Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum

Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum Subhead Candidates discuss district’s budget, future Nathan Diebenow Wed, 04/17/2024 - 05:37 Image

• The six Clifton school board candidates took the stage at the Performing Arts Center to field questions at a candidate forum on Wednesday, April 17. The candidates are (from left) Jose Ritz, Steve Conrad, Matt Domel, Taylor McCain, Nick Brown, and Sean Marmolejo. Nathan Diebenow | The Clifton Record
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum
• Clifton’s six school board candidates state positions at forum

Body

The six candidates running for the two open seats on the Clifton Independent School District’s Board of Education stated their positions at a candidate forum on Wednesday, April 10.

The candidates – Nick Brown, Steve Conrad, Matt Domel (incumbent), Sean Marmolejo, Dr. Taylor McCain, and Jose Ritz – appeared on stage at the Performing Arts Center.

Roughly 20 people in the audience at the PAC and 79 folks watching via the two live streams through CISD’s social media channels heard the candidates speak on their motivation for running, their thoughts on CISD’s current challenges, their objectives while on the board, and the relationships between the board members, administration, and the public.

The questions asked during the forum were culled from a larger list of suggestions gathered from 20 current CISD staff members –teachers and non-teachers– as well as from questions used in previous CISD forums.

The staff submitted questions in a confidential manner; the questions submitted the most times were included in the forum moderated by CISD Supt. Andy Ball.

Supt. Ball stated that the question with the most submissions was “What do you feel are the current challenges and needs facing Clifton ISD?”

The candidates also fielded a question concerning a recent local district policy change regarding the removal of gendered language related to Title IX referencing discrimination and harassment based on sex.

Each candidate took a different approach to answering the question, “What is your position on keeping gender ideology out of the district?” However, no definition of “gender ideology” was offered during the forum.

For clarity and brevity, The Clifton Record edited and formatted the candidates’ answers expressed at the forum in the section below.

After the forum, the Record asked the candidates an extra question via email: “What are your thoughts on the current state of public-school finance in Texas?” The answer to this question is included in their statements as follows.

Nick Brown

Age: 38 Occupation: Vice president of project operations.

Residence in district: 2 years, 11 months.

Background: I’m not originally from Clifton, but we got here as soon as we could. My wife and I are Aggies. We have four children aged 10, seven, six, and four. Three of the four are currently enrolled at Clifton ISD. After graduating Texas A&M with an engineering degree, I’ve navigated a four-year career in the oil field. I’ve learned to work through dynamic situations in teams. I’m now vice president of project operations in charge of a $40 million budget and 250- plus people. I feel that expertise will help bring a financial perspective ensuring the board can solidify financial security for our district.

Motivation to run: What motivates me to serve on the Clifton school board is truly an answer to a call of obedience to serve our community, serve our educators, serve our children, and challenge the education system we have in place so that we can elevate our students to become contributing citizens of our society.

District’s challenges: There are a couple of main challenges that need to be addressed. The two biggest ones are challenging and elevating our educational bar to produce better test results which will in turn produce better students prepared for life after school. The second most important concern is the financial security of our district. Just like a business, it takes money to keep it moving. You got to have the funds secured today and tomorrow to pay the educators and provide for the resources for the students to produce better test results.

Removing gendered language: I want to first start out and say that I commend our current board for the pro-active leadership on this specific issue. I think that’s the kind of practical leadership we’re going to need, and as time goes on, these kinds of issues will continue to pop up. I agree with the decision that was made. Our school system is a place for learning, for growing, for playing sports, having fun, and making friends. Added distractions to confuse people will be things we will have to deal with. This should not affect our overall children’s experiences.

Public school finance: School finance across the state is shaky at best at the moment. State funding is being retooled and inflationary effects are at their height. All districts are likely to be impacted, adopting deficit budgets requiring program cuts and staff decreases. Smaller districts with lower yields of resources will need a strong financial understanding of their outlook with a strong team in place to develop a budget to withstand our current financial environment. It’s going to require difficult conversations, sacrifice, and some district flexibility to maintain and grow our district. Not impossible, but certainly a challenge.

Steve Conrad Age: 66 Occupation: Ag business.

Residence in district: 3 years.

Background & Motivation to run: I graduated from Clifton High School in 1976. I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1980 with a degree in agriculture education. For the last 44 years, I’ve run a farm supply business, much like ours here in Clifton. That requires a big picture look every day. With any business, you take care of finances, human resources, marketing and sales, customer conflicts, setting policy. That sounds a lot like a school board. I think I can be an asset.

District’s challenges: Not being on the board up to this point, I don’t know all the specific challenges, and that’s the part I will learn. But one component of a strong school system is financial strength. We must have outstanding administrators and teachers who hold students accountable. We must maintain strong discipline in order for our programs to work. There needs to be a sense of pride in our community. Most of all our school needs to mean something to every student and every person in our community here in Clifton.

Removing gendered language: This issue was dealt with back in February by our current board. Being a conservative, I think they made the right decision. In moving forward, I think we have a number of things within our district that we can make better and focus on like academics, athletics, band, test scores. I would love to see us generate the kind of community support with those things. To me those are the important things that our school district should focus on.

Public school finance: State funding is critical to all Texas school districts, particularly smaller rural towns. It’s uncertain what our current state legislature will do with future funding. The use of school vouchers to enable funds to follow students who transfer to other school options will weaken our local districts financially. Local districts have invested millions of dollars in the infrastructure to serve and educate students. Local districts like Clifton should focus on building the very best educational unit possible. Hopefully, students and their parents will want to stay in Clifton.

Matt Domel

Age: 39 Occupation : Agriculture.

Residence in district: 16 years.

Background: I lived in Bosque County my entire life. I graduated from Meridian High School. I went to Texas A&M University. I married a Clifton girl. We’re raising two children in the district. I’ve been operating an agriculture business in the county since leaving A&M.

Motivation to run: Student safety, education, and opportunities for all has motivated me to rerun for the Clifton school board. Being on the board these three years has given me insight on how the board operates and what needs the district currently faces. Being updated on the policies and challenges will help the board continue to move forward.

District’s challenges: I feel like the current challenges and needs facing Clifton ISD are recruiting and retaining educators, working with a deficit budget, assessing potential growth for the district, and meeting the needs of increasing number of students in our special education programs.

Removing gendered language: On September 18, 2023, we the school board passed a local policy stating that each multi-occupancy bathroom or changing facility owned and operated by the district shall be designated for use only by a person based on a person’s biological sex. Girls in the girl’s restroom. Boys in the boy’s restroom. Unfortunately, as board members, there will be times we have to make tough decisions. You have to be willing to stick your neck out for what you believe in and make decisions. You can’t make decisions worrying about someone else’s view towards you. You must stick to your core values.

Public school finance: With schools losing ESSR funding, most districts will struggle balancing the budget for the upcoming school year. School districts will have to consider making cuts and tightening their spending. Our board will have to work together to find the best strategy to balance the budget and retrain staff.

Sean Marmolejo Age: 32 Occupation: Clinical social worker Residence in district: 6 years.

Background: My wife and I grew up and graduated from China Spring in 2009 and 2010. We have two daughters ages 5 and 1. My bachelor’s degree is in Marriage and Family Studies from Abilene Christian University. My master’s degree in Social Work is from Baylor University. I’m a licensed clinical social worker working daily for the Department of Veteran Affairs. While in that role, I advocate for people’s rights and needs, making sure the clients within the VA system can navigate it in a proper fashion.

District’s challenges: The budget. We’re losing ESSR funds so we will be potentially working at a $970,000 budget deficit. Those staff hired with ESSR dollars might not have jobs or will have to be reassigned. Without those people, the students lose help with testing because the testing is not easy. It’s really going to take a collaborative effort to figure out how our district maintains continued score increases. The last thing I see as a challenge overall is communication – having an adequate ear to make sure that people are heard.

Removing gendered language: This is supposed to be a school for everyone. Simple as that. These topics have zero place inside our board. If we’re really talking about preparing the next generation, are we not ready to prepare them to love one another and to really support one another? Life is hard enough. We don’t need to make it harder for any of the other children within the district. When it comes to accepting every student who is going to walk through the door, the teachers don’t have the option to discriminate against any children, and I challenge you to do the same.

Public school finance: The state of Texas public school finances is embarrassing. We have a state that is refusing to provide necessary funding for our schools to meet their financial needs. If you look at the numbers, Texas has not raised the per child basic allotment since 2019. The governors goal for a voucher system has held these funds from the districts across the state. Texas is one of the lowest spending states when it comes to education (42/50 per student spending). Until the state starts to take action, this will worsen as inflation and politics continue to affect our public school system.

Taylor McCain Age: 34 Occupation : Physician.

Residence in district: 2 years, 5 months.

Background: I’m a family medicine physician at Goodall-Witcher Healthcare. My boys are in fourth grade and Kindergarten in Clifton ISD. I was also raised by educators. My mother was a Texas high school teacher for 28 years and then a college teacher. I feel like that has given me a unique viewpoint on how to interact with educators and people that run our districts. I’m looking forward to bringing that perspective to our board.

Motivation to run: I’m excited to be asking for your vote to help develop our school district and get it to its peak performance. I’m invested in the youth of our community because I’m helping to take care of them on a day-today basis and helping to deliver our next generation.

District’s challenges: I feel our district has several major challenges facing coming in this next fiscal year. The biggest that has been on everybody’s mind recently is our potential budget deficit with the loss of ESSR funding from COVID times. We need to do a better job of recruiting outstanding educators and keeping them in our district. We need to focus on our education and improving our school scores. And I believe that there’s been some political division in our community that we can work on team building and bringing our community together for the betterment of our schools.

Removing gendered language: I don’t believe gender has any place in our students’ education. I believe we should respect the diversity of our student body and their families, and work to provide a safe and healthy educational environment for all our students. Those diverse backgrounds are one of the strengths of our district, if we let it.

Public school finance: N/A

Jose Ritz Age: 41 Occupation: Retail manager.

Residence in district: 18 years.

Background: I’m a 2001 graduate from Clifton High School. My wife is a 2002 graduate from Clifton High School. She’s a teacher here at CISD. We have three kids. Kennedy is a junior. Jackson is a freshman. Carter is in the 7th grade.

Motivation to run: What motivates me is that I want to be a part of building a good culture in the Clifton school system. I know it takes people from all walks of life to help with decision making. In my 20 years of retail leadership working with Brookshire Grocery Company, I’ve had a lot of tough choices that affected people.

District’s challenges: Pretty much any school board will tell you the same thing: We need to hire better teachers. We need to keep teachers. We’ve got to find the budget. Something I’m going to push with the school board and the administration is the culture. It’s easier to make things work when you get people to buy in. Having that culture built in so that everybody buys in will help out with a lot of the issues every school board has.

Removing gendered language: When I hear about people coming through Clifton say they fell in love with this place, there’s a reason for that. Culture is our biggest thing, so when we talk about gender ideology, it can turn into a very broad subject. To me, making decisions like I do at work, I go back to the basics, so the simpler we can make things, the easier it will be to administrate things.

Public school finance: I believe the majority of school districts in the state of Texas will be in the same predicament. Now that Covid money is coming to an end many jobs that were being funded with the COVID money are in jeopardy. It will be imperative that school districts become very clever when making decisions when it comes to staffing and where cuts will need to be made. Operating in a deficit budget in my opinion is not ideal. This will only lead to future financial struggles.