Dear Rockingham Voters,
My name is Chris Kibbe, and I am writing to request that you write my name in for the three-year seat on the Rockingham Town School Board versus Priscilla Lambert on election day, March 4. This is the seat that I currently hold, but unfortunately, I was ill and missed the petition filing deadline in January. I would like to serve the town and the school district for another term in order to continue the important work that the board has embarked upon in the last year. I currently serve as the chair of the Rockingham School Board.
This past year, the board adopted a set of goals that has guided our work. These goals include improving student achievement, decreasing the number of student absences, building an affordable budget for the coming year, enhancing board and community communications, effectively maintaining our school buildings, and, in the longer term, expanding student learning opportunities and promoting sustainable schools for Rockingham. As you can see, this is an extensive and comprehensive set of goals, and we have made progress in many areas. Student absences are down somewhat, and our school buildings remain in excellent condition. We will be presenting an expense budget to the voters that is up 4.32% with a modest projected tax rate increase, combined with the high school, of about 2.5 cents, a percentage increase of 1.6%. Although student achievement remains a concern, we are receiving regular reports about progress in math and literacy from the administration. In addition, we are actively working on board-community communications.
The WNESU and Rockingham Town School Districts employ many effective administrators, teachers, and staff who really are the ones upon whose shoulders the job of continuous school improvement falls. As a board member and as board chair, I have tried to both support and cajole our employees to strive for improvement and good management. I am very clear about the fact that it is not a board member’s job to micromanage the school system.
In closing, I want to again request that you write my name in for the three-year seat on the Rockingham School Board. It is important for you to know that this is the only seat to write me in, as I support the candidacies of Caitlin Deschenes-Desmond and Rob Weltz, who are running unopposed for other seats on the board. I will have additional reminders about this on election day outside the polling area.
Paid for by Christopher Kibbe
Rockingham, Vt.