Meet the Candidates is a new forum designed to shine a spotlight on the people who are running for local government seats in the upcoming Nov. 3 election. We will ask each candidate the same set of questions, and provide an overview of their responses. We hope that by focusing on each contested seat, we can showcase each candidate, providing information that may be helpful when making your selection at the voting booth.
The second set of candidates are running for Eureka County School Board Trustee Seat 2B.
I sat down with Fred Buckmaster to ask him about his run for Eureka County School Board.
Tell me a little about yourself:
I was born and raised in Fallon. My folks were both teachers. They both retired from Churchill County School District. My sister and cousins are teachers. We're teachers. I know how the education process works.
What brought you to Eureka and when did you move here?
We moved here when we bought the old Ardan place out on Allison Creek in Antelope Valley in 2019. Our kids were all grown. My wife, Jan, and I have been married for 14 or 15 years. I was retiring from the school district and we don't particularly like to be around a lot of people.
Why do you want to join the school board?
Well, my folks and family were always really civically minded and that's what you do. You try to give back. I grew up in education. I spent 25 years in education and that's kind of what I know. If I can give back and help the kids and help the education process in Eureka, that's good. I kind of feel it's a duty. You need to give back. You need to serve.
What experiences or skills have prepared you to serve as a trustee?
I've spent 25 years as a teacher in Fallon and I also served a term on the school board in Churchill County. I was elected in 2018 and my term ended in 2022, so I served part of it from here. I have experience dealing with education. I've dealt with grants and I've dealt with funding and I've dealt with bureaucracy, and all the crap that comes with it.
What are three top issues facing Eureka County and education currently?
Well, education in Eureka County, I think there's a lot of stuff. I'm not completely up on it. I know it's still in the Nevada State Constitution, but I think it's mining taxes used to fund education. The money got pulled from funding, like, specifically, Eureka, and it got thrown into the general fund for education, and I don't think that's right. I don't think that's right at all. If the other counties want to have mining tax money, they're going to need to go find some mines.
Can you explain what the school funding formula is?
I can't. No. I can't go into the specifics, because I don't know what it is. I know how it went. And right now, with all the changes in the federal government where they're abolishing the Department of Education, I think there's going to be more funding on the state level. I sure hope with it coming down on the state level, that there's more input from the state on how education works in our counties.
Is there anything you would like to add that wasn’t covered in these questions?
I don't have an agenda. I just want to help. One thing I would like to really see is, and this goes for all public education, is that school boards drive curriculum. They need to speak up to the university system and the colleges because we need more vocational teachers, and they need to implement it back into the school's curriculum. Problem is, if there's any interest, you get something started, then you go look for a teacher, and you can't find one. We can't find anybody. What contractor that's making a quarter of a million dollars a year wants to go work for $60,000 a year in the school system and put up with a bureaucracy. None of them. They're not stupid.
