Weld Re-8 school board race heating up

    FORT LUPTON – Two candidates. Two distinctly different backgrounds, but sharing a single unifying desire: to help the kids in Weld School District Re-8 move through the next four years.
    Competing in the runoff for the director of District B to replace term limited Jeff Allen, Carol McDermott and Bushrod White are the only race to watch in the November election for the Weld Re-8 School board, with the other open spot on the board possessed of a sole candidate.
    Carol McDermott is a familiar face around town and in the medical offices of her husband, Dr. Martin McDermott, where she handles office duties
    “I have been on the district accountability team for the past two years, and prior to that it had been a few years, but my husband and I had both served on the strategic planning committee for the district when we first moved to town,” McDermott said when asked about her qualifications.
    “The committee essentially oversees and looks over curriculum that is being proposed,” McDermott added. “We look at the standards the state has set and try to make sure that the school is doing everything they can to meet those,” McDermott said. “We do on-site visits. Each member of the committee is assigned to a school, and it is our duty at some point during the school year to make contact with that school and visit with them, see how things are going and note their concerns, weaknesses and how we can help. We work together as a team, and then we come back to our group meeting and report what we learned to get feedback to the administrators.”
    That experience, coupled with a desire to promote education in the district led McDermott to seek a spot on the board.
    “I have really enjoyed my involvement on the team, and when I was approached to see if I would consider running for the school board, I really had to think about it hard because of my schedule outside of work,” McDermott said. “I decided, with the support of my husband, that this was something I’d really like to do.”
    For McDermott, diversity is both the district’s biggest strength, and greatest challenge.
    “I think a school board member, in a community as diverse as we have, has to be not only aware of that, but also appreciate the diversity,” McDermott said. “In addition to being appreciative, you have to recognize the challenges that that brings. I know every school pretty much has diversity, and Fort Lupton is no different than that, but the appreciation enriches the education experience, both educationally and socially, that our students receive.”
    McDermott plans to involve all aspects of the community to further the district’s effectiveness.
    “I feel that a good education is not just the job of the school system. It’s a collaborative effort by parents, teachers, coaches, churches, church youth group leaders and community members who all need to work together to encourage and support, then reward high achievement.”
    McDermott’s opponent, Bushrod White, or Bush as he is known around the city, is an educator’s educator, with a resume in the field reflective of a lifetime spent in academia.
    Currently serving as director of Graduate Education Programs for Colorado Christian University, White also directs the special education program for the institution. His background includes stints as an art and history teacher for 15 years, a school administrator in eastern Colorado for five years, in Meeker, Co. for three years and Fort Lupton for three years before moving to the Colorado Department of Education.
    “I did education policy for about five years,” White said. “I wrote and designed the data collection system for highly qualifies teachers, which is a federal definition of a highly qualified teacher based on teacher preparation and content knowledge.”
    White also did consulting work with the Street School Network, a faith-based organization working with alternative high school students.
    “I always tell people, education is like smoking, it’s easy to quit, but not stay quit,” White laughed. “One of the things about CCU that I really like is I still supervise student teachers, even though I have a pretty heavy administrative and course development load to be in classrooms and work with kids, because teaching is my passion and has been for 37 years.”
    A veteran of the last two mill levy pushes, White hopes to bring his expertise in education policy to bear on board duties, balanced with a clear overall understanding on the education system on many levels.
    “I feel that I have a good, strong background for being on the school board primarily because I have a policy background along with an administrative and teaching background,” White said. “Also, my grandkids are probably going to start going to school there and I am really interested in the local school district.”
    “I see myself as providing a level of expertise that a lot of the board members may not have, where they would have the expertise of the local school and how that looks,” White added.  “I am not there to be a Moses and lead them out of the darkness, but be an active participant and help them with what they are working on.”

Contact Gene Sears at 303-659-2522, ext. 217 or gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com.