Ramirez, Walt lead Carson school board races

Carson City School Board District 1 incumbent Lupe Ramirez held her lead over challenger Jason Stinson as of Monday – 1,122 votes – while candidate Molly Walt held a 2,715-vote margin over Shanna Cobb-Adams for the District 6 seat.

Ramirez last week told the Appeal said she was optimistic.

“The community is voting for who they think will be making an impact in the community and supporting the things the district is doing and getting our students to the finish line,” she said.

Stinson, speaking with the Appeal on Monday, said he had remained updated on last week’s results and the mail-in ballot results, some signatures for which were still being cured as of Monday afternoon, with about 100 mail-in ballots and 180 provisional ballots to count Tuesday.

Stinson said he was waiting to make final remarks on his campaign out of fairness for both candidates.

“If things don’t change, I’ll honorably concede,” he told the Appeal on Monday. “I don’t plan on fighting. I don’t think I’m going to win. It is what it is. I know I gave it a good shot. I’m appreciative of Lupe, and I ran a good race. I wish her the best if it does turn out she’s the actual winner, and hopefully she carries out the things she said she’ll do.”

The Nevada Association of School Boards’ annual conference took place Nov. 11 and 12, and school board candidates were invited to attend. Stinson said he found the sessions informative. He said he also spent time talking to some of the current board members as well as former Superintendent Richard Stokes and said they were friendly and helped him learn about how school boards operate.

“It was all very useful and regardless, I’m going to take all that information to help the people understand better the meaning of what the board has control over and what is out of their realm,” Stinson said. “Transparency is my number one goal, and hopefully we can be more productive.”

Walt and Cobb-Adams have been vying for the seat being vacated by Trustee Don Carine.

Walt on Friday requested not to make an official comment until all the ballots were in and counted.

Cobb-Adams did not respond to the Appeal for comment.

Matt Clapham, who ran unopposed, takes the District 3 seat being vacated by Stacie Wilke-McCulloch.

The Carson City deadline for curing ballot signatures was 5 p.m. Monday evening.