“Are you an Informed Voter?”

D#51 School Board Candidate Video Interviews

Kids Voting Mesa County“Nonpartisan” Youth Civics Education

Working with Students since 1996

Goals for StudentsBecoming an “Informed” Voter

Casting your VoteBecoming an Active Citizen in your Community

What's on your student ballot???

School Board CandidatesDistrict CDistrict DDistrict E

How will YOU become an INFORMED voter???

Let’s start at the beginning…

o Colorado has 178 separate school districtso You are in Mesa County Valley School District #51 o A group of people called a School Board run the

districto School board members are elected by the

registered voters who live within the school districto Registered voters can vote in each board district

raceo Your district has “5” board members

YOU can vote when you are 18 years old! You can register to vote up to and on Election Day, November 5th.

If elected, how long do board members serve???

oBoard members serve for “4” yearsoBoard members can serve “2” terms in a

row

Are “5” board members elected at the same time?

oNo! Only part of your board is elected every 2 years!

o In 2013, “3” board members will be elected!

What do school board members do???

oHold public meetingsoCreate school district rules (policies)oDecide how money will be spent on schoolsoDecide what educational programs are used oDecide what books and computers are used oDecide which videos are acceptable for

students to see

What else do board members

decide?

oStudent dress, conduct, and discipline o The school district calendar (s)oSchool lunchesoGraduation requirementsoSchool attendance rulesoWho is hired? Superintendent,

principals, teachers, and other staffoPay and benefits for superintendent,

principals, teachers, and staffoSo much more!!!

Let’s get back to your election

this year…• Your school district is divided into “5”

areas: Districts A, B, C, D, & E• Each district has one school board

member• You get to vote for candidates in “3”

different districts.• These races are for the following

districts:• District C• District D• District E

• Adult registered voters will be doing this as well.

Let’s get more “informed”…

• PAUSE the power point on this slide!• Share: “Candidate Background Information”

o (either as a handout or from your computer)

• Look over the background information for candidates in District C only.

• Hold a straw poll. Have students vote for a candidate based only on their background information. Tally the vote and save it!

• Now follow this same process for the next two races… District D and District E.

• Ask students how informed they are feeling now? (Not informed, somewhat informed, very informed)

So you’re starting to become informed!!!

GREAT!!!

Student leaders from the following high schools have interviewed the candidates:

oCentral HSoFruita Monument HSoGrand Junction HSoPalisade HS

 The same questions were asked of every

candidate!

Questions for Candidates

o What do you think are the weaknesses of District #51?

o What are your feelings about student testing?

o If School District 51 were to get more money, how would you use it?

o Why would you be a good school board member?

Let’s meet the candidates now!

You can vote for one candidate in each district!

DISTRICT “C” Pat Kanda

Lonnie White*** John Williams

 ***Lonnie White chose not to participate in the Kids Voting interviews or provide background

information.

Teachers, pause the power point here and show the District C portion of the Kids Voting video!

Here are the next candidates!

DISTRICT “D”Mike Lowenstein

Tom Parrish 

Here are the final candidates!

DISTRICT “E”Greg MikolaiJohn Sluder

Here’s the plan…• Listen to the “2” candidates from District “C”

o Pause the videoo Conduct straw poll #2 for these candidates o Record the results

• Listen to candidates from District “D”o Conduct straw poll #2o Record the results.

• Then do the same for District “E”

• SHOW the video now: Include the link here!

• After these 3 straw polls, view the final 2 slides!

Compare the results on the “two” straw polls for each

district!

• Did seeing the video interviews change any of your votes for District C, District D, and District E candidates???

• If you wanted to be an even more “informed” voter, what would you ask the candidates before voting???

• How important is being an “informed” voter?

Kids Voting Mesa County looks forward to seeing the results of

youronline voting!

Student voting will occur between Oct. 21st and November 5th, ELECTION DAY!