From: Frank Reeves
\nSent:\u00a0 Wednesday, October 23, 2013 11:20 PM
\nTo:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\t undisclosed-recipients<\/p>\n
Elizabeth School Board elections are coming up in the next few weeks. We have five candidates running for three positions. All<\/strong> five candidates are Republicans but Deb Spenceley has been an (R) only since 2012.<\/p>\n Both challengers<\/strong> have excellent<\/em> credentials. Col. Christopher \u201cChris\u201d Richardson<\/strong> has served in the Army for more than 20 years with distinction.\u00a0 He, among many responsibilities, has had oversight of vocational training schools in the military. Col. Richardson has, closer to home, led the voluntary, citizen\u2019s IAC<\/strong> committee which has evaluated the condition of Elizabeth School District facilities. This has already led to several improvements including those of school safety that have languished. The IAC identified and prioritized other facility issues of safety and high priority but moderate cost issues which [could] be addressed more quickly. This led to the appointment of the BRP<\/strong> committee to review the IAC recommendations with central administration input for the goal of assessing for the School Board on the issue of a Bond Tax<\/strong> Referendum. Col. Richardson has extensive facilities management and master planning experience. He has an Engineering Degree from the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Doctor Amilda Heckman<\/strong> has lived in Elizabeth for 22 years and provided health care to our community. Her medical training was done at the Texas College of Medicine and postdoctoral work was done at PSL in Denver. She has family members who attended Elizabeth Schools. She has spent a considerable portion of her life at educational institutions at all levels and knows the value of education in serving society at a high level. That requires a quality education. Her goals include improving excellence in education and higher learning standards for our District. As a physician she wants to see improvement in safety. Dr. Heckman has a history of following school issues and communicating with young people and citizens on educational issues and looks forward to working with students and parents to enrich the learning process. She would work to reverse eroding test scores, high teacher turnover and students leaving the district. She will work to do this in a fiscally responsible way with appropriate communications to taxpayers.<\/p>\n Incumbents, Deb Spenceley<\/strong> and Carol Hinds<\/strong> were both appointed<\/strong> (not elected) to the School Board. They have served with enthusiasm to an inexperienced Superintendent but lack a bachelor\u2019s college degree. This is important in the field of education<\/strong> to prepare students for college in order to know what is required for college education<\/strong> success. The incumbents have overseen dropping state test scores, very high teacher turnover (80% at the middle school in the last 2 years), very significant School leadership turnover (change in all but one school), significant loss of students (53 last year), degraded facilities with inadequate maintenance ($43M), school safety issues including dangerous mold at the middle school, and function as a \u201crubber stamp\u201d to a superintendent who has never taught or been a principal in a public school and sends his<\/em> children to Cherry Creek schools. The incumbents and superintendent embrace Federal Common Core.<\/p>\n Chuck Williams<\/strong> has four years experience which helps bring continuity and guidance to the Board. He has served as Board Treasurer and Board President. He is a long time resident of the community. He has retired from the Air Force and has IT (computer) work experience. His children have attended Elizabeth Schools. Chuck has BS and MS college degrees.<\/p>\n From: Frank Reeves Sent:\u00a0 Wednesday, October 23, 2013 11:20 PM To:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 undisclosed-recipients<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Vote Col.Richardson, Dr. Heckman and Williams for positive change.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"