Martin, Cordova keep Clovis school board seats

Nov. 7—Incumbents Terry Martin and Paul Cordova kept their positions on the Clovis Municipal Schools board of directors following Tuesday's elections.

Martin defeated challenger Nathan Mccreery, 144-93, in the race for the District 5 seat.

"First, I want to say all honor to God," Martin told The News on Tuesday night. "I want to thank the people in the district for coming out to vote. They know that I've been around, and they trust my judgment so, you know, (I'm) giving honor to God and thanks to the people in the district and all the volunteers that help me."

Mccreery said he was pleased with the turnout, but "there's no way to know for sure" why voters selected his opponent.

"There's almost three times (the voters) than what there were before. Competition is good for the electoral process and people will respond more when there is a choice. So that's the only thing I'm going to say about that."

Cordova beat Catherine Cobb, 175-152, in the race for District 3.

"First of all, I wanted to thank all who went out to vote. This is an important election, especially when it's dealing with the future in our kids," Cordova said. "These people came out and believed in me and my purpose is education being first, and having safe schools and trying to do what we can to keep our teachers here in the district so they can make a career out of teaching here in Clovis. I like to have it where people are competing to come and work in our district."

"This win, it is yes, a victory for me. But most importantly, this win is a win for our district, our teachers, but especially our kids."

Cobb said "I just hope that this (election) shakes him (Cordova) up a little bit. For him to know that there are people out here that really are counting on him or whoever is in there."

"I hope that this really wakes him up and wakes that whole school board up and they don't get too comfortable because there's always somebody going to be right there holding them accountable because that's what it's about. They need to be held accountable. They need to start standing up for the kids."

In Portales, the city will have two new city councilors in Eldon Merrick and Rustin Self.

In District C, Merrick beat incumbent Chadrick Heflin, 293-90.

"I think that people are paying attention to our change promotion, that we (he and Self) were trying to get change on the council. We've got a lot of issues with water, the city streets and infrastructure. I think all of those are gonna come to the forefront. I just hope we can find some solutions for all of those."

In District B, Self beat incumbent Daniel Boan, 191-76.

Also in Portales, Cade Skinner defeated Doug Pfaffenberger, 172-107, for the District 1 school board seat.

"Running against Doug, you know, Doug's a good guy. I honestly didn't know if I was going to win this race because of Doug," Skinner said. "I do appreciate the votes, and people entrusting me with this position. But, yeah, this race was, to be honest with you, kind of a shock to me."

Pfaffenberger said he was not disappointed. "Cade Skinner is a good friend of mine and we're both kind of like-minded as far as our views go."

Incumbent Inez Rodriguez defeated Brent Small, 106-86, for Portales' District 2 school board seat.

"I really think that they (voters) know that the children here in Portales are really my passion. I'm a listener and when people have concerns and all that, I listen," Rodriguez said when asked why she thought voters supported her.

"We have a great board. We've always had a great board and we work as a team to make the best judgment. I think that they know I'm really committed, because I'm always going to the graduations and the promotions when I can. It's the role that I play; I take it seriously. The bottom line is our mission, that we'll make children successful citizens. And that's my main priority to do the best that I can."

Also Tuesday tight races in Grady went to James Carroll Schell (mayor), Jena K. Rush (city council) and Elnabeth Grau (school board). All three contests featured four or more candidates.

Here are final, unofficial results from most Curry and Roosevelt county races. We'll have more information in Sunday's newspaper.

Election results

CAUSEY

Mayor

Kris King, 13

City Council

(Vote for 4)

Teresa Nance, 12

Jimmy Stokes, 12

Darrell Caviness, 11

Jill Caviness, 11

CLOVIS

School Board District 3

Paul Serafin Cordova, Jr., 175

Catherine F. Cobb, 152

School Board District 4

Shawn L. Hamilton, 358

School Board District 5

Terry Martin, 144

Nathan McCreery, 93

Clovis Community College Board Position 2

Janice S. Bradburn, 223

DORA

City Council

(Vote for 2)

Kendall Manis, 30

Bobbie Victor, 0

School Board

(Vote for 2)

Kyle Burress, 27

Andrea King, 55

Patrick Kircher, 40

Tana Duncan, 26

Billy Cathey, 22

Dallen Skelley, 58

Tax question:

"Shall the Dora Consolidated School District No. 39 be authorized to issue up to $2,300,000 of general obligation bonds?"

For: 85

Against: 28

ELIDA

City Council

(Vote for 2)

Tina Dixon, 27

Andres Jasso (write in), 0

School Board

(Vote for 2)

Chance Bradley, 66

Cody Ferguson, 46

FLOYD

Mayor

Colin Chandler, 21

City Council

Seth Chandler, 21

School Board

(Vote for 4)

James Love, 67

Marvin Nall, 59

Adam Burns, 30

Mary Kropp, 40

Delbert Rector, 63

Charlsea Lee, 64

Tice Love, 78

GRADY

Mayor

Pattye Ann Austin, 7

James Carroll Schell, 13

Vicki K. Windham, 3

Kodie D. Weese, 10

Sean Constable (write-in), 5

City Council

(Vote for 2)

James M Austin, 13

Jena K Rush, 27

Ruth Qualls Schell, 10

Bobby Gene Windham, 14

School Board

(Vote for 3)

Emory Walon Jones, 25

Kathy D. Edwards, 78

Elnabeth T. Grau, 91

Chantry Robert Borden, 46

John Sublette Croy, 38

MELROSE

Mayor

Meadow Forget, 70

City Council

(Vote for 2)

Alan R. Daugherty, 66

Ron Moore (write-in), 32

School Board

(Vote for 3)

Barry L. Allen, 92

Cedar C. Rush, 86

Stephen F. Caton, 95

PORTALES

City Council A

Veronica Cordova, 116

City Council B

Daniel Boan, 76

Rustin Self, 191

City Council C

Eldon Merrick, 293

Chadrick Heflin, 90

City Council D

Michael Rackler, 148

Hospital Board District 3

Douglas Stone, 329

Hospital Board District 4

Margaret Davis, 94

Virginia Clemmons, 109

Hospital Board District 5

Paul Benoit, 264

School Board District 1

Cade Skinner, 172

Doug Pfaffenberger, 107

School Board District 2

Inez Rodriguez, 106

Brent Small, 86

School Board District 5

Dustin Cabeldue, 198

Tax question:

"Shall the Portales Municipal School District No.1 continue to impose a property tax levy of $1.25 per each $1,000.00 of net taxable value of property allocated to the Portales Municipal School District No.1 for the property tax years 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 for the purposes of:

A. erecting, remodeling, making additions to, providing equipment for or furnishing public school buildings;

B. payments made pursuant to a financing agreement entered into by a school district or a charter school for the leasing of a building or other real property with an option to purchase for a price that is reduced according to payments made;

C. purchasing or improving public school grounds;

D. purchasing activity vehicles for transporting students to and from extracurricular school activities;

E. administering the projects undertaken pursuant to Subsections A and C of this section, including expenditures for facility maintenance software, project management software, project oversight and district personnel specifically related to administration of projects funded by the Public School Buildings Act; provided that expenditures pursuant to this subsection shall not exceed five percent of the total project costs; and

F. purchasing and installing education technology improvements, excluding salary expenses of school district employees, but including tools used in the educational process that constitute learning and administrative resources

For: 728

Against: 464

TEXICO

City Council

(Vote for 2)

Sharon J Askew, 103

Patricia A. Rojas-Natividad, 84

Kathy Ann Bullington, 40

Dave L. Parmer, 37

School Board

(Vote for 3)

Tyrell Clayton Gonser, 188

Tara G. Bonestroo, 109

Derek Kyle Cain, 184

Steven Ira Dallas, 117

Tax Question

Shall the Board of Education of the Texico Municipal School District No. 2, Counties of Curry and Roosevelt, State of New Mexico, be authorized to impose a property tax of $2.00 on each $1,000.00 of net taxable value of the property allocated to the District under the Property Tax Code for the property tax years 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030 for capital improvements in the District including payments made with respect to lease-purchase arrangements as defined in the Education Technology Equipment Act [Chapter 6, Article 15A NMSA 1978], or the Public School Lease Purchase Act [Chapter 22, Article 26A NMSA 1978], but excluding any other debt service expenses, for:

(1) erecting, remodeling, making additions to, providing equipment for or furnishing public school buildings, including teacher housing, and pre-kindergarten classroom facilities;

(2) purchasing or improving public school or pre-kindergarten grounds;

(3) maintenance of public school buildings, including teacher housing, or public school or pre-kindergarten grounds, including the purchasing or repairing of maintenance equipment and participating in the facility information management system as required by the Public School Capital Outlay Act and including payments under contracts with regional education cooperatives for maintenance support services and expenditures for technical training and certification for maintenance and facilities management personnel, but excluding salary expenses of District employees;

(4) purchasing activity vehicles for transporting students to extracurricular school activities;

(5) purchasing computer software and hardware for student use in public school classrooms; and

(6) purchasing and installing education technology improvements, excluding salary expenses of District employees, but including tools used in the educational process that constitute learning and administrative resources, and that may also include: (a) satellite, copper and fiber-optic transmission; computer and network connection devices; digital communication equipment, including voice, video and data equipment; servers; switches; portable media devices, such as discs and drives to contain data for electronic storage and playback; and the purchase or lease of software licenses or other technologies and services, maintenance, equipment and computer infrastructure information, techniques and tools used to implement technology in schools and related facilities; and (b) improvements, alterations and modifications to, or expansions of, existing buildings or tangible personal property necessary or advisable to house or otherwise accommodate any of the tools listed in this paragraph?

For: 182

Against 66

Border Soil and Water Conservation District Board

Supervisor

Trenton Bilberry, 32

Border Soil and Water Conservation District Board

Landowner

(Vote for 3)

Daniel Curtin, 16

David Craig, 20

Payton Terry, 21

Soil and Water Supervisor (Landowner)

Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District

(Vote for 2)

Ricky Ledbetter, 1,025

Kendell Buzard, 727

Central Curry Soil and Water Conservation Board

Supervisor

Erik R. Nelson, 1,897

Central Curry Soil and Water Conservation Board

Landowner

(Vote for 2)

Cory Lynn Allen, 967

Spencer D. Pipkin, 1,343

Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District Board

Supervisor

Mitzi Miller, 1,302