D-2 candidates stress achievement at a critical time
Editor’s note: This is another in a series of profiles of the 10 contested school board races in the Pikes Peak region. The stories will run intermittently in the days leading up to the distribution of mail-in ballots in mid-October.
Student achievement tops the list of issues for candidates running this year for the board of Harrison School District 2.
While that goal is shared by candidates in other local districts, it takes on urgency in D-2, where the majority of students receive free and reduced lunch, and large numbers are English-language learners and special education students.
“The big thing I want to see is for our children to get more than a year’s growth academically,” said incumbent Rick Price. “I’d like to see yearly achievement for students to grow to a year and a half. That’s a lot of hard work for students and teachers to make that in nine months. But I think it is doable.”
There are three 4-year school board seats up for grabs in the November election. Besides Price, those running for re-election are Deborah Hendrix and Linda Pugh. Also vying for a seat are Ed Ralston, a high school teacher, and Steve Hester, a former board member.
Pugh noted that the district is more than three years into a five-year plan to improve achievement, and it’s beginning to produce results, so she’s not in a hurry to put a lot of new programs in place “just for the sake of it.” .
“We are building successes on successes,” Pugh said. “I’d like to see what we have put in place refined. Among the efforts are personalizing student education plans, and further building a professional leadership program in which teachers share creative ways to teach diverse students.”
One of Ralston’s approaches to achievement is to make sure there are a variety of educational opportunities. “Not every kid is going to go to a four-year college,” Ralston said. “Vocational and technical training needs to be expanded.”
Several candidates mentioned that education is more than academics. Hendrix and Pugh call it educating the “whole child.”
“It is important to help with the social and emotional pieces, whether it is sports, art or connecting with outside organizations such as Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA,” Hendrix said.
Hester said he would work to retain programs such as music and sports, noting that they’re the only reason some students stay in school.
“Obviously achievement is important, but it’s not the Holy Grail,” Hester said. “Budgets are tight, but I’ll fight to maintain those extra curricular activities.”
Among other issues singled out by the candidates:
• Pugh wants a higher retention rate for teachers, using performance bonuses and teacher leadership programs. Hendrix also mentions retaining qualified teachers, but adds: “We must make sure the budget is in alignment with the cuts we expect to see coming from the state.”
• Price wants to increase the graduation rate, keep staff salaries and benefits at a competitive level, and find creative ways to keep up with technology in the classroom.
• Ralston hopes to foster more teamwork among teachers, parents, adminis trators and the board, and more accountability for administrators and board. He would like to see the district reach out to the business community for ideas on everything from budgets to programs. “They have a vested interest in educating students.”
• Hester would like student-teacher ratios to be determined by the teacher’s workload. “If you have a lot of special needs, English learners and others, then a teacher should have less students in that class so they can give them the attention they need.”
THE CANDIDATES:
• Deborah Hendrix , 58, is a D-2 board member. She is a customer specialist for Alpine Technologies, a software design company. She graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. with a bachelor’s in consumer economics.
• Steve Hester, 57, leads a surgical support team at Memorial Hospital. He served on the Harrison school board from 1997-2001, and 2003- 2007. He is a honor graduate of the U.S. Army Advanced Medical Noncommissioned Officer course, and served as an army medic from 1971-1992.
• Rick Price, 64, a D-2 board member, is a Realtor and education consultant. He has been an educator for 38 years, including teacher and principal. He has bachelors and masters degrees in education from University of Northern Iowa.
• Linda Pugh, 58, is a D-2 board member. She is a part-time instructor for the registered nurse program at Pikes Peak Community College. She attended the University of Oregon and received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Maryland, and received training through Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing. She’s a retired U.S. Army major.
• Ed Ralston, 57, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, is a business teacher at Woodland Park High School. He was a co-operative education coordinator at New Horizons alternative school in D-2 from 2001-07 where he taught students personal finance, computer applications and career courses.
