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Carolyn Knox Keep: ‘We’re on the right path’

Carolyn Knox Keep
Special to the Daily |

Meet Your Candidates

The Vail Daily is profiling candidates for the Eagle County School District Board of Education.

Today is Carolyn Knox Keep and Mary Cotton, running for District C around Edwards.

Election Day is Nov. 3.

EAGLE COUNTY — Carolyn Knox Keep grew up in the valley and was one of the first students in Vail’s Red Sandstone Elementary School. That makes her love for the schools in Eagle County a lifetime affair.

“I was raised in the Vail Valley and have lived here for more than 40 years. Growing up, I attended Eagle County public schools,” she said. “I want all future generations to have the same quality of experience my family has had in Eagle County Schools. I believe we’re on the right path. … I look forward to paying it forward and keeping it going.”

She said when she and her husband, Rex Keep, were living in Edwards, they sent their two kids, Chase and Taylor, to Edwards Elementary School, Berry Creek Middle School and Battle Mountain High School, because they were their neighborhood schools.



Knox Keep’s grandfather George Knox founded the Vail Trail newspaper in 1965, which helped her get her fingers on the community’s pulse. She said she has kept that in mind as a leader in the Edwards Elementary School PTA, Berry Creek Middle School PTA and Battle Mountain Super Boosters, as well as in her work on fundraisers and as a trustee and volunteer event chair for the Education Foundation of Eagle County. She’s the Parent Teacher Student Association president at Battle Mountain.

For her, the funding question is not complicated. It’s not easy, either, but that’s not the same thing.

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Knox Keep said the governor has made it clear that another round of funding cuts is at hand. If the governor is correct, that money is going away and it is not coming back, she said.

She has been the accounting manager with the Steadman Clinic for 11 years.

Knox Keep said the school district is stretching taxpayer dollars as far as it can, but voters might have to be asked for a property tax increase. Some of the buildings are beginning to show signs from putting off maintenance.

“We may have to ask for more money.” Knox Keep said. “We’re not taking care of the buildings that taxpayers have paid for.”

She said if she’s elected, her door shall always be open.

“I am very passionate about the quality of education for every child in the community and would love the opportunity to be part of the process,” she said.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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