The results of the local school board election are in! The winner, by a wide margin, is Marlee Sunchild. There were a total of 10,108 votes cast in the three-way race between Sunchild, Rodney Meyers and Tony Rosales. Marlee Sunchild received more than half the total vote at 5,668 with Meyers getting 2,568 and Rosales a distant third place at 1,755. Congratulations Marlee Sunchild!
In a bid to promote his own campaign, School Board candidate Tony Rosales has been issuing a series of attacks on the administration of the Great Falls School District. While it probably takes Tony a few minutes to come up with his phony accusations, the district has clearly spent a lot of time and effort to set the record straight. And that’s too bad, because the staff has more important things to do than replying to weird accusations from a wanna-be politician.
Is This Really How We Want School Personnel Spending Their Time?
The Electric published a good story that takes Rosales’ accusations point by point and covers the district’s response. What becomes clear from this most recent story is that Rosales either doesn’t know what he is talking about or doesn’t care what the facts are, as long as he throws dirt on dedicated public employees to further his own political campaign. Probably a bit of both. For the complete story, follow this link to the Electric’s article. https://theelectricgf.com/2024/04/10/gfps-responds-to-concerns-from-board-candidate/
One of Rosales’ central accusations against the district is that a staff member, Lance Boyd, sits on the board of Peace Place, a local nonprofit dedicated to providing respite care for disabled children. Peace Place is a great program that gives parents time to do shopping and other tasks that can be very difficult for parents of kids with special needs. Rosales asserted that this was a conflict of interest since other providers of similar services in the community did not get that “business” from the district, with the implication being that funding was being channeled unfairly to Peace Place.
Hey Tony, Who’s Got a Conflict of Interest?
Responding to questions from the Electric, Rosales said that he discovered this “conflict of interest” at a local meeting on autism and decided to challenge the district. Rosales posted that it was a conflict of interest for Boyd to serve on the board, as the district refers students to Peace Place and pays for those services. He said that he heard about the situation from another provider who was at the meeting.”
The other provider, who was apparently complaining that he was not getting referrals from the district, is Kevin Leatherbarrow, the owner of Go and Grow. The district explained that it was not referring to them, because Leatherbarrow had previously told him they did not want to accept federal funding which the district receives.
Tony Rosales is the Chair of the local Libertarian Party. Leatherbarrow ran as a Libertarian for the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2020. Leatherbarrow has filed to run for the legislature in this election cycle, again as a Libertarian. Rosales also filed to run for the legislature as a Libertarian in this cycle but withdrew, apparently to run for school board. Tony Rosales is currently serving as Kevin Leatherbarrow’s campaign treasurer.
If you liked the controversy and paralysis which took over county government after electing aggressive anti-government conspiracy theorists Rae Grulkowski and Sandra Merchant, you might want to consider voting for Tony Rosales. But if you want the school district to remain focused on its job, educating our kids, vote for Marlee Sunchild.