001We ready? >> Good to go. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you guys. >> All right. Good evening. Welcome to the 2025 school board candidate forum. With me this evening is our moderators, three members of our high school student council, Joseph Gamas III, Mary Bella Salazar, and Isabella Ortiz. They will be asking the questions this evening. Joseph Gam thei third has participated student council and positive impact for four years. He's a multi-awwardwinning and qualifying wrestler for Lana High School and the Colorado National Wrestling Team. After graduation, he plans to continue his wrestling career at a D1 or D2 college where he will major in nursing or business. The ultimate dream is to be a UFC fighter. Marbella Salazar has participated in student council, high teens, and positive impact for four years. She is currently serving
002as class president and is currently the dance cheer team captain for Lana cheer squad. She is currently enlisted in the United States Army where over the summer she completed basic training in South Carolina. After graduation, she will leave for Virginia where she plans to begin her training to become a warrant officer and study cyber security. And Isabella Ortiz has participated in student council, high teens, and positive impact for four years. She currently serves as an officer for student council, FBLA, and NHS, and a senior class. She's a multi-awwardwinning and qualifying wrestler for Lana High School and the Caro National Wrestling Team. She was our only 2025 FPLA national qualifier, placing fifth at the state and earning a trip to California. After graduation, she plans to continue her wrestling career while pursuing her higher education in
003criminal justice and pre-law. Thank you guys for joining us tonight. Um, tonight we will ask each candidate six questions. We ask that you keep your answers to three minutes. I will be your timekeeper and we'll give you a one minute warning and a 30 second warning signal to wrap up your answers. Our candidates this evening are Greg Klez, Cameron Sabrunner, and Tiffany Rizzo Morales. Rodney Pickle is unable to join us this evening, as well as Amanda Greenbridge. This time, I'll turn it over to our moderators. >> Mr. Thomas, please introduce yourself and state why you want the >> You're going to have to speak up. >> Yes, ma'am. please introduce yourself and state why you want the position of board member in this district. >> Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you guys for doing
004this. I think it's great that you're doing this and and you taking the time out to do it. So, thank you and I'm I'm excited to be here and also congratulations on a really good homecoming. I enjoyed going to some of the activities and watching you guys do some dance moves and other things. So, that was fun. So, uh my name is Greg Coleman. um currently on the board of education. I was appointed to fill a vacancy about just about less than a year ago. So I'm on the board and I'm running now for a full four-year term. And the primary reason that I want to serve a full full term on the school board is I want Lahana schools to be the absolute best. Um, and I I want us to be the best
005in everything. Athletics, academics, um, choir, band, uh, barn, the whole the whole gamut. Um, I want us to be the best. And I I went to school here in Lahana and I graduated from Lahana and I had a really positive experience. And I think that the foundation that I got um going to the Hana High School and the experiences I that I was able to have um helped me um in in the next phase of my life after I left Lahana. And I fall back on a lot of the things I learned in Lahana um as I developed my career in Denver and uh went to work in the public affairs arena. And one of the things that I did in the public affairs arena was I worked with a lot of school districts on
006school finance issues um and um uh bonding bond issues, mil levy issues. And so through my professional career, I have learned a lot about schools and a lot about school districts. And I think that I have through that professional career, I've gained some insight and some knowledge that I could help improve the Lana school districts and make us even better. And we are good and we are a good district and we have a lot of positive things going for us. And I want to continue to build that momentum and do everything that I can to support the administration, to support the students, to achieve everything that you could possibly achieve and be successful and set you up for success in the next chapter of your life. Thank you. >> All right, M. Morales, please introduce
007yourself and state why you want the position of board member in this district. >> Yes. Thank you um everybody for joining us. Um, I know all of you are seniors and you know, you're taking time out of your evening and your week to be here. Um, and it goes to show um, the importance of of wanting to see uh, school board members. Um, my name is Tiffany Vizo Morales. I am an alumni of High School 1998. Um my family um my son is a sophomore here in Luna High School. Um and he is part of my why. Um my why is my son transferred from another district to Lahana in fourth grade. Um I cannot thank the teachers and the staff um for all that they have done for my son. um they've turned him
008around completely. Um my why is to give back to the teachers and to the students um to be able to be a voice to those parents or those teachers um for the concerns of or even wanting to bring the students back to our district. Um there's a lot of good and positive in our district and I believe that um my son showing the improvement because of the staff and the teachers and just listening to our concerns and wanting to make him a better student, a better son, um better involvement in the community. um I'm so grateful for and I just truly want to be able to give back and I want to be a listening block and I want to be able to retain a lot of information to be able to get back to
009the teachers and to the staff so that Lahana High School and East Terrell School District can be successful. >> Yourselves, would you please introduce yourself and state why you want the position board member in this district? I was really hoping that was the question. Thank you for asking. >> Um, thank you all also for for taking your time out to do this. It's always nice to see the leaders step up and do things like this in your classes, which is great to see to show your um fellow students that these are the things that you could be doing and be involved in. So, I think that's really awesome that you're stepping up and taking that opportunity. I hope you come to board meetings and stuff too. That would be nice to have some student participation
010there for sure. Uh, my name is Cameron Salsber. I am not an alumni of L High School. I went to a much smaller school in Crowley County and uh I do though um feel like it's important for me to throw my hat in the ring because I um I hold family very important in my life and um I have a student who's currently here at the intermediate school has gone through the primary and just transitioned over to the the intermediate school this year and I have another one who's hot on his trail. So, he's in preschool now, but we starting kindergarten next year. So, I am personally invested in their education and their um futures, obviously, and I feel like it's important to be involved in that as much as I can be. When I
011heard that there were multiple positions open on the school board, I felt like it was um something for me to consider. Um seriously, I was approached by people in the community who were interested if I was would consider running. um which is it's great to have that support and that validation of something you're thinking about could be um you know favorable to others as well. Um I feel like my work history lends itself to being on the board. I think it's important to have um the right-minded people a part of the conversation. Um my I'm currently the chief financial officer at Inspiration Field. So I manage the budgeting process um there as well as all of the the things that go along with the finances of the company. So that's been a a learning experience
012for me and uh it's been very important for me to to know how to do a good job at that to be accurate and to be timely. Um all things that I think are good traits for any type of position. Um I also have am personally invested in supporting the teachers uh because my mother was a teacher, single mom. Um she taught for 40 years in a small school district and so I can appreciate her um her experience in that. Um, and I also feel like being invested in the community is super important. Uh, my family, uh, my wife's family has been invested in the community and the business side for over 118 years, um, here in the same business at Trading. So, we're not going anywhere. We're going to be here for the next
013generation. So, I think it's good to get back. >> Back to you, Miss Morales. >> What do you see as the top priority as it were? So after listening to uh the community and their concerns from the first forum um I believe that finances are are the hot topic is the big issue. Um so that would be one of the main focuses on that. Um, I know from listening to the school previous school board meetings, um, there's some audits going and I know that in order to move forward on the financial side, those audits need to be complete so that we can move forward and make the financial side more successful to be able to support the teachers and the staff and even the students um, in the future. Mr. Salbury um what do you
014see as your top priority school? >> So again coming from a financial background that's very important to me as well. Uh I have seen um concerning things um you know happened during this the schoolboard as far as things that the auditors are working on the the how far behind the audits are. That's that's definitely important to me as well. Um, I also think we have to seriously have some conversations about the the uh buildings. I think that the high school in particular um is a is a big concern and it's it's not going to be a small project to start that conversation and to move that conversation along and to see it through to fruition. So, I think that we need to have um some real investment in in what that looks like. And I
015think that that mostly includes getting the community on board. The community has to understand what that's going to take because it's not going to be a a small effort by a small group of people. It's going to take all of us to to make a big difference um in improving that facility um and or replacing that facility. So I think that that's uh two of my top priorities. for compliments. What do you see as your top priority as board member? Well, >> it's hard to just pick one. Um, so I've got about six that are priorities. For me, the the top priority is continuing to execute our turnaround plan um for the intermediate school that was approved by the state board of education. We have got to continue to focus on that and execute that
016plan and fulfill that commitment to get us off turnound. We're headed in the right directions. Test scores across the district have gone up. They've gone up with the intermediate school um which is fantastic and that's a tribute to the teachers. Um but we've got to stay focused um on our turnaround execution plan. our finances. We've got to get our finances straightened out and we've got to be open and transparent with the community about that. Um, as alluded to, we're waiting on some audits. We've got to get that done and we've got to we've got to get our fiscal house um in order. Um, I'm also concerned um about our funding from the state. We get our budget is $16 million and we get about 13 million from the state with the state budget crisis that's
017unfolding. I'm very concerned about funding for the school finance act coming up in the ne next legislative session. So protecting our school funding uh piece from the state is is a high priority for me. I um would like to try to address um our enrollment, our declining enrollment, and look at creative ways that we can attract some kids that we've lost and get them back into the district. And the final priority is to look at at the high school and to begin a community conversation about about new building at the high school. >> Um Mr. yourself, how would you work with the community members to best represent the school district? >> So, again, I think community involvement is key. I think that there are um a lot of even parents that don't spend a lot
018of time in the buildings and um talking to teachers. Uh I don't know the statistics on on how many parents come to parent teacher conferences and how engaged they are. Um, but I've been to plenty uh meetings with the BTO and with PI and I see the the parents who come out and support those organizations and I I you know I see the the parents that I pass in the halls during parent teacher conferences and there are a lot of the same faces. I think there's a lot of faces that are misrepresented or aren't aren't showing up and I think we have to figure out how to engage those people. That's how we get the community engaged. Like I said, we need to get the community into the buildings to see for theel for themselves
019what the condition is to see um how much uh how how nice and how comfortable and and the improvements how great they are at the primary school and then to compare them to the condition at the high school I think is is very evident for people that can actually go and see it themselves. So, um, uh, again, I think it's important to to get the community involved in the conversation and get the community into the buildings and involved, um, with the staff and to find a common ground so that the staff can lean on the community when they need to and express, you know, what's going on. So, they're the ones interacting with our children and we need to know firsthand from them, you know, what's going on, what's important, what do you need. So,
020I think that Mr. Coins, how will you work with the community members to best represent the school district? >> I think um showing up is half the battle. Um and in the short amount of time that I've been on the school board, I have really enjoyed going to various not just school functions, but community functions and talking about the schools. Um, so I think um, uh, showing up is is half the battle. I think as a district we need to do a better job of engaging the community. Um, I we it's hard to it's hard to engage the community because we don't have a radio station and we don't have a newspaper like we did used to. So, we've got to be more creative and come up with new ways to uh at the district
021level to engage the the community and not just parents um but but non-parents as as well because I think one of the there's a misconception that um Lahana schools aren't good and that's just not true and there's a misconception that there's nothing going on in at in the schools. And again, that's not true. Um so we as a district have to do a better job of communicating all of the successes um whether it's academically, athletically, um awards that our teachers get um you or things that the district does that should be celebrated. Test scores, we should have a big celebration about that. Um and I think that will engage more community members. We the district needs to be more proactive um in stepping out and and engaging community. >> Morales, do we need to work
022with community members to best represent the school district? So in order to engage more of the community members, I believe you have to be a role model um to reach the community and that means um coming up with creative solutions uh you know being that online is is is big right now. streaming, you know, going out there and reaching the community via through Facebook or other other streaming um facilities and to to show our community that our school district is is winning and it's winning in a lot of various um academically. Um I know that uh the people count has been down and I believe by reaching out to the community and showing um just the turnaround of uh kids going through um you know various FFA projects or through you know wreck um recreational
023games you know showing up for that letting them know that they are the the building blocks for what's to come in the future. Um when they move up to the middle school, when they move up to to high school, so that they look forward to to those the future How do you know if the become record? >> Oh, that's a good question. That's a really good question. Um, well, I think u I think it's imperative that because there's going to be um I hope I hope I get reelected to the board. Um, so there would only be two new board members, but I haven't been on the board for for a full term, but I might not. And so, at a minimum, there's going to be two new board members. Um, and I think the
024first thing we need to learn to function as a unit. Um, and we need to have some board development and board training. Um, and I know Dr. Crumb Holtz has worked with CASBY, the Colorado Association of School Boards to line some training up for the new board um, in early December. And I think that's a a critical first step. Um the second thing I think um is we need to get to know each other as people. Um and um I've enjoyed my time on the board getting to know a little bit more about what my fellow board members interests are and what they like to do and how that influences their thought processes. Um and so I think I think and that training that I think training will help develop a more personal um relationship
025to know kind of what drives other people's thought processes, what issues, what values are important. Not saying we're going to agree on everything, but I think to understand each other as humans um will make us a more effective board. Morales, how can you help the board become more effective? >> So, I believe that as a a group along with uh Sarah and Stacy and Dr. Chrome Holtz, getting their feedback um will help me be more of an effective board member, to be listening, as Greg said, to be a sound board. Um, being that there's going to be three new board members, there's going to be a lot more eyeopening, a lot more um, training, a lot more that can be brought out of the woodworks, by going to these trainings, even by going back and
026looking at previous schoolboard meetings. um we can all learn from that and and learn how to focus on each other's soundboards to listening as from their thoughts and their perspectives. Um as Greg said, I believe a lot of it has to do with with the training. Um, and I believe a lot of that too is how much involvement um that I would do on my side as going online looking through information, going to, you know, the um Colorado School of Board. Um, CASBY is another one. Um, and I know it can be scary going on there and and looking for information because you can go down a rabbit hole really quickly. But that's why you have your other board members there to help support you if you are uncertain about any questions or concerns or
027any new prospects that might come into the future. So I believe in order to be an effective board member, you have to listen and you have to grow from the current board members. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Mr. How could you help women become more? >> So, one of the things, one of the big things that I've certainly like when I was in college, one of the books that I read was all about successful businesses become successful by having the right people on the bus, right? So, you got to get the right people on the bus and the people that aren't the right people on the bus, you got to get them off the bus, right? And to get them to get all the right people moving in the right direction, that's how you become
028successful in business. I think su business professionals who are successful lend their talents very well to boards and organizations. Um I think we have done a really good job for example um in my personal um uh experience on the Picket Wire Center board. We have worked really hard with the board that we have for the last decade or so to put procedures in place to firm up how we do things and to make the organization as successful as it could be. that organization exists today because of the contributions made by the original founding members who did the work to get the community behind it. Um, and the the the areas in which it lacked were kind of some of the business functions and that we really had to work on to make it successful. And
029I think that that's a contribution that I can help with because um that's my day-to-day experience. my day-to-day experience in finance lends itself to being, you know, inquisitive about what's going on financially. What does it mean? Um, it was it was awesome on one of the recent board meetings when Avocus came in and they just had a whole conversation about what a balance sheet is and what's important on it and went through that financial statement. super important information so that board members can go through training and learn what's important, what should we be looking at, what should we be looking at specifically? Um, should an account be acrewing a whole bunch of money in it every month and not go anywhere? And that's something that like a prepaid should be going out every month. I
030know that's a nerdy thing that finance guys are going to look at. So, that's obviously something I can lend to myself too. Um, I certainly don't consider myself an expert at all aspects of what this board will need and that's why it takes a diverse group of community members to make it successful and I just feel like I could be a part of that. >> Back to you, Mr. Morales. >> Yeah. >> What makes you an ideal candidate for the school board? So what makes me an ideal candidate is because um I'm human one um two I'm a mother uh three I'm out there working daytoday I'm working with challenges I'm working with tasks I um you know I've worked in the dental field for 20 years and so I'm really out there with um
031the community and a sounding board for for patients that come in and they're just so stressed and so overwhelmed and just by sitting there and talking to them and listening to them um you know they leave there with a better with a better mindset you know and I hope that for me to be on the school board that I can give back to that you know um being a mother you know you get pulled in all different ctions and you have to come up with solutions. Um, and it might not be, you know, right at the moment, but there are solutions to every single problem. Um, I'm very uh solutionoriented. I like to um do um research. I'm not one that just, you know, throws out various ideas. I like to do the research. I
032like to see exactly what might work, what might not work, what solutions can we give um to not just give up and saying no, that's that's not the answer because there's always an answer to every solution. Um, you know, and I and I believe just by by listening to people and their concerns um is is uh the right step forward um to being on the school board. >> Mr. What makes you an ideal candidate for the school board? So, you're going to re reuse some of the stuff I've already said, so I apologize for that. But, um, have skin in the game, I feel like. Right. So, my my kids are going through this district and they're young and they're going to be, you know, they're just starting out in that sense and will be
033here for the full term. So it's important for me to be again involved in their education involved as much as I can be and to be whatever help that I can be to support the people that are making that happen that are facilitating that the the staff and the teachers um the administrators. So I think that's that helps to make me an ideal candidate. Um I have the perspective of my mother's experience as an instructor for 40 years. uh what she dealt with, the challenges that she had to deal with, the concerns that she had in the classroom, um whether or not she was being supported by her administration, whether or not she could um rely on her administration to have her back. Um you know, what what was important to her. I I I
034have that perspective. Um and again, um the community involvement, the community connection. I've been very involved in the community uh both through our church, through picket wire, through um the family businesses and I feel connected there and I feel it's important to to be involved there and give back. So yeah, I think that those three things are a good combination that make a good board member. >> Mr. Cole, it's what makes you an ideal candidate for the school board? I think a combination of all the experiences that I've I've had uh in in my life um touched on while I was away from Lana um I moved back about 10 years ago um while I was away in my professional life. of the experiences working with school districts um on their buildings, on their finances,
035on school finance. I think that experience um is beneficial to me as a as a board member. leave my community involvement whether it's being the president of the chamber of commerce serving on that board that experience um and that perspective I bring that I I serve as the chairperson of Main Street Main Street Board which is the downtown revitalization board that experience my experience um spearheading the campaign to renovate the primary school um several years ago that experience uh my experience when wasn't on the board um serving on the superintendent search committee that experience um and I think now relevant my experience serving on the board for the past uh 11 months and I think the other thing I I bring a perspective I've been around school boards literally my entire life um not just
036working with school boards and me being on the school board my grandfather was on a school board my dad was on a school board my uncle on a school board. So, I know what school boards are and that's just another um ingredient in this soup called experience. And I think the experience is what makes me a good candidate. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Schlesber. Is there anything that you would like to add that would help us understand you better? >> Great question. I think I would like to add the only thing I haven't really talked about is um student engagement. Uh as far as I I talked about um it was nice to see the three of you as leaders stepping up to lead in this role that you're playing tonight. Um I think it
037it's important to have student participation. Just like I said, I had skin in the game. It's important to me what's happening with my kids. I would like to have um students be a big part of what the school board does. um it's the decisions the school board makes impact the students first and foremost right so I think it's important to allow students to make sure that students know that there's opportunity to provide feedback to come and participate in these types of meetings to come and um and maybe form committees and um and give voice to what's important to them as decisions are made on things like new policies that will have to be put into place or procedures that have to happen um so so that students aren't hit with a new process or a
038new procedure or a new thing that they don't like and they feel like it's being imposed on them. Um, if we have student leaders and students who are willing to participate in that process and get their own skin in the game, those then turn around and become the ambassadors of whatever that policy is and they can help to um, you know, work on student acceptance of things that have to have to do within the school district. So, I think that that's something that's important as we move forward. Mr. Coleman, is there anything that you would like to add that would help us understand you better? >> We've covered a lot of it. I I think um I'm very passionate and very optimistic about the direction of the school district. I um I think we've got
039a great leader in Dr. Crumboltz. Um, I'm excited um of the direction that he's he's taken us in. We've got a great We've got great teams in all of the buildings that are functioning well and moving their buildings in in a in positive directions. We've got great things, extracurricular activities that were we're achieving success in. Um, good luck to the band and good luck to the softball team this weekend. Um, that's just one example. Um, there are so many things going on in the district that that make me optimistic and excited and I I just would love the opportunity to be a part of it and be supportive and add any guidance and perspective and direction that I can because I'm really I you know I I touched on it before. Lana Lohana schools are
040kind of a hidden gem. uh nobody really knows about it and I I want to be a part of it. >> Thank you. Ros is there anything you would like to add? >> Yes, thank you for that question. Um so you know I really did you know focus on as far as goal oriented um you know while these two gentlemen they do have quite you know a large experience as far as financial and previous school boards as I might not. However, my passion and my drive to want to help focus on the needs of our children and our students and our staff, I believe is is very very very important. Um I too, you know, have been involved in the community. I was um born in Denver, but I've lived here since I was two
041years old. U my grandparents raised me. Um, so they have showed me how important it is to have a self and foundation to be able to give back and to be able to bring back to the community um and to our students. Um, you know, I I out there in the community, I volunteered with um Girls in the Middle for several years. I volunteered, you know, for the senior lunch for the uh early settler day. Um, you know, I've been out there and I've done um, com, which is free dentistry for the state of Colorado. So, I've been out there and I've helped serve those in need. Um, you know, I was a former EMT for seven years and so giving back to the community, I believe, is very uh, strong and very um, dear
042and near to my heart. Um, and so I just want to be able to be a sounding board and to be out there along with uh Dr. Crom Holtz and with Sarah and Stacy to be able to continue that school board and our Easto school district in the right direction and I believe um that I am a good candidate for that group. >> That is all the questions we have. I want to thank first of all our board candidates for being here tonight and answering the questions and also our amazing student council members who love this tonight. Thank you guys very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I would say we can stick around and mingle, but there's not a big crowd >> to mingle with. But if you have any
043questions, we will stick around. But thank you everybody for being here tonight. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you.