Civil Discourse /
Silver & Cobre School Board Election Issues

The School Boards of the Silver Consolidated School District and the Cobre Consolidated School District each have two positions to be decided in the election of Tuesday 3 February 2015.

In anticipation of the pending elections, Civil Discourse host Jamie Newton and a panel of five experienced educators gathered on 6 January 2015 to discuss a range of issues that illuminate current conditions locally, statewide and nationally which will be helpful to prospective voters as they evaluate the candidates and their positions, including:

• District policies and administrative practices that affect the quality of education.
• Conditions in the schools that influence the effectiveness of education for students and the work environment for teachers.
• Appropriate and inappropriate approaches to testing students as a means of evaluating both students and teachers.
• Budgets and fiscal responsibility.
• Transparency of decision making by boards of education and school administrators.
• The importance of the school board election to all Grant County residents, including those who do not have school-age children.

Our guests were five active and retired teachers with long experience as educators in Grant County Schools:

• Fred Baca
• Sharon Bookwalter
• Cheryl Holland
• Gillian Sherwood
• Justin Wecks

Election day is February 3, 2015. Early voting ended on Friday January 30th. Voters, please refer to the maps below for district boundaries and if you reside close to either side of these boundaries, call the office of the Grant County Clerk at 575.574.0042 and give them your residence address. They can then confirm whether you are in one of the contested districts and thus eligible to vote on Tuesday February 3rd. Click on the map images below to view or download them.

Voters in the Cobre District, where School Board members are elected at-large, will vote for one candidate in each of the two races, and also on the Public School Capital Improvements (2 Mill) Tax Question. Voters in the Silver District, where School Board members represent a specific district within the School District, will vote for one candidate in the race of the district where the voter lives. The County Clerk’s office can tell you which district you live in.

We also encourage you to listen to a related Civil Discourse presentation –
Silver Consolidated Schools Candidate Roundtable – that featured all four candidates for the two contested seats.

Civil Discourse / Silver & Cobre School Board Election Issues will air on:

• Thursday 8 January 2015 / 9pm
• Friday 9 January 2015 / 8pm
• Saturday 10 January 2015 / 10am following Travelers in the Night
• Sunday 11 January 2015 / 10am following Travelers in the Night
• Monday 12 January 2015 / 10am
• Tuesday 13 January 2015 / 9pm
• Wednesday 14 January 2015 / 10am
• Monday 19 January 2015 / 10am

Or listen to the podcast via the following link at your convenience…

• Civil Discourse / Silver & Cobre School Board Election Issues