Education

Editor’s note: With numerous forums scheduled for the six school board candidates, the Columbine Courier will focus each story on one single issue that arises in each debate. Visit www.columbinecourier.com and click on “Politics” under the “News” tab for candidate profiles and for coverage of the candidate forums.

Jeffco school board candidates shared their views on whether arming teachers with firearms would make classrooms and schools safer at a candidate forum on Sept. 24.

Education funding and voucher programs were at the center of the discussion at last Friday’s Jeffco school board candidate forum in Arvada.

Six candidates are vying for three open seats on the Jeffco school board in the Nov. 5 election. Tonya Aultman-Bettridge and Julie Williams (District 1), John Newkirk and Jeff Lamontagne (District 2), and Ken Witt and Gordon “Spud” Van de Water (District 5) discussed why they’re running and their future plans for Jeffco’s public schools.

For the past three summers, Evergreen resident Nancy Knight has traveled to a remote area of Sierra Leone, where she has worked with blind students at a school in the impoverished country.

As a teacher of visually impaired students at Heritage High School in Littleton, Knight said she has had many memorable experiences. However, working with students in a remote African village has been incredibly rewarding, she said.

“It’s a huge gift to me,” she said. “We feel like we are really making a difference.”

With three of five seats up for election and at least one incumbent not running, this year’s campaigns for positions on the Jeffco school board promise to be hotly contested.

With the November election still six months away, longtime South Jeffco resident and education veteran Alonzo “Al” Rodriguez has announced a bid in District 5.

“I have a vested interest in Jeffco schools,” Rodriguez said. “I have a son who is a junior at Columbine High School, and 13 of my grandchildren attend Jeffco schools.”