Jan. 17, 2024, Letters to the Editor

Frustrated by school board

Editor:

After listening to another long and contentious school board meeting, I once again left appalled and frustrated by the incompetence on display. I do applaud them on their vote to bring in Yvonne Wagstaff as the new school board trustee, I think it’s important to have a trustee on the board who actually has kids currently enrolled in the district and can hopefully offer a fresh perspective but was shocked by how close they were to voting in another candidate who came very unprepared for the interview and barely answered any of the questions asked. At least Trustees Englekirk, Jansen and Dickerson had the decent sense, after a lot of hemming and hawing, to vote for Wagstaff, unlike Trustee Burns, who dug his heels in and gave his full support to a candidate who came to the interview with very little knowledge of the school district and role of a school board trustee. It was painfully obvious that Trustee Burns just wanted to fill the seat with someone who wasn’t going to challenge his ideologies.

This whole embarrassing process really makes me concerned about the upcoming superintendent hiring process.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they already have a candidate in mind, which was hinted at during public comment, when commenter, David Seat, mentioned that “we’d soon have a patriot superintendent.”

What do you know, David Seat, that the rest of us don’t? I do plead with the school board to take its time with this process, establish sensible criteria and an evaluation process for each candidate and please be transparent. This decision should not be taken lightly, the education of our students is at stake, and the students and their education should always be your FIRST priority. Leave your personal agendas out of this and do your job.

Jill Mayer

Gardnerville

Primary-Caucus confusion

Editor:

There’s a lot of confusion going on in our state about the 2024 Presidential Caucus on Feb. 8. I was one of those confused.

Upon opening my “Official Republican Presidential Preference Primary Election Ballot,” I noticed that Donald J. Trump, and three other Presidential Candidates, was not on the ballot and there was no place for a “write in.” After making a call to the Douglas County Election Office, I found out this was no mistake.

On May 23, 2023, AB-126 was passed with 20 yeas, 0 nays and 1 excused. In a nutshell for Nevada’s 2024 Primary, Presidential Candidates had a choice to be on the Primary Ballot or Caucus Ballot. Not both. The Democrats wanted ballots, for obvious reasons, and the Republicans wanted a Caucus. There are four candidates who chose to be on the Caucus Ballot. They are Donald J. Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie who recently dropped out.

Now I needed to find where I go to “Caucus.” The Nevada GOP didn’t make this easy. I also want to know, if I vote in person on Feb. 6 or mail my ballot in, can I still Caucus on the 8th? Hopefully, I can vote “None of These Candidates” on the ballot and still go Caucus for President Trump. However, if someone votes on the 6th for a Candidate on the Ballot and then Caucus’ on the 8th, wouldn’t this be voting twice? I haven’t found an answer to this, yet.

For some information and to find out your Caucus location, the website is:  www.nevadagop.org/2024-presidential-caucus

You’ll need to know your precinct number. You can also call The Douglas County Election Office at (775) 783-6095.

I can see this whole Primary becoming a quagmire.

Mary Frances Bischofberger

Gardnerville