My husband and I moved to Kelseyville 37 years ago and enjoyed careers as park rangers at the local State Parks. We raised our children here and they both went through the Kelseyville school system. They are UC graduates and are busy with successful careers. I spent 25 years volunteering in classrooms and eight years on Site Councils.

We are enthusiastically supporting the reelection of Rick Winer for Kelseyville Unified School District Board. Rick has been an actively engaged board member for 20 years. He visits every campus, gets to know the staff, and can always be seen at school activities and events.

Rick doesn’t just identify local education concerns; he acts on them. For example, his recognition of the local and nationwide enormous problem of bullying was to support the implementation of the K-8 Stop, Talk and Walk Anti-Bullying Curriculum and it doesn’t end there.

Staff and board members are required to complete bullying recognition and response training, sexual harassment policy and prevention training and youth suicide prevention and postvention training, annually. Students and parents can now anonymously report any instances of bullying for investigation at www.kvusd.org.

Rick recognizes the importance for learning in a safe environment and has supported the hiring of trained Campus Monitors and increasing their employment to full time. The training of these employees is essential to effectively observe and intervene when appropriate during lunch, recesses and breaks on campus.

Rick has supported salary increases of all staff and has experience in the complex negotiation with the unions of both certified and credentialed staff. This past year all employees of the district received a 7% raise and incremental increases for longevity were also negotiated to increase retention.

His oversight of the implementation of Measure U’s $24 million budget has allowed for the near completion of modern modular, technology friendly classrooms, a state-of-the-art vocational center that is shared by the high school and middle school, a new multipurpose room at Kelseyville Elementary and the replacement of a deteriorating septic system at Kelseyville Elementary. Anyone can see all the Measure U improvements on the web page at www.kvusd.org.

Kelseyville High offers a wide variety of career and five technical courses. It has two dual enrollment courses offered in collaboration with Mendocino College.

Since I have lived here there have always been easily accessible avenues for communicating with teachers, administration, and school board members. From site councils, PTOs, parent teacher conferences, volunteering in classrooms to attending school board meetings and attending the monthly “Family Night” there are many ways for parents' concerns to be heard.

Rick Winer’s oversight, support and involvement in the running of the Kelseyville Unified School District has been critical to the implementation and continuation of programs and campus improvements listed above.

We trust Rick's experience and proven abilities to help navigate our district through hiring a new superintendent, mitigating learning losses from the COVID pandemic and continuing to improve the resources for all children’s learning, social and emotional needs .

Please join us in voting for Rick Winer for Kelseyville Unified School District Board.

Val and Tom Nixon live in Kelseyville, California.