The Bayfield School Board has three of its seven seats up for election on Nov. 3. Four candidates have filed election petitions; two are incumbents, Carol Blatnick and Janie Hoover, and two are school district volunteers, Mike Foutz and Debbie Wilhelm.

The three candidates with the most votes will earn seats on the board.

Carol Blatnick

Blatnick is one of two educators currently on the board, along with Daniele Hillyer. Blatnick has been on the board for two years after being appointed to fill the remainder of a four-year term. She is the director of Bayfield Early Education Program, a position she has held for 13 years. She taught family and consumer sciences for 22 years at Bayfield High School and four years at Durango High School. She’s lived in the Bayfield School District for 23 years and served for eight years on the Bayfield Town Board. Three children and one granddaughter are BHS graduates. She serves on the Career and Technical Education Advisory Board, the Early Childhood Council of La Plata County and the early childhood regional council.

Blatnick said it’s a steep learning curve when members first come onto the board, so she is ready to continue what she’s learned in the past two years.

“I want to work toward making our schools even better – provide opportunities for students and support for teachers and administrators.”

One of those goals is to build a new primary school.

“We’ve been there,” she said of running BEEP in the old primary school on South Street, where kindergarten and first grade classes are now. While the district has done a good job of keeping the building up, it’s time for a new facility, she said.

She also wants to support teachers and administrators in communicating with parents. The new electronic signs at all the schools and school and class newsletters are helping in that effort.

When issues arise, Blatnick said she’s had experience as a teacher, administrator and parent and works to resolve the issue. She also has what she calls a “good history” of what’s happened in the past in Bayfield schools.

“I have a better perception of what the possibilities are,” she said. “I’m good at seeing the whole picture.”

Another aspect of teaching she wants to focus on is simple – having fun.

“You have to enjoy teaching,” she said. “It can’t just be all testing.”

Mike Foutz

Foutz was born in Durango and raised in Oxford. He’s vice-president of commercial buildings for FCI Constructors, which was the contractor for the Ignacio High School renovation.

He’s lived in the Bayfield district for 11 years and has a one child at BHS and one at BMS. His eldest daughter lives in Ohio.

He’s been a member of the District Advisory and Accountability Committee for two years and the district’s competency-based learning committee. He has also volunteered for the committee looking at a new primary school in Bayfield. He’s also been a youth wrestling coach.

“Our kids are our future, and they need decent educations,” he said of his decision to run for the board. “I think we have a great school district actually. The community is involved and cares.”

Foutz said state funding is one of the biggest challenges facing the district.

“I wish every parent in this district could go to Denver and talk to the legislature,” he said. Other issues the district faces include teacher accountability, and concerns that “we’re throwing so much at teachers, they can get overwhelmed. It’s challenging.”

He thinks the district needs a new primary school, but has concerns about taking another mill levy request to voters.

“It’s a lot of money,” he said.

Foutz said with his farming background and engineering degrees, he would bring a “unique perspective” to the board.

“I work hard and try to see both sides of issues,” he said. “I’m pretty level headed, and I’m a good listener and good decision maker.”

Foutz said it’s hard for the district to meet state testing mandates, and added he thinks the schools need to focus on teaching all students, including those with different aptitudes and abilities.

Janie Hoover

Hoover is an insurance agent and owner of Bayfield Insurance. She’s served on the school board for four years and has lived in the district for 24 years. She was a substitute teacher in the district and has volunteered for the Bayfield Association for the Advancement of Music and Bayfield Parks and Recreation, among other groups.

Hoover has two children who graduated from BHS, and two middle school students who attended Escalante Middle School in Durango. One transferred back to BMS after a year and another is coming back shortly. Her two younger children have dyslexia, and when they were entering sixth grade, Hoover said the school in Durango provided more intervention work for these students. Bayfield has started providing more special education services to its students instead of providing transportation for them to attend Durango schools.

This, along with peer-to-peer tutoring now offered at BMS, has resulted in a better fit for her kids, and she’s glad they’re back in the district.

Her experience was one of the reasons she ran for the school board. She’s glad more students with different needs are being educated in Bayfield.

“I want us to keep that momentum,” she said. She believes a lot of students in the district fall into a “gray area,” where they don’t require full-blown special education instruction, but they have different learning abilities that need to be accomodated.

“I want to make sure we’re offering an appropriate education for all of our kids,” she said. That includes workforce preparation, life skills, and college preparedness.

The biggest challenge the district faces is funding, funding, funding, Hoover said.

“We’re down $1.6 million from where we were just a couple of years ago,” she said. “It makes it hard as a small district, to have the programs and activities we do.”

It’s hard to have well-qualified teachers and high standards for students without funding to pay for their education and programs, she added.

Hoover said as a parent of four, she knows lots of parents and tries to listen to community concerns and bring those back to her fellow board members.

Debbie Wilhelm

Wilhelm is the information technology manager for Basin Co-op in Durango. She has lived in the Bayfield district for most of her life, except for stints in Ignacio and Durango.

She is the chair of the District Advisory and Accountability Committee, has served on the BES School Advisory and Accountability Committee, and also was a president of the BES Parent Teacher Student Association, a Girl Scout leader, and volunteer coach for Bayfield Parks and Recreation. She has two children attending sixth and eighth grade at BMS.

“I’m invested in my community and my kids,” she said of her decision to run for the board. “I like the direction it’s going and want to continue being a part of it. Serving on the board seemed like the next step.”

She sees student body growth as both an opportunity for the district and its biggest challenge.

“Space and overcrowding are issues,” she said. “We need to get out of BEPS,” the old primary school building downtown. “We will be overcrowded at the pace we’re continuing to grow.”

Wilhelm says her knowledge of the community will be her biggest asset as a board member.

“I know lots of kids, I know lots of teachers and parents in the school district,” she said. “I’m kind of a voice for everybody.”

Even with her experience on school committees, Wilhelm said she knows she’ll face a learning curve if elected to the board.

“I know it’s a different aspect of running the district, rather than just being in the schools.”

While there is always room for improvement, Wilhelm said she believes the district will continue to grow and improve, and she wants to see the schools continue moving forward.