If you’re registered to vote, you’ve received a ballot in the mail for the upcoming election on November 4th. Being an “off year” between the presidential and midterm contests, we haven’t been bombarded with as many campaign advertisements as last year – but the races and initiatives are nevertheless important.

Across Colorado, voters will be weighing in on more than a dozen school board elections. You’ve received postcards in the mail championing some candidates and warning about others. The United States Postal Service delivers billions of campaign mailers every year. What you might call junk mail, candidates call critical correspondence – especially since most voters know very little about who they’re casting a ballot for in a school board election.

From the very beginning, Coloradoans have prioritized education. When the Pikes Peak Gold Rush in 1858 brought settlers, the construction of schools followed. The town of Auraria, a gold-mining camp in Denver, holds the distinction of establishing the first public school in the state in 1861.

In Colorado Springs, Mary Mellen “Queen” Palmer, wife of founder General Palmer, is credited with organizing the first in the city. Established in 1871, it was inside a rented house at the corner of Cascade Avenue and Bijou Street. District 11 dates to 1872. It’s numbered “11” because there were ten others across the territory that preceded its founding.

School board members serve a critically important purpose, but even longtime students in a district would be hard-pressed to name even one. In Colorado Springs, board members are unpaid volunteers. They have to attend a lot of meetings, give up a lot nights at home, and make a lot of decisions that impact a lot of students and families.

Most candidates running for a school board seat are driven by a desire to see students personally and educationally thrive, but that motivation can be subjective and mean many things to many people. But being a parent with school-age children, here is the board member both parents and students want overseeing their district.

Parents and children need advocates not adversaries. They should be overseers who won’t overstep their authority. They recognize that parental rights are sacrosanct. Schools and teachers should complement not compete with what a parent teaches their child at home. “Woke” propaganda should not be foisted upon innocent and impressionable young people.

Moms and dads should have full access to their child’s records and the teacher’s curriculum. If a child relays to a teacher or administrator something personal, dangerous or even painful, their parent should be notified. Board members shouldn’t support keeping families in the dark for any reason whatsoever.

A school board member of a child’s dream will protect females from the sexually confused or the immorally opportunistic boy who pretends to be a girl. They’ll keep boys out of girls’ sports and out of girls’ locker rooms. They won’t enable or support a lie by going along with the student’s desired pronoun. Instead, this board member should be firmly rooted in reality and advocate for teachers and students, referring to students by the pronoun of their sex at birth.

Our children need officials who will ensure they don’t have to navigate an overly sexualized classroom culture. Sensitive material should be age appropriate. In the interest of their health and safety, and out of respect for deeply held religious convictions, board members should advocate for students being encouraged to remain sexually chaste until marriage.

School curricula should highlight American greatness. While acknowledging that no country is or has ever been perfect, board members should support teachers holding up our nation’s heroes. We don’t need apologists running down our history. We need appreciation for those who have sacrificed on our behalf. Bigotry is always unacceptable, but systematic racism is a delusional, liberal construct that recklessly advances and promotes something that just isn’t true.

Our children need to be represented by school board members who support school choice. They should recognize that empowering parents to make these important decisions is in a child’s best interest. It doesn’t threaten the quality of education, but it does threaten bureaucrats and special interests.

The wisdom and experience of the school board member of every student’s dream will enable them to reach and even surpass their own aspirations. So, as you vote, please choose wisely. We’re all better off when children’s dreams come true.

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.