NHS hosts candidate forum

RANGELY I Rangely voters will have an opportunity to meet and speak with the five candidates running for three seats on the Rangely Board of Education during a “Meet the School Board Candidates Night” on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Members of the Rangely Junior/Senior High School National Honor Society will emcee the event, sponsored by the Rangely Colorado Educators Association, starting at 7:15 p.m. in the school auditorium.
Current members of the Rangely school board are president Adair Norman, vice president Donna Petersburg, secretary Lisa Piering, Rebecca Rector and Kurt Douglas. Petersburg and Piering have both served two, four-year teams and neither will run again because of term limits. Douglas was appointed to the board earlier in the year when board member Matt Scoggins resigned. Douglas is one of the five candidates.
He will be joined on the ballot by Victoria Berardi, James Day, Jennifer Hill and Leslie Nielsen. Candidates have been given five questions to prepare responses to: 1. Why do you want to be on the school board? 2. What is the value of public education? 3. Are you able to work as a member of a team where each individual has no expressed power but the collective group has significant influence?
Candidates will be given three minutes to answer each question. A reception in the commons area will follow.
The candidates provided the following info. for introductions:
Kurt Douglas, the only incumbent, has spent 32 years as a high school vocational business teacher, coach and athletic director in public education, of which the last 13 years were in Rangely. He has lived in Rangely since 1994 with his wife and three daughters, all of whom were graduated from Rangely High School. Since retiring four years ago, he has remained active in the school system by substitute teaching in the elementary and high schools.
Victoria Berardi is a full-time faculty member at CNCC. She has taught English, literature, composition, technical writing and speech at the two-year college level for 26 years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Ladycliff College, N.Y., and a master’s degree in English from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Berardi has lived in Rangely for five years, is a single mother who enjoys being a mom, skiing, riding her registered Paint horse, is a Christian and an active member of Rangely Christian Church. She has three children: a son in Lamar, Colo., a daughter and son-in-law and four grandchildren in Ontario, Canada, and her youngest child, James, is a junior at RHS. Berardi currently serves on the Assessment Committee and Accreditation Committee at CNCC and on the Giant Step Board. She has been a past faculty senate president and Phi Theta Kappa honor society advisor.
James Day was born and raised in Pueblo Colo., and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Colorado and a master’s degree from New Mexico State University. He has worked in public education for more than 40 years. During this time, he has served as custodian, bus driver, teacher, coach, computer director, principal and superintendent.
Jennifer Hill was graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in agricultural education and business and then moved to Rangely with her husband, Logan Hill. She taught in the district for two years but left to become a stay-at-home mom. In the meantime, Hill has been substitute teaching throughout the district, gaining a perspective on how all of the schools run.
Leslie Nielsen has been in Rangely for almost five years. She has a son in Parkview Elementary, a daughter in Rangely Junior/Senior High School and twin sophomore sons who chose to be homeschooled this year. She is the cub master for Packs 189/191 for the Cub Scouts of America. Nielsen has volunteered hundreds of hours to her church and hundreds of hours at both schools checking papers, collecting and counting box tops and soup labels, helping with the sports programs and the class plays.