Crosby, Huffman hold school board elections

By Lewis Spearman

CROSBY, HUFFMAN – School board elections will be held in both local districts in northeast Harris County this year.

There is one contested position in Huffman where four positions come up for popular review and there are three contested school board positions in Crosby where three positions are subject to elections.

In Huffman only Guy Smith will face contender Patrick Keith for the seventh position in the At-Large District. Dean Tinnin, Charles Bardwell, and Matt Dutton are unchallenged.

In Crosby, Sheryl Shaw is going to retire from the school board to pursue a full time teaching position within the local college level. She currently teaches part-time at San Jacinto College. Her Position 4 is being contended between David Shaver and David Porter (both of Newport Subdivision.) Shaw threw her support to David Shaver and speaks well of local pharmacist Porter. Shaw says her time on the Crosby School Board has been “personally very rewarding.”

Position 5 is a challenge between incumbent Carla Mills Windfont and Will Locke.

Position 7 is between incumbent Gerald L. Blankenship and Dr. James Hofmann.

Asking each candidate what would they like to see happen if they are elected to their prospective position this time gave unique answers.

David Shaver is interested in more quality technical training for students that do not wish to attend college.

“When our students are not preparing for college, they are really not prepared to do anything. When I was in school you had wood-shop, automotive and things of this nature that you could actually get a certificate from taking. You had a skill that you could go out into the work force and get a job. Right now a student can go over to San Jacinto and take the courses from Crosby but that takes them away from the local campuses and we have to bus them back, they get back to late to get involved in extracurricular activities like football or baseball. So to have something here on campus or in the general vicinity would be better for them.”

David Porter said he did not have any kind of adjenda for the schoool board but, “I have been around this community my entire life and have been in Crosby my adult life. I want to have an input into the future of this community. That may not sound very exciting but I still have kids that go to school here, we go to church here, we work here, I would like to see what we can do to improve the education of our kiddos.”

Carla Mills-Windfont answers, “Having been reared here and a graduate of Crosby High School, I graduated in 1980, It is my stance to be fair, to put kids’ education first for the future, my legacy, grandkids, great grandkids, cousins and for the betterment of Crosby ISD. I say over and over, Crosby is the best kept secret and I know we produce the best. So, it is my intent to keep producing the best by striving for the best. Whether it is employees, personnel or even those on the board our kids deserve for all of us to strive for the best. That is what I strive for.”

Will Locke answers, “I have run for the school board two or three times, I have been asked this question numerous at the times, and not only one person can make changes. Basically, I want on the school board as a watchdog. I think the money being spent is not being looked at how it should be spent. Positively, everybody keeps on harping on this college, college, college but I think we need to get something different in our school district. I think we need to get something like shops were we can teach our kids how to work. Autoshops, metalshops or woodshops these are somethings we want to work towards, it is going to take awhile, you cannot do it by yourself. You have to plant a seed and see what becomes of it.”

Gerald Blankenship said that he wants to continue on the school board because, “I think our school board is facing a very critical time, we are going to be looking at a building program sooner than we want to and I feel that my experience can help this process go smoother and I can be a good steward of the taxpayer’s money and I always look at ways to save money for the district.

Dr. James Hofmann answered, “The main thing that has been driving me to run over the last few months is the moral of this district, the moral of the teachers I feel is at an all time low. I feel students’ moral is way down. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reason but I feel that our good teachers are not being allowed to do what they do. You always have teachers that don’t want to teach and they should not be there but they are the ones that are not effected.

“I think you know that the district here has been financially strapped but we have been able to put out pretty decent students. I’ve been in this district since 1995 and I know a few teachers make a whole lot of difference in your life and I know Crosby has those but I feel they are real disenchanted right now with the way things are going. I hope to make some change. You have seen the change we lost our school teacher of the year last year, Marty Murray, we lost obviously our football coach, who was held in high esteem.

“We have lost Science labs at the intermediate school and we have lost a tremendous high school principal, I thought. We are losing a record number of teachers. When we had a protest after the coach resigned they basically paid not attention to what the public outcry was. It has become apparent to me the only way to effect change is to be on the school board.”