Kids Voting Mesa County - Grand Junction High School

“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 Students Becoming an “Informed” Voter Casting your Vote Becoming an Active Citizen in your Community

What's on your student ballot??? School Board Candidates District C District D District E

How will YOU become an INFORMED voter???

Let’s start at the beginning… o o o o

Colorado has 178 separate school districts You are in Mesa County Valley School District #51 A group of people called a School Board run the district School board members are elected by the registered voters who live within the school district o Registered voters can vote in each board district race o 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??? o Board members serve for “4” years o Board members can serve “2” terms in a row

Are “5” board members elected at the same time? o No! 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??? o Hold public meetings o Create school district rules (policies) o Decide how money will be spent on schools o Decide what educational programs are used o Decide what books and computers are used o Decide which videos are acceptable for students to see

What else do board members decide? o Student dress, conduct, and discipline o The school district calendar (s) o School lunches o Graduation requirements o School attendance rules o Who is hired? Superintendent, principals, teachers, and other staff o Pay and benefits for superintendent, principals, teachers, and staff o So 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 HS oFruita Monument HS oGrand Junction HS oPalisade 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 Mikolai John Sluder

Here’s the plan… • Listen to the “2” candidates from District “C” o Pause the video o Conduct straw poll #2 for these candidates o Record the results • Listen to candidates from District “D” o Conduct straw poll #2 o 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 your online voting!

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