Nine people today are vying for the four open seats on the Atascadero university 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 working for reelection, and two other candidates also have something that sets them apart from the remaining 7: Vy Pierce and Tracy Ellis-Weit have the help of the SLO County Democrats.
“Each Tracy and Vy are managing for the appropriate good reasons, they have utmost regard for training and educators. Equally are very important associates of the community presently, but generally because each are sane,” celebration Chair Rita Casaverde claimed. “We are observing the assaults on college boards throughout the state and know that numerous candidates are working for political fringe motives and are fascinated in bringing chaos to faculty board conferences. Our education and learning system does not will need that.”
The candidates had been endorsed on Sept. 12 right after a few months of interviewing and examining 15 candidates from local school districts who applied for the county party’s endorsement before this year. But not absolutely everyone is on board with candidates getting endorsements from political groups this sort of as the SLO County Dems.
Incumbent Shoemaker suggests he’d choose anyone with an comprehension of educational policy and district operational procedures.
“I have a issue that there are men and women working that want to take the school board and politicize it, that they are coming in with an agenda that is driven by countrywide politics that does not belong at the local amount listed here,” Shoemaker mentioned.
Fellow incumbent Gunther, who has served on the university board for 16 many years, echoed Shoemaker’s sentiment.
“Politics have no spot in the board room, other than to share legislative updates or outcomes. Board users must be concentrated on what is most effective for kids,” Gunther reported. “The existing board has an exceptional doing the job connection with our administrative workforce, our teachers, and our categorised staff members, and my biggest hope would be that this believe in not be ruined by political agendas, will cause, or personalized beliefs.”
No matter of political endorsements, Pierce and Ellis-Weit have practical experience inside of the Atascadero Unified School District. Pierce has a few children in the faculty district and has been an energetic classroom volunteer and member of several nonprofit organizations, PTAs, and university district committees these kinds of as the Regional Management and Accountability Plan and the Superintendent’s Mum or dad Advisory committees.
“I’ve always experienced a way to give again and spend it forward. For the reason that of my upbringing. My mothers and fathers have been refugees from Vietnam when they came to the United States, they obtained aid to rebuild their lives,” Pierce stated. “So I really feel like it truly is my obligation to pay back it forward and produce prospects for other kids who have issues in their everyday living.”
Pierce is not the only dad or mum working for a posture on the board. Rebekah Koznek, a dad or mum of two, mentioned she wishes to be the parental agent on the university board.
“My most important thing is to have every mum or dad have a say in their kid’s instruction which I experience has been misplaced,” Koznek claimed. “We know our children, so we know how our children master very best. I truly imagine that we can have a genuinely sturdy operating relationship with mothers and fathers, academics, and the college district.”
Ellis-Weit retired from teaching in 2019 just after a profession that spanned 32 many years in the Atascadero elementary, middle, and superior educational facilities. She reported she observed then that there weren’t any lecturers on the recent faculty board.
“And I was just impressed that there was no teacher sitting down also on the board. You know, no one to probably ask thoughts that I have absolutely had sitting in the audience,” Ellis-Weit explained. “Somehow I put that out in the universe. And it arrived again and uncovered me.”
Whilst this is Ellis-Weit’s very first time jogging for a seat on the board, this is not Pierce’s initially rodeo. The mother of three beforehand ran in 2020 and misplaced to incumbents Mary Kay Mills, Terri E. Switzer, and Corinne C. Kuhnle. But Pierce reported that this election yr is a very little diverse.
“The endorsements [this year] are distinct,” Pierce stated, referring to endorsements from the Atascadero District Instructors Association, Central Coast Labor Council, and the local Dems. “Immediately after I dropped in 2020, folks arrived up to me and questioned me to run once more. That turned out to be encouragement to check out once again, considering the fact that you will find two open up seats, there is a genuine opportunity for a new man or woman to be on the faculty board.”
Ellis-Weit, who has also been endorsed by identical groups equates campaigning to the daunting sensation of working a mile.
“And then you get to the starting up line and you recognize I gotta run a mile. I’ve hardly ever run a mile in advance of, who’s gonna support me?” Ellis-Weit said. “You’re just thrilled and grateful, for the reason that any individual who definitely won’t know you is placing their emblem, their group guiding you, and you’re just going wow, I hope I you should not enable you down.” Δ