2015 School Elections

Santa Fe Community College

The Job:

The college’s governing board is comprised of five members elected at large to serve six-year terms for no compensation.

What's at stake? SFCC has been through a rough patch with its finances lately. Like every other institution battling the bottom line, those challenges aren't likely to ease up. But the school plays an essential role in boosting economic development and job opportunities for young students and for those in need of reinvention. We want to see it succeed.

Our Pick: When Xubi Wilson talks about the strides that the community college has taken and about what the school needs to do going forward, his enthusiasm is palpable. It's not that Jack Sullivan, a civil engineer who did his homework for two terms as a Santa Fe County commissioner, would do a bad job as the board member. Yet his biggest gripe with Wilson is that as a school employee, Wilson would have an inherent conflict of interest in many board matters. That's the reason we favor the cowboy-hat-wearing teacher and renewable energy program manager—because his interest in the job is born of his daily experience working at the college, his interactions with students and his service on the board's appointed finance review committee. Sullivan admittedly sought this race after a bitter taste from a failed state Senate attempt. Wilson says he didn't really have his heart set on the job, yet he's willing to do it because he thinks he can help. We do too.

Santa Fe Public Schools - District 2

The Job:

Members of the Santa Fe Public Schools Board serve four-year terms on the five-member body, earning no salary. They’re elected from geographic districts. While seats in three districts are up for grabs, two of those candidates are current board members who are not facing opposition. Voters in school District 2 (including areas south of I-25 and those east of the city limits) will choose between two parents for the seat being vacated by Glenn Wikle.

Our Pick: Maureen Cashmon is a district insider in the best of ways. Her twin daughters are juniors at Santa Fe High, she's been a substitute teacher in the district since they were in elementary school, she's served on the Citizens Review Committee and she's raised hell about a dangerous athletic facility. Like in the community college race, the other contender, Peter Mitchell, seems to be an acceptable fit for the board, and we don't doubt his experience with business would be an asset. But when the district is facing the hemorrhage of passionate teachers who feel beaten down by bureaucracy and upon whose backs the system is built, we think a teacher's heart is what's needed.

RUN OF THE MILL >> VOTE YES

All voters in the election will see a mill levy question on the ballot. We say approving this plan with a YES is the right way to go. Schools would get an estimated $8.8 million in property tax revenue to be used for building maintenance, and taxes aren't projected to change because another levy is retiring at the same time this one would renew.

VOTING continues weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm through Friday, Jan. 30, at Santa Fe Community College Room 209 (6401 Richards Ave.) and Santa Fe Public Schools Educational Services Center Conference Room A (610 Alta Vista St.). Election Day is Feb. 3.

Santa Fe Reporter