates campaigning to the daunting feeling of operating a mile.
“And you then get to the beginning line and also you notice I gotta run a mile. I’ve by no means run a mile earlier than, who’s gonna assist me?” Ellis-Weit stated. “You are simply excited and grateful, as a result of anyone who actually does not know you is placing their emblem, their group behind you, and also you’re simply going wow, I hope I do not allow you to down.” Δ
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