Bob Ticer: Key is ‘providing avenues to success’

EAGLE COUNTY — You may not save them all, but Bob Ticer says we have to try.

“Education starts at home, but many children don’t have the opportunity,” Ticer said.

Ticer is the Avon police chief with 26 years in law enforcement and is an Air Force veteran. He spends enormous amounts of time working with local kids.

“In my 26-year public safety career, I have seen many children end up in the criminal justice system due to lack of adequate education, lack of mentors and poor choices. Student success and academic achievement is an avenue to success for all students and, with your help, we will get all of our students on the right path and the realization of the American Dream,” Ticer said.

Ticer earned his master’s degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University and has experience teaching at the university and community college levels.

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Between 32 and 38 percent of Eagle County Schools students who go on to Colorado institutions of higher learning require remediation in reading and math, an area he said must improve.

“I concur with our superintendent’s goal of measuring our school district against international benchmarks,” Ticer said. “U.S. public education ranks about the same as less affluent countries like Croatia, Portugal and Russia, despite much larger school budgets here.”

Ticer said he believes in open and transparent communication, not just during election time, but all the time.

“My vision is simple: Move our youth to the highest level they can reach,” Ticer said.

Ticer said the school board’s top priority is to “strategically manage the budget, $95 million of hard-earned taxpayer money.”

He hires people all of the time and has commanded thousands of people in his career. Recruiting and retaining good people is vital, and the district needs to find ways to bring great teachers here form around the West. Ticer said local schools should be recruiting the best teachers from all over the West, but the starting pay makes that difficult.

“Teachers starting pay should be higher than the current $39,000, a wage difficult to live on in our community. That negatively affects students’ classroom performance,” Ticer said.

Ticer said that while Colorado voters might have approved TABOR to increase transparency, it also ties the school board’s hands in recruiting and retaining teachers.

“I believe my background in public safety, education, leadership, fiscal management and community volunteerism will provide value to the Eagle County Board of Education,” Ticer said.