Kyle McCabe/Summit Daily News
The five candidates vying for three open Summit School District Board of Education seats laid out their cases to voters at an election forum Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the district’s Professional Development Building.
Who will fill the seats vacated by board members Lisa Webster, Chris Guarino and Johanna Kugler will be determined in a Tuesday, Nov. 4 election. Candidates Tom Day, Kimberly Dyer, Jenniffer Gonzalez, Whitney Horner and Jackie Zheleznyak are running for the seats.
Summit Daily News Editor Andrew Maciejewski moderated the event and asked questions of the candidates related to recent board decisions, their goals as candidates and the direction they hope to take the board. He gave each candidate the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind their bids ahead of answering questions.
Day, a Realtor, said he’s running because he feels the schools are in “pretty bad shape.” He shared concerns about the district’s loss of its triple-A rating from Moody’s and about recent spends approved by the board. He said the district needs to eliminate some admin positions that have been created for equity and social justice and put those funds toward education.
Dyer touched on her experience working with youth as a now-retired school counselor and said she’s intimately familiar with the education field. She said she values hard conversations and promoting critical thinking. She said she looks to encourage civil discourse in decision making.
Gonzalez highlighted her experience working with Summit County nonprofits in the health and social services realm and the insight it gave her into the needs of local families. Born in Panama, she said she looks to be an advocate for the Spanish-speaking population in the schools and wants to work to boost their test scores.
Horner, who works in Summit County Public Health as a dietitian and lactation health consultant, said her career has helped further loop her into the challenges faced by local families. She said she wants to propel the district forward and support education. She said she values adaptability in an evolving world and believes collaboration is paramount in decision making.
Zheleznyak said her experience as a healthcare lobbyist gives her insight into the current and upcoming economics at the state level that impact education funding. She said she wants to foster a sustainable school district as more funding cuts loom. She said she wants to work to make the Summit School District the best employer in the county and ensure students reach their potential.
Questions asked of the candidates
Are there any decisions the Board of Education has made that you agree with? Why or why not?
Day said he thought the district had a great girls rugby team and it should seek to foster that momentum with other sports. He said he wasn’t thrilled with the financial decisions the board has made.
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“We’ve been distracted by equity, things that I don’t think are applicable in school, and we need to focus on reading, writing and arithmetic,” he said.
Dyer said she agrees with a lot that the board has done. She said she appreciated their improved communication and willingness to seek feedback from the community following the failure of the proposed $195 million bond. She said she supported the creation and implementation of the Graduate Profile and Future Ready Pathways Program meant to prepare students for post graduation. She said she thinks the board is heading in the right direction, but it needs help to continue in the right direction.
Gonzalez said she appreciated the board’s support of the advisory committees, particularly the one for Spanish-speaking families, and the efforts to provide more translations and resources. She said she would like to see more positive results from the work the board does. She said she had heard the district was inflating the grades of Spanish-speaking students so they graduated, though she did not provide evidence. Summit High School Principal Doug Blake disputed these claims in an email to the Summit Daily Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Horner said she thinks the current board members have shown a commitment to academics and applauded the Future Ready Pathways program and their support of it.
“I think the board is trying to push us in a direction where we’re really approaching learning in a way that it’s going to encompass the whole child, and pushing them to excel and not just be mediocre,” she said.
Zheleznyak said she agrees with some of the decisions the board has made related to academics and the positive results are evidenced by the academic growth the district’s seen in the past year. She said there’s always room for improvement and would like to home in on improving test scores. She shared concerns about feeling like the district doesn’t meet the needs of every student, particularly those who require more support.
Are there any decisions that the board or district have made that you disagree with? Why or why not?
Dyer said she felt the $195 million bond measure was too grand and the communication ahead of the election could have been better. She acknowledged it’s difficult for her to fully judge when she wasn’t in the room when the decisions were made.
Gonzalez said she worried about the current academic success rates and wanted to see those improved. She said she wanted to see more decisions related to parental rights. She also wanted to see more transparency from the district.
Horner, echoing Dyer, also said she couldn’t fully critique a decision she wasn’t a part of.
Zheleznyak said she thinks there’s a budget problem and was concerned about that given the upcoming changes to the state’s school finance formula.
“I think we have budgets that are being approved that we cannot afford,” she said. “I think we’ve seen the board dip into reserves to pay for things that we need to have a conversation of whether we actually need to pay for them or not.”
Day similarly had concerns about how money was being spent. He said he wanted to see spending that fostered students’ ability to get jobs after school.
Summit School District has entered a partnership with the town of Breckenridge for workforce housing for staff members. Do you agree with this decision, and do you support assisting staff with housing due to the high cost of living in Summit County?
Gonzalez said she believes nearly everyone in the county struggles with housing, but she doesn’t believe the school district should be involved in housing. She said she wanted to see academics prioritized and not housing in the district’s budget.
Horner said she needed to read up more on the details of the partnership. She said she was against the district being a landlord unless it was a partnership. She said she believes in supporting teachers, and supporting housing can be a way to do that.
Zheleznyak similarly said she needed to do more research on the matter. She said she is a proponent of creative solutions and was all for exploring them as the state’s budget for education gets tighter.
Day said he understands the cost of living challenges residents faced because of his line of work in real estate. He felt it was imperative teachers should be able to pay their rent or mortgage and that requires paying them more.
Dyer said she “loves anything that has to do with partnership.” She agreed with Zhelenznyak that creative solutions are needed given the current strain on finances. She said she’s an advocate of investing in teachers and wants more solutions to recruit and retain them.
The district’s ballot measure last year failed, but district officials say the priorities outlined in the measure were important. What ideas did you support in the ballot measure, and which did you disagree with?
Horner said she thought the ballot measure took on too much. She admitted she needed to go and look back at every detail.
“I would want to really rely on collaboration and find out how we weigh those (challenges), and figure out what’s the biggest thing to go after that can have the most impact for our students,” she said.
Zheleznyak said she didn’t fully back anything in the ballot measure mostly because of how it was written. She said she found the ideas to be grandiose, and while they may have been based in reality, they should have been thought out more.
Day said he thought the bond’s failure was a “reality check” and felt it showed you can’t just throw money at a problem and fix it. He said he would advocate for more “belt tightening” with the budget and more critical decision making.
Dyer said she supported the aspect of the bond that sought to address the diminishing structural integrity of the Breckenridge Elementary School building. She said safe buildings are necessary for successful learning environments. She said she also agreed with the funding proposal to boost Career and Technical Education alongside the proposal to move Snowy Peaks Jr./Sr. High School to the Summit High School Campus.
Gonzalez said she’s talked to people in the community about the ballot and learned its failure came down to the increased taxes, noting people were already holding their wallets tightly at the time and continue to do so. She said she wanted to see creative solutions to address the problems the ballot sought to solve.
State and local government entities are facing budget lows in decreased revenue streams. What areas are critical to fund at Summit School District, and in what ways would you improve the district’s budget?
Zheleznyak said she felt adequate funding for a staff that would prioritize critical thinking and advanced student learning was important. She said “there’s no money coming” that would significantly boost the budget and uncomfortable choices need to be made.
Day said he wanted to make the focus of the budget the basics, which is strong instruction from teachers that yield results from students. He said he could encourage the board to spend money more carefully.
Dyer said her budget priorities would be to fund things that serve the most students possible. She said she would push the board to “dig deep and think outside of the box” and vet what tools they have at their disposal like bonds, grants and mill levies.
Gonzalez said, when it comes down to it, the district has two options: cut costs or raise taxes. She said she wanted to vet all possible funding streams and would want to see strategic decision making that prioritized students and teachers.
Horner said funds need to go to the educators and she supports the 98% of the district’s current budget being allocated to staff.
Residents of Summit County are always seeking higher test scores. How would you specifically help to ensure students continue to see improvement?
Day said the answer to high test scores is quality teachers, and that should be a primary focus.
Dyer also said it all starts with teachers. She said she wants to have educators who foster environments where students are engaged. She said she wanted Summit grads to be globally minded and ready to take on the workforce.
Gonzalez said the district needs to ensure all students can read and write. She said that came down to retaining and recruiting quality teachers.
Horner said she wanted to maintain engaging environments where students are excited to learn and teachers feel supported.
Zheleznyak said families were a missing piece in the formula. She said it’s important to get parents on board with wanting to advance their child’s learning.