Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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 the Thursday edition of the Eastern New Mexico News, and the other three are planned for Friday.
Mary “Molly” Kenyon
Age: 50
Occupation: Family Nurse Practitioner for Sunrise Medial Group in Santa Rosa
Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)
Why are you running for the position?
I have a couple of reasons. It’s our civic duty to serve and give back to the community. I think that our school plays a huge role in making our community an attractive place to live and raise a family. I just want to make sure that stays in place and help that continue. I love the kids of the community. I just want to be a representative for the community and the school, but most importantly for the kids and their future, and for them to get a quality education.
What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this board position?
I have experience working for the school district. I was employed for over 25 years and seeing the positive and negative challenges facing the school district. I think I have a vested interest. I have two boys who have gone through pre-school through graduations. I have three girls currently in the district. Being a parent plays a huge role in having experience to knowing how to be a successful board member and to want the best quality education for your kids. Not just your kids but all the kids in the community. Making sure that they are heard mainly. You need to be that voice for all the kids.
What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?
The first one that comes to mind is the budget cuts and just the resources and funding. How do we provide a quality education with slashed funding and how do we retain great teachers when our funding is cut? Common Core, I think, poses a huge issue. The teachers were really upset with the Common Core and the testing and the measures. I think that’s a huge issue. I don’t know if I can solve those issues, but those issues are heavy in my heart to think of ways to help solve our issues. I just want to face the challenge. I’m accepting the challenge to face those problems and address them. Studies have shown that it’s not a good program and curriculum. I just want to be a part of trying to figure out what we need to do to fix those challenges.
What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?
I think it goes back to the budget again. I think we could be more efficient in using our resources appropriately and remember that our number one goal is to provide a quality education for current and future students.
What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?
Unfortunately I think we have a lot of students who don’t have a voice. I think I would be a voice for them and my kids, not just my kids but all the kids in the community. They need to be our number one priority. But a lot of children don’t have that person to speak for them. We need to remember that we need to be a voice for those kids, represent the kids and being an advocate for the kids, make sure that their needs are being met and they are getting a quality education they deserve. We need to make sure we are being an advocate of the policies set forth by the school and make sure they are being met. I think that’s a huge role for the board. One of the main functions of the board is to be a watchdog to make sure that those goals are being met and that our kids are receiving the education they deserve.
What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?
I think that teachers have a really hard job, are really underappreciated and way underpaid. I think they need to be reminded that they are doing a great job and finding ways of letting them know that. I think they’re expected to do a lot with a little. Most teachers pay for their own supplies and things for their classroom and materials. They do more than their eight hours. I think that’s a challenge. We need to provide the teachers with encouragement and the resources they need. I think that’s an injustice. I don’t think they are paid enough. They just play such a huge role in the success of a child and they need to be reminded of that I think we need to support them as best as we can.
Kreston Madrid
Age: 30
Occupation: Clerk for United States Postal Service
Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)
Why are you running for the position?
I have two small boys, a 5- and a 6-year-old, and my boys are just starting school. My five-year-old is in kindergarten. I believe a public education is by far the best education you can get. It has it’s faults, but I want to do my part to make sure all the students get the education they deserve.
What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this board position?
I’ve never really served on any kind of a board before, but I do have a history of volunteering my time in my community towards efforts that benefit the children of Fort Sumner. For the last six years I have helped put on youth play days during the summer. It was a 4-H sanctioned event. Every other Thursday we started doing it because they had given it up. We felt like it was important for them to have something to do over the summer. I’ve also for the last several years helped with the goat roping during the Old Fort Days.
What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?
I think one of the things we need to improve on as far as state-wide would be particularly our math, science and reading scores. I know we have done well and improved, but I think it’s something we can work harder on to improve, especially on math. One of the things that I’ve looked at and done quite a bit of research on is it’s a desire of a lot of parents to go from a five-day to a four-day school week. It’s not only benefiting the schools financially but it’s also benefited them academically as well. They’ve seen more scores go up on math testing and overall academic success.
What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?
I think one of the things that could definitely be done more efficiently overall is better communication with staff, parents and students.
What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?
The best thing that any board member can do for students in their school is to kind of put aside any pre-conceived notions that they have and have the ability to take a step back from their personal opinion, and to look at the facts that are presented to them and make a decisions that’s best for the school as a whole.
What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?
I think that the best way to help teach is to actually sit down with the teacher and have a conversation about what they want and what they need.
Brent Moyer
Age: 44
Occupation: Truck Driver for De Baca County Road Department
Running for: Fort Sumner school board (at-large)
Why are you running for the position?
The reason I’m running is to try to help the kids, and that’s the best thing we can do, is try to help the kids and make sure everything they’ve got is bettering their education.
What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you for this board position?
I was on the board a couple of years prior, and I do have some state training — 12-and-a-half hours on school training on school board education. I’m hoping that’s enough to have a bit more knowledge than some of the other candidates. I was in about — I think I went to three of them last year.
What is one issue with state education, and how would you as a board member try to solve it?
Probably the one issue that I hear the most about from people in town or even teachers in the school district is the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) testing. I’m not sure what we can do about that other than voicing our opinion at the legislature, but there’s something there that we can work on and try to work on anyways. I guess there’s a lot of misunderstanding that could be clarified that I would like to see, a lot to be taken care of or at least help figure out what it is supposed to be helping.
What is something you think schools, whether it’s your specific district or schools on a state or national scale, could do more efficiently?
I think my big thing, on listening to other school districts and ours too, is working on taking care of in-school bullying. That’s become a big deal now a days and it happens all over. It’s just something that could be handled a lot quicker in my opinion.
What do you, as a board member, think is the best thing you can do for students at your school in the upcoming term?
The biggest thing is making sure finances are there for books and all activities that need to be taken care of the proper way and keeping yourself focused on helping them. We have no control over cuts hardly at all anymore and it’s something we would like to keep under control to keep our kids safe and have them learn what they need to learn to prepare them for college and life.
What do you think is the best way you can help your school’s teachers in the upcoming term?
Helping the teachers would be one of the things we always strive for. Being able to listen to them, having them come to meetings and voicing their opinions and us trying to help them as much as we can.
— Compiled by Staff Writer Kurt Munz-Raper