School Board election—May 8, 2012—THIS TUESDAY

If you live in the Red Clay or the Christina School District, then there is an election this Tuesday. PLEASE VOTE! This may not be a surprise to you, as many district voters are receiving a slew of flyers in their mailboxes, and robocalls and fake phone surveys. I hung up on one of the phone surveys when it was crystal clear that it wasn’t a survey, but rather a lame attempt to mislead me about school district issues. I am others are upset about out-of-state money being poured into this race, to support candidates with minimal ties to the district and its students. Christina—I live in Christina School District. I favor Shirley Sutton Saffer (my slogan, which the campaign rejected for some reason, is “Christina is Saffer with Shirley”). Her campaign website is at http://shirleysaffer4christina.blogspot.com/. She has spent 16 years volunteering in the public schools where her kids went, and has been on the board for almost 5 years. She came to the district during the time that the district had to clean up the financial mess left by Superintendent Joe Wise. Read about her—she is impressive. My son graduated from Newark High School a few years ago. I do not stay as connected to the district as many others. In this situation, I strive to find those who do follow the issues closely. No one follows them closer than John Young, who serves on the school board with Shirley (remember, “Christina is Saffer with Shirley”). John is so dedicated to having the district be open in all its actions that he founded a blog devoted to the school district and related issues: transparentchristina.wordpress.com/ Red Clay—I favor Kenny Rivera in this race (sorry—no catchy slogan here). He is the 2011 School Teacher of the Year, and loved by his Brandywine High School students. He has a five-point plan to improve our schools. He is endorsed by the Red Clay Education Association (and its 1000 district teachers). See his webpage at http://home.comcast.net/~kennyrivera/site/ As with Christina, since I do not stay up on the Red Clay School District, I turn to those who do. There are two local internet folks—Mike Matthews (a past blogger and fifth grade teacher) and Steve Newton (see http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2012/05/10-things-i-have-learned-from-this.html for his highlights on this year’s school district races). Mike Matthews enthusiastically supports Kenny Rivera, and Steve Newton feels that Red Clay will be well server regardless of which candidate is elected. DelawareLiberal just posted an article on this election cycle—read it at http://www.delawareliberal.net/2012/05/06/delaware-blogosphere-school-board-edition/ I end this post with a hat-tip to Kilroy, who runs THE education blog, at http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/. If you want to hear unvarnished opinions, primarily on Delaware education matters, Kilroy’s is your place. PLEASE VOTE ON TUESDAY!!!