Newly elected to the Delta County School Board, Chad Campbell spoke to the Rotary Club of Paonia on Nov. 12 and explained what he hopes to accomplish in his first term.

“Everybody is in financial hardship,” Campbell said. “A lot of little, bitty changes can lead to big things.”

Paonia Rotary Club President Bill Bishop greets Chad Campbell, who was elected to the Delta County School Board in November. Campbell spoke to the Rotary members during their lunch hour meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12. Campbell wants to see minor adjustments in costs where needed to help fund educational programs.

While the school board was talking about cutting field trips for students, they were approving a four-day conference held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for school board members. The cost of the hotel, meals and transportation to the Colorado Association of School Board Officials was included. “Is this not a very expensive adult field trip?” asked Campbell.

He decided to take a stand immediately. “We don’t need to spend this money.” He’s sure the training is a PowerPoint presentation which could be fed live to school board members, and save $10,000 for those four days. “That $10,000 would go a long ways for a small school,” Campbell concluded.

He voiced support for sports and sporting trips for competition with other schools. However, he takes issue with local teams having to travel twice to Vail for two different schools there. He would like to see consolidation of sporting events. “They could play two games in one day. For tournaments they play four games in one day,” he commented.

He also believes the school district should look at having smaller size buses. He has seen 42-passenger school buses transporting nine kids. There are school buses which hold a maximum of 11 passengers. “They are bound to be cheaper to run,” Campbell said.

He would like a regulation track at Paonia High School so the students would not have to be bussed to Hotchkiss.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed