Candidate Q&As: Fort Sumner school board

Editor’s note: Six people are running for three at-large positions on Fort Sumner’s school board. The election will be Tuesday.

We asked all candidates the same five questions. Three are running in today’s edition of the Eastern New Mexico News, and the other three ran in Thursday’s edition.

Jerry Kyle Sparks

Age: 46

Occupation: Railroad Signal Inspector

Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)

Why are you running for the position?

I am running for school board to help ensure a stable school system that supports students and teachers.

What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this board position?

I have been on the school board for five months. In that time, I have attended all available training sessions since my appointment to the board. I am currently serving on the finance sub-committee, which has helped me understand the inner workings of funding and budgeting issues of our school.

What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?

I feel that we need to get away from teaching to the standardized tests and focus more on letting our teachers teach in a more conventional manner. Talking to our legislators in Santa Fe is the only way this will change.

What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?

Standardized testing has several issues. I have heard complaints of students stressing over the test and complaints that some students do not put forth much effort on the test, which can reflect negatively on the teacher evaluation. Teacher evaluations are a good tool but not all aspects of it are legitimate.

What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?

I encourage parents to get more involved with their student’s education and activities. The more involved they are, the better their students will do in school.

What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?

Our teachers put in a lot of hours at school before and after the bell rings. We need to let them know that they are appreciated.

Scot Stinnett

Age: 61

Occupation: Publisher and Editor of De Baca County News

Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)

Why are you running for the position?

I’ve been a school board member for 18 months. I previously held a position for four years. I’ve seen over the years when school districts consolidate with other districts, the school district shrinks. When a small community loses its school, it loses its heart. Keeping our school strong and vibrant is an important factor in keeping our community small and vibrant.

What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this position?

I do have five-and-a-half years of previous board experience. Even prior to that I grew up in the newspaper business. As a reporter in Portales, I covered school boards in every community in Roosevelt County. Having sat through various school board meetings, seen how they operate and understanding the state equalization guarantee and how schools are funded. I remember the education department used to hold budget meetings in every county. Each school district in the county would present its budget individually. I used to cover those hearings when I was a young reporter, and so I have that background so I think that helps me become an effective board member. And that’s about 40 years background. And also, since I’ve been a board member, I’ve made a point to go to as many of the school board meetings as possible and I have over 120 continuing education hours going to those school board events.

What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?

Currently the number one issue is the school funding, because the schools and the state are in a budget crisis and they look at public schools to try and solve it. If you’re a school district that is frugal and you take care of your money and you have a fairly sizable cash balance, the state’s going to come back and get it. I think that’s counterproductive because if you do your job, and they take care of your district’s financial status and you save money for a rainy day, you’re penalized for it. But we just don’t have that option. We have to have school.

I think that they’re going to have to do a better job of planning and finding better funding sources. If we’re going to have requirements that we have so many days of school per year and so many hours a year, and are going to require these kids to take all these tests and perform and request the teachers to perform, we have to be adequately funded. I do think that adequate school funding is the number one issue currently. We lost over $100,000 in our district (after the September session). We didn’t complain, but you know, now they’re going to take who knows how much. We have concerns about that.

What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?

Specifically, there’s a lot of things schools could do more efficiently, but by their nature they’re inefficient. We don’t run the schools like a business, and I’m not saying we should, but the Public Education Department makes rules and regulations that we follow. But we’re so different. Fort Summer is totally different. A hard and fast rule that someone made to address a problem in a large school district may totally throw little school districts out of whack and vice versa. By our nature, we are inefficient but I think we can always be more efficient. I think that’s an ongoing day-to-day effort.

I think that because of the way things change and the way we have to accept change, we have to be flexible in how we operate. We have to make changes on the fly sometimes because of rules and regulations. I think we do the best we can and if we had a good day, we have a good day. Sometimes it’s predictable. Sometimes we get a lot of notice, sometimes we don’t. When you think you’ve got it figured out is when something changes, and you must be prepared for that. You’ve got to understand that when changes do come, you got to respond to that change. That if you don’t like it, you do what you can to respond in the best manner that’s the best for your district.

Honest to goodness, school board members have the easy job. It’s important to us and we make big decisions. It’s much more different for them — the administrators and the teachers — to do the daily work. We’ve got to be a little careful in how we make decisions because the ripple effect is great at times. You’ve got to figure out the best way to do it with the least impact on your people.

What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?

Hire an effective and dedicated superintendent and provide adequate funding for not only academics but all the activities we can offer, and the cleanest, best facilities we can afford. That’s our job. If we don’t have a good, solid superintendent, then our students suffer because we don’t have a good, solid staff.

What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?

I think we can do the best job we can do to make sure they have the tools that they need to provide the education that we want our students to have. We need to remove as many barriers as possible to make their jobs less difficult. We can’t remove them all, but we need to remove as many as we can to allow them to do their job. We need to be able to make decisions to help streamline the process for teachers.

There’s a lot of expectation on teachers right now. They’re expected to be everything from a second mother or father to a student to testing them, teaching them and seeing them, according to the regulations put forward by the state. They are being evaluated every day on the testing, and so we’ve got to do what we can do to make that job as simple and as barrier-free as we can. We need to do what we can provided the training we can, provided the materials we can to give them the tools they need to do their job. They may not be pencils or paper. It might be training, it might be assistance in completing their dossiers so they can move to the next level of pay. There’s certain requirements they need to move from level one to level two. When they’re improving themselves, they’re becoming more effective as teachers, benefiting our district. We can pay them more and we want to pay them more. I wish they were all level three so we could pay them level three salaries. Your district is only as good as your teachers.

Sharon C. West

Age: 52

Occupation: Administrator at Crosbyton Elementary School in Crosbyton, Texas

Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)

Why are you running for the position?

I like to give back to the district that gave a lot to me. Fort Sumner is my home. It’s been our home. I don’t have any grandchildren that go to Fort Sumner schools yet, but I might someday. I think it’s a fabulous system and I think it’s having some struggles right now. It’s not a criticism, it’s just a change in the staff. There’s a plethora of new positions and there are struggles trying to get them filled and some continuity.

The best employees are the ones that live and become invested in their community. As a whole, with students, they’re involved. They tend to stick around too. The revolving door is not a good thing for anybody. I’d like to give back to a community that’s been good to me professionally, good to my family and good to my children. I think that’s something to offer.

You hire a superintendent, you let them do their job and help them do their job. We’re not the first step. We’re the last. You have to follow the chain of command and you have to take care of things. I hope I bring something to the table in terms of a little bit of knowledge and experience having that in many of their places: parent, teachers, at all those levels. I think you have to be somewhat passionate, but the other part of it is you are a member of a board. You got to let the superintendent do his job, otherwise you didn’t hire a very good superintendent.

What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this board position?

This is year 31 in education. I’m in the trenches. I think I have something to offer in terms of my experience in 31 years of teaching in all four levels — elementary school, middle school, high school and college. I understand the struggle from the parent’s perspective and from the teacher’s perspective. I understand the struggle from my recent employment at an administrator’s perspective. It’s not simple. There’s a bigger picture of things you can and cannot do. No situation is clear-cut. Every child is unique. Every parent is unique and so you have to work what’s best, most of the time for the majority but hopefully as individually as possible.

What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?

We know we’re fixing to face some financial problems. They already said there’s going to be cuts. We got to make sure we have the kids’ best interests in mind, but we have to be understanding with teachers. If cuts have to be made, cuts have to be made. We hope they are thought about in terms of everyone’s best interests.

I want every kid to be successful in something and have a sense of belonging. We have funding issues, but education across the board — you know, No Child Left Behind. Are we kidding? Left behind what? Who’s rules? Who’s test? There are vast differences so we have to be realistic. We have to expect more and want more for our kids. Are we preparing them for a work class work force? Are we preparing them just to get a high school diploma? Everyone needs a field. Everyone needs to produce something. We have to do more for kids. Kids are faster but they have so many more opportunities. Better healthcare, better nutrition, all the things we may or may not have had. Where do we teach civic responsibilities, civic citizenship, that relationship? It’s about having a place to belong.

What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?

Prepare kids for what comes next. In terms of careers, the research shows that you got to get the kids in junior high to prepare them to have an impact on their future and setting goals for that future, so why aren’t we doing that? We need to do that career setting and goal setting. We’ve got to have them look at what do you want to be when you grow up and what are you doing right now. When do we prepare? What class? Let’s do this more actively.

The statistics of freshman dropping out of college is frightening. It’s setting them up for so much. There needs to be some kind of transitioning. That starts in elementary school. You need to make that decision in junior high and get on board with what classes you need to take, doing that sort of career exploration in elementary school and then definitely in middle school.

What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?

It’s more about, how do we get to the top again? Fort Sumner was the place to go, the place to work. The team to follow, the team to beat, the place to teach. You used to wait years for an opening for Fort Sumner, and now it seems like we’re continually looking for someone. I would help them find direction for stability for programs for students, teachers and parents, where parents have confidence. They (teachers) are the people that spend eight — more than eight hours a day with their children. We want them to feel confident in their school system, their teachers and their administration, and that’s not to say that they don’t.

You’ve got 400 students and you have 400 parents that are concerned and interested in their kids. You’re not going to make everyone happy, but we can always try to do the right thing because it was there. I remember what a great school this was and we need that back. It’s going to take a while to get that stability back in place. But me, independently, I would be one vote on a board of five. The students are at school many more times than they are at home. Parents need to feel confident that their children are safe, that they are nurtured and that they are pushed academically, athletically, socially and emotionally to be the very best they can be. Not to say that they (parents) don’t have that confidence, but we can always do better. We can always up our game. We have to for our students because the world changes faster than we can keep up with it. We have to prepare kids to keep up with the changes and still be successful. We’re educating the whole child.

What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?

As a teacher, which I will always call myself, we love children. At the same time, we are requiring so much more of teachers today than ever before. They have to be an expert in all fields. They have to be above reproach professionally and personally. You have children with unique abilities and also individual needs, and in order to fulfill those needs, it’s almost become individualized instruction. It is monumental in terms of how much more can we ask of our teachers, and yet we keep cutting funding and keep cutting resources.

You work with children. That is their most precious possession. Nothing gets more important than your children. So the teacher is wearing more hats than ever before and so I believe as a board you have to get them all the support, all of the resources you can to help them do a job that’s become monumental.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Kurt Munz-Raper