Voters back UNM-G
Tempest re-elected: Zuni school board shaken up

On Tuesday voters approved a measure a measure that would increase property taxes for property owners in McKinley County. The increase would help finance improvements at the University of New Mexico at Gallup. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan, Helen Davis and Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writers

Gallup voters in District 5 decided that experience counts and re-elected Bruce Tempest to the Gallup-McKinley School Board for a third term.

In the $8 million bond issue that the University of New Mexico-Gallup campus wanted approved, it had some rocky moments in the early voting as the city precincts came in, but once county votes were tabulated, it easily passed.

County Election Chief Rick Palochak was predicting before any of the precinct ballots came in that it would be a low turnout, suggesting that it would wind up with 8 percent of the voters showing up. He was too optimistic.

The final vote total showed a 5 percent turnout with just more than 2,000 voters taking part in one of the lowest turnouts in recent years.

Voting was “very slow” at the Octavia Fellin Library Tuesday. Precinct officials said they had only 12 voters at 1:30 p.m. The poll opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.
Part of this was because only one race had any opposition — the District 5 school board position.

Tempest, a local doctor, was leading from the get-go, getting 122 votes when the first tabulations were released. His closest competition was local girls’ basketball coach John Lomasney, who had 48 votes.

By the end of the night, the unofficial vote tally showed Tempest with 441 votes to 342 for Lomasney. Tim Nelson received 81 votes and Mark Elliott received 34 votes.

After the final votes came in, Tempest said he thought voters had taken to heart the message he had given out during the campaign — that he was experienced, well-informed and committed to serving the public. He had not missed one board meeting during his eight years in office and spent countless hours going over reports dealing with the education system here and in other districts.

“I feel I am much more informed than when I was first elected,” he said, adding that he still feels the district needs to do more about bringing up achievement scores and teacher retention.

As for the bond issue, it passed by an unofficial vote of 1138 to 875.

There was a time during the night, after all of the city precincts were in and the county precincts were starting to show up that the vote was just the opposite, with the bond proposal failing 731 to 662.

The election office still has to sort through dozens of provisional ballots but these are not expected to change any of the races. A final vote tally is expected to be released on Thursday.

Zuni

More changes came to the Zuni Public School District on Tuesday with the election of two new members to the board of education.

Virginia R. Chavez and Carmelita A. Sanchez ran unopposed for their spots on the school board, replacing outgoing members Andrew Othole and Pamelia Chimoni.

With provisional ballots still out, unofficial election totals on Tuesday showed Chavez with 185 votes for Position 3 and Sanchez with 178 votes for Position 5. In telephone interviews, both women talked about their professional experience and what goals they have for ZPSD.

Chavez and Sanchez are stepping into a politically tumultuous situation. The school district has been in the news since Jan. 13, when the school board placed ZPSD Superintendent Kaye L. Peery on administrative leave in response to misconduct charges leveled against Peery by the New Mexico Public Education Department. Until the case is legally resolved, newly hired Interim Superintendent Wesley Lane will take over Peery’s duties.

Virginia R. Chavez

“Basically, my whole life I’ve been working for the Zuni schools,” Chavez said on Tuesday. Although she’s now employed as an accountant for the Zuni Tribe’s finance department, Chavez said she worked for ZPSD for 33 years. She began as a school bookkeeper at a local elementary school and worked her way up to finance director for the district.

Chavez said she was approached by many community members who encouraged her to run for the ZPSD board of education. The more she thought about the idea, Chavez said, the more she felt she should run in order to help the Zuni students and the community.

She already serves on the UNM-Gallup Advisory Board, the Zuni Christian Mission School Board, the A:shiwi A:wan Business Development Corporation, and the Zuni Housing Appeals Board. She admits she is now “stretched thin” in her service commitments and may step down from one or two other positions.

The educational needs of the students in Zuni are Chavez’s top priority, she said. “We need to redirect our focus on the kids for their education,” she said. In addition, Chavez said she believes the school board needs to start working in collaboration, rather than in isolation, with the entire Zuni community: teachers, staff members, and parents.

Because of the recent troubles in the district, Chavez said the school board has one important task to deal with now.

“We need to regain the trust from the community,” she said. “That’s the first thing I think we need to work on,” she added.

Carmelita A. Sanchez

This will be Sanchez’s second time on the ZPSD school board. Sanchez, a retired registered nurse who had a long nursing and administrative career at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, said she served on the school board previously from 1997 to 2003. She subsequently served as lieutenant governor of the Zuni Tribe from 2003 to 2006.

One of Sanchez’s top goals is to make sure all the schools in Zuni have adequate books and educational resources for their students. She cited the example of teachers having to make copies of text book pages because they don’t have enough books for their students. She also believes the district lacks enough computers to meet student needs. “How can you teach without tools?” she said.

Sanchez would like to see more educational aide positions be restored to the Zuni schools. She believes classroom aides are crucial to student learning and have helped in the past with Zuni schools making Adequate Yearly Progress standards.

Sanchez said she would like to see “spirit de corps” develop in the district, with everyone working cooperatively and communicating well concerning planning for the district. She doesn’t believe that’s been the case recently.

“I think teachers are afraid to go to the district office because of the climate that has been created,” she said.

Sanchez also raised a concern that several community members have raised with the Independent in recent weeks. She cited the declining enrollment of ZPSD over the last few years as more and more parents have enrolled their children in schools in Ramah, Gallup, and BIA boarding schools. “We have too many of our kids out in different schools,” she said, adding that as the students leave Zuni, they also take away school funding.

Grants

Preliminary results in the two Cibola County elections indicate a strong win for the Grants gross receipts tax, the retention of two school members and a Laguna winner to take the third board seat.

Grants voters turned out in solid numbers for a local election; 521 people voted in this tax election, knocking the turnout of less than 200 for the previous attempt to add receipt a tax for city roads out of the water.

Voters passed the tax 392 to 211 according to unofficial results posted by the city.

In the school board race, the seat being vacated by board member Mark Thompson of District 1 will be filled by the race winner Jerald D. “Jerry” Smith of Laguna.

Smith took 128 votes of the 391 cast in district precincts, with Walter L. Meech of Cubero following with 109 votes. Meech carried the vote heavily in the Land Grants precincts of Cubero and Seboyeta, but had a poor showing in the remaining District 1 precincts.

Third place candidate Emily Cheromiah found her 101 votes distributed over the district, with the exception of Cubero and Seboyeta. She prevailed in the Laguna Tribal Building and Pagate precincts. There are 11 provisional votes yet to be counted.

Sharon Young won 53 votes.

Dion Sandoval of San Rafael carried District 2 by 120 votes out of 485 over his nearest challenger. Sandoval garnered 286 to Alex E. Griego’s 160. The remaining 39 votes went to Loraine Quintana, of Grants. There are no provisional votes in this district.

District 3 incumbent Earl Chavez holds onto his seat, defeating challenger Kyle Roundy by a margin small enough to surprise some. Out of 406 total votes in the district, Chavez took 217 to Roundy’s 189 for a victory by 28 votes. Four provisional votes remain to be counted.

Novice County Clerk Lisa Bro and her staff got a round of applause from election watchers and media representatives for their quick and clear handling of election results. The results were tabulated and printouts available by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The clerk and her staff came on the job only one month ago and said they had been working weekends to get the job learned and the election organized.

Provisional votes will be verified and counted at the school board election canvassing on Friday. Canvassing will also verify precinct, early and absentee votes, which have already been counted.

The canvassing will be held in the Grants/Cibola County School District’s superintendent’s office, at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6.