Ouch! Reading a simple spreadsheet can be challenging, and I am unsure where Jackie O’Karma (“Vote for Paslay for 9-R school board,” Sept. 25-26) got her graduation rates for Durango School District 9-R, but the official site at Colorado Department of Education (www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/gradratecurrent) states that for 2019-2020, Durango High School’s graduation rate was a sterling 92.3%, not 74%.

Big Picture High School’s rate was 50%. BP kids frequently overcome challenges to succeed that might knock O’Karma on her fanny. Go BP students!

Colorado Connections Academy has a rate of 55%, and those students are all online and not taught by our extraordinary local teachers, aides and other critical support staff.

As a retired teacher of 40 years, an administrator and a former 9-R school board member, I am deeply committed to getting significant facts correct. Misinformation, intentional or accidental, highlights the need to keep success in front of us as a community and use accurate data to bolster our choices for the school board.

Erica Brown, Andrea Parmenter and Rick Peterson believe in our students, our teachers and our “earned experts” in the scientific realm to keep 9-R on the right track. They all have significant experience working in our schools and/or with young people, and they know that developing critical thinking skills means more than parroting slogans and yelling at their opponents.

Please vote for all of them – Erika Brown, Andrea Parmenter and Rick Peterson. Our future thanks you!

Stephanie Moran

Durango