Two candidates for Summit County school board are outraising and outspending their competitors by thousands of dollars.
The only returning candidate, Jenniffer Gonzalez, a county employee from Dillon, has raised $3449 and spent about one-third of it, according to state records from Oct. 27. Most of her campaign cash comes from individual donors, including one gift of $1000.
Onetime Breckenridge mayoral candidate, Tom Day, a real estate agent, was given $1500 by the Summit County Republican Central Committee and spent nearly all of it.
Kim Dyer, a retired counselor, and Whitney Horner, a county public health nurse, have raised about $500 each and spent hardly any of it. Most of their money came from the Public Education Committee, a fundraising branch of the Colorado Education Association, the state teachers’ union. Dyer and Horner are the only two candidates endorsed by the local teachers’ union, the Summit County Education Association.
The fifth candidate, healthcare lobbyist Jackie Zheleznyak, claims no fundraising.
These five candidates are running for three empty seats.
Quiet(er) race
The money – and tenor – of this year’s school board race is quieter than in 2023, when eight candidates ran to fill four seats and national topics colored local campaigns.
That year, candidates raised a total of $60,898 and spent nearly $54,000. This year’s candidates have spent just $2,143.
In 2023 candidates were brazenly outspoken about curriculum and hot-button national issues, like the district’s then-new LGBTQ+ resolution, protecting gay and queer literature, and taking steps to provide facilities like gender-neutral bathrooms.
Equality is not top of mind this year. Of the candidates we’ve interviewed, three of them – Dyer, Horner and Zheleznyak – believe the district is heading in the right direction. They want to build off recent successes, like improved test scores and the district’s renewed state accreditation.
One candidate, Day, tells the Summit Daily the district has been falling apart academically for more than 20 years, saying, “I know how good our schools can be, and I am committed getting their state rating back to past high levels.” Day has not responded to interview requests from Krystal 93.