
Voters still have a little less than two hours left to turn in their ballots for the Santa Fe Public School District special election to renew the Education Technology Note that would continue to provide critical funding for technology in Santa Fe Public Schools.
While most voters have returned ballots by mail—the way they came for the first time in the district's history—ballots my be walked in to the office in person until 7 pm to the Santa Fe County Administration Building at 102 Grant Ave.
If approved by voters, the tech note will renew $11 million per year for the next five years in funding going to new classroom technology, professional development and training for teachers, digital learning coaches, and other programs.
At a school board meeting earlier this month, members worried that misinterpretation of the legal language of the ballot could cause voters to oppose the measure.
"I've been receiving tons of calls from members of my community and I am very concerned that people are not understanding this ballot. The way it reads makes it seem like taxes will increase because of the creation of a debt. I just need to stress to voters, your taxes will not increase." Steven Carrillo said at the meeting.
Carrillo said that without approval of the tech bond, some successful programs at Santa Fe Public Schools might not survive budget cuts. "I'm really worried," he said, "where are we gonna get $55 million in the next five years if this doesn't go through?"
Board member Kate Noble said, "some people equate more tech with more screen time for kids. This is not junk screen time. This is really critical technology and tools for preparing our kids adequately for a digital world. The fact is that this is what modern education looks like. These programs are crucial for helping our kids establish tech literacy."
Voters in Albuquerque earlier this year rejected a ballot measure for schools that would have increased taxes, as did voters in Aztec reject a proposed mill levy.
Sonya Gunter, a teacher who participated in a pilot program at Capital High School for integrating technology into the classroom, told the board that she has seen how important these measures can be to the success of her students.
County Clerk Geraldine Salazart tells SFR the mail-in ballot is an effort to increase voter participation. "We want qualified voters to participate, because a lot of people do not participate in these small elections. And what we are seeing with this mail in election is an increase in participation," she says. "We are very fortunate in New Mexico because we have so many ways that you can vote. We have early voting, we have election day voting, we have absentee by mail absentee in person, and now we have mail in."
Salazar says that in an era where many communities in the United States are facing allegations of voter suppression, her office is doing everything it can to ensure equal participation of all registered voters. She hopes the new mail in ballot system will encourage a culture that takes discussion of issues and the responsibility of voting seriously.
At about 5 pm, the county had received 28,896 ballots, already surpassing the number of votes tallied in previous school bond elections. Salazar says she's not sure how long it will take to tally results. SFR will report on the outcome.