Two applicants have entered the running to fill the open seat on the Carson City School Board.
Randy Carlson, 60, and Deonne Contine, 41, will be interviewed at Tuesday's board meeting where members will select one of them to fill the District 6 seat left vacant when Barbara Howe moved to California in October.
Contine, a deputy attorney general and mother to a Bordewich-Bray first-grader, is no stranger to this process.
She was among 12 candidates interviewed in January when Bob Crowell left the school board to assume his duties as mayor. She was one of the three finalists, but Lynnette Conrad was chosen for the position.
She and her husband, Ben, have since bought a home in District 6. When she heard about the vacancy, she didn't hesitate to apply.
"I'm naturally going to be involved because I have a child in the school district," she said. "I'm excited to have the opportunity to apply again."
Carlson, a consultant for the aerospace and medical industries, raised his daughter, Amanda, in Carson City. She graduated from Carson High School in 2004.
"She has turned out to have an excellent education thanks to the Carson City school system," he said. "I've been interested in her education and that of her peers."
He said that in conversations with his daughter, who now teaches freshman social studies in Rochester, N.Y., he's come to have a better understanding of the federal mandate No Child Left Behind.
"I would like to see the school board keep very much in mind that the statistics are about keeping score and not the end goal," he said. "The goal is to get the students well educated."
Contine said she'd like the district to find ways to better "leverage the resources of parents to fill gaps in funding."
Carlson said he'd like to "motivate parents to be more supportive of children's educational endeavors."
They also both cited declining enrollment and a tightening budget as some of the top priorities of the board.
Other topics at Tuesday's board meeting include a vote on whether the school district should adopt an online option for students and a decision whether to allow the community greenhouse to be built on the Carson High School campus.