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October 23, 2001 By Aspen C. Emmett Three seats on the Re-1 school board will be open in November. Vacating their seats are Sue Baacke, District D; Peggy Blackmer, District F; and Tina Galyon, District B. Four candidates are running in District B; one in District D; and two in District F. Mail ballots will be mailed to voters in the next few days. Interviews with the District B candidates were published on Oct. 15. District F candidates are:
ARMANDO GARCIA As a native of the area, Armando Garcia believes he has a special insight into the community and into the needs of the school district. Garcia has one son at Cortez Middle School and a daughter who graduated from the high school last year, and said his involvement with the schools has grown over the years. For five years Garcia has served as a band booster as well as a high-school football official. Now he would like to extend his involvement to the school board. Performance-based salary initiatives for teachers and standardized testing are two of the primary platforms he would like to bring to the attention of the school board if elected. "I think we should make every effort to provide our teachers and administrators with incentives to increase student performance and achievement," Garcia said. "I think performance-based pay would provide quality and improved education for our children." Garcia denounced the CSAP testing because it doesn’t allow for longitudinal mapping of students, he said. "The CSAP measures student progress and achievement at a single point through the school year. It should measure how a student has progressed over the year." Accountability to the community is also important, Garcia said, and standardized testing should be able to provide the tools to assess schools’ successes. "The taxpayers do have the right to know how each individual school is performing. They are the ones in our community paying the bills."
STEVEN BLOINK A local physician and father of two CMS students, Steven Bloink, said he believes it is his civic duty to get involved with the community by running for the Re-1 school board. Teacher wages are a concern of Bloink’s, and he hopes to encourage the board to increase salaries and look at staff recruitment and retention strategies. "I don’t mean to belittle or imply that the teachers we have are inferior," Bloink said, "but better pay would make teachers more motivated." Bloink also said that student motivation is key to improving the schools. Integrating world issues such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks into the curriculum could stimulate learning as well as promote social awareness, Bloink said. "As sad as it is, children are picking up on what’s happening and I hope teachers are capitalizing on that," he said. "It’s a good opportunity to build patriotism and encourage awareness of what we do as individuals." Bloink said that safety is one of the primary concerns that he would like to address if elected to the board. He related the murder of Fred Martinez, a transgendered Cortez teen, to the need for better policies on bullying and harassment. Although Martinez was not murdered by a fellow student, he reportedly sought out other education outside of the high school because of continuous taunting, Bloink commented. Bloink also said he would like to see the district implement more and different extracurricular activities to motivate and inspire students that aren’t interested in existing programs. ‘I’d like to see more available in the sciences and not just sports," he said. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
