Candidates value education

Declining enrollments and budgetary concerns seem to be on the minds of candidates running for three open school board seats in the Riverside School District. Each position pays $50 a month, and members serve a four-year term.

There are two contested races, with the contest for Position No. 2 featuring incumbent Larry Moskwik, 60, and Jim Fairbanks, 40. John E. Paul, 44, and John Zentz, 60, are vying for the Position No. 3 seat.

Scott M. Robinson is running unopposed for Position No. 4.

“Moskwik, who has lived in the district for more than 30 years, has three children, now 28, 27 and 26, who are Riverside school system graduates.

He said they received a good education and that he wanted to get involved. He has already served one term on the school board.

If re-elected, Moskwik said, he plans to continue working with the district’s new superintendent, Roberta Kramer, who began working for Riverside in July.

He said he is proud of the work the district has been doing in recent years, such as expanding the advanced placement program and setting up a program for students to get college credit. The district also started a vocational program for students who may not want to attend college.

“We want to give them every opportunity,” he said.

“Fairbanks said in his candidate statement in the voter’s guide that he felt a calling to get involved with the school board, since he has two kids attending schools in the district.

He is married to Allyson, and his oldest son has graduated from high school.

He said that he helped organize Riverside Youth Sports so that children will have a chance to play football and baseball. He also helped to build baseball fields for the school.

“I think everyone in the community knows the commitment I’ve given the youth,” he said.

He hopes to make the athletic department self-funding. Fairbanks also feels that the teachers in the district are some of the lowest paid in the state and would like to get those salaries more in line with the state average.

He said he supports a full-day kindergarten classes, the third-grade reading initiative, and developing student athletics.

“Paul is the incumbent in the position No. 3 race. He has lived in the area for seven years and has two children who attend Riverside schools, one in eighth grade and one in 11th. His oldest child graduated two years ago.

“I have a concern and desire to improve our youth education across the board,” he said.

The former Marine and current commercial airline pilot has been married for more than 22 years to Stacey, who is also the adviser to the cheerleading squad at the high school.

Paul said he is concerned about declining enrollments and the budget problems of the district, but he also wants to get the word out to people in the community to get involved in the public’s business.

“When more people are involved, more ideas come across the table,” he said.

He wants to make sure that the school board prioritizes its wants and needs because of a tighter budget.

“We can’t do everything because of money,” he said. “We’ve got to be smart.”

“Zentz is running for office for the first time.

“It’s quite an eye-opener,” he said.

He is recently retired from Qwest as a senior engineer and found that he had time to either volunteer somewhere or run for the school board.

He and his wife, Susan, have been married for 37 years, and their children, Ken, 34, and Diana, 32, attended schools in the Riverside district.

If elected, Zentz wants to familiarize himself with how the meetings are run. He is also looking forward to discussing the issues the district’s new superintendent would like to tackle this year.

The issues that concern Zentz are the declining enrollments in the district, which leads to less state funding.

He also stresses that he has the time to tackle these issues now that he’s retired.

“They should at least give me the chance,” he said.