In case you aren’t aware, Tuesday is an election day. For Park Hill, there are two school board seats up for election. Incumbents are Kimberlee Ried and Kyla Yamada. Other include: Brandy Maltbia Woodley, Tammy Thompson, Alberto Rivera and Jay Blumenthal.
While six are listed, Rivera and Blumenthal were not part of the PTA forum, and do not have committees established for their campaigns.
We encourage you to read the entire post, but the summary is this – we encourage you to vote for Brandy Maltbia Woodley for the Park Hill School Board.
Candidates are listed in the order that they filed to run. Based on this, the ballot order is:
- Kyla Yamada
- Kimberlee Nicole Ried
- Tammy M. Thompson
- Alberto Rivera
- Brandy Maltbia Woodley
- Jay Blumenthal
Ried and Yamada are campaigning together as the incumbents. Of interest, neither of them have been involved in campaign before. Ried was appointed to fill a vacancy in April 2017. In April 2018, Ried and Yamada were the only two candidates that ran for two open seats, so the election was not part of the ballot.
The April election typically gets a low turnout, especially in this year of a three-year cycle. In the April 2018 election, only around 4,500 people from within the district voted. If you go back to the April 2015 election, only 4,200 people voted for school board election. As a comparison, in the last contested school board election in April 2019 there were around 8,000 voters.
With expected low turnout, it could be a close election. Back in the April 2015 election, the top candidate received 2,200 votes. Second place was 300 votes less than that, and third place was 300 votes from second. 200-300 votes can likely impact this election.
Bottom line – with expected low turnout, incumbents that haven’t been elected before and strong competition, if your looking for some change in the Park Hill School Board, this is a great opportunity. If Woodley gets more than 2,000 votes, her chances are good.
Here’s our thoughts on the election…
Regarding the last 12+ months, and the pandemic, we think everyone in the district has done a good job. They (and all of us) have been navigating new territory and learning as we go. We’re not recommending Maltbia Woodley based of Board and district response to the pandemic.
The current Board has been in place since April 2018. During that time, they have overseen a lot of change. Some of these include:
- Addition of two new elementary schools
- Addition of new middle achool
- Addition of new LEAD facility
- Redistricting
- Changes to start timea
- Extra capital to expand the LEAD facility
The next several years will face many new challenges, as budgets are expected to be tight, student growth is more uncertain than in the past and district demographics continue to change. Most recent budgets show that capital and operating fund balances will be near, or below district threshold levels through 2023-2024. Increased expenses from COVID and state budget challenges may make the future financials even more challenging.
We believe that it is time for some fresh perspectives on the seven-person board. We would encourage everyone to vote for Brandy Maltbia Woodley for the Park Hill School Board. She has a wealth of deep experience, children in the district and a focus on many very critical issues for our students.
Ried and Yamada are running together as incumbents. If re-elected, that would be four years with no change. We don’t have anything against either of them specifically. It is annoying when incumbents run together. By running together, they’re promoting and encouraging the status quo. If you have had frustrations on parent engagement, community communication, decisions on new buildings or where your kids go to school – voting for the status quo makes it more unlikely to expect progress. On a seven person school board change in thought, perspectives and leadership is necessary to meet the needs of students and the community. Please do not vote to support the status quo.
One last thing. All voters are allowed to cast votes for two candidates. You don’t have to do this. We don’t recommend that you do this. We recommend you vote for one candidate. We recommend you cast that vote for Brandy Maltbia Woodley (next to last on the candidate list) and vote for change on the Park Hill School Board.