ROGERS -- Two longtime residents with a history of volunteer work in the School District will run to replace the School Board's longest-serving member.
Jerry Carmichael, the board's president and a member since 1999, opted not to run for re-election. Paige Sultemeier and Dulce Aguirre will compete for his Zone 5 seat in the Sept. 15 election. Early voting begins Tuesday.
Dulce Aguirre
Age: 50
Residency: Rogers, since 1993
Family: Husband, Fernando; two sons, two daughters
Occupation: Manager, Fernando’s Heating and Air Conditioning; tutor at Northwest Arkansas Community College
Education: Associate’s degree in business from Northwest Arkansas Community College, 2012
Military experience: None
Political experience: None
Paige Sultemeier
Age: 54
Residency: Rogers, since 1989
Family: Husband, Chris; two sons
Occupation: Homemaker
Education: Master’s degree in dietetics, hotel, restaurant and institutional management from Kansas State University, 1988
Military experience: None
Political experience: None
Zone 5 covers the district's southwest corner. Bellview, Janie Darr and Westside elementary schools are within the zone.
Aguirre and Sultemeier have lived in Rogers since 1993 and 1989, respectively. Both women are making their first bid for an elected office.
Aguirre's four children range in age from 23 to 33; all of them graduated from Rogers High School. Saltemeier has a son who graduated in 2010 and another son who is a senior at Rogers High.
Sultemeier is a registered dietitian, though she hasn't worked outside the home since her younger son, Joseph, was born.
She said she's always been involved in the parent-teacher organizations at her sons' schools. Over the past eight years she has volunteered hundreds of hours of work running concession stands as part of the Rogers Athletic Booster Club. Her dedication earned her Rogers High School's Bonnie Grimes Scholarship Award for the 2013-14 school year.
Sultemeier also has experience on a school board. She served for 12 years on the board of the First Baptist Christian School in Rogers, which offers prekindergarten through fifth grades. She also teaches a Sunday school class for high school girls at First Baptist Church.
Some people suggested she run for the Zone 5 seat, she said.
"I have a love for the schools and public education," Sultemeier said. "I think every child deserves a great education. That's a key to a lot of our social problems. If they're educated, they can help themselves."
Mitzi Bardrick, a retired educator who once worked as a principal in the Rogers district, has known Sultemeier for years and is campaigning for her.
"Paige is wonderful. She's great to work with," Bardrick said. "I can't say enough about her steadfastness to whatever task she's committed to. She's going to do it and she's going to do it well."
Organizing the concession stands, including the products and the volunteers to staff them, is a huge job, Bardrick said.
"So she's a person who can certainly shoulder and carry a lot of responsibility," Bardrick said.
Sultemeier's husband, Chris Sultemeier, is executive vice president of logistics for Wal-Mart U.S.
Aguirre, a native of Costa Rica, earned U.S. citizenship in 2007. She hopes to become the first Hispanic to serve on the School Board. About 44 percent of the district's students are Hispanics, according to state data.
"(Hispanic) culture is different, and I want to be there to try to explain why we're thinking this, why sometimes parents are not involved, and make that connection," Aguirre said. "And I want to be there for everybody, not just for the Hispanics."
Carrie Smith, a marketing consultant who has made two unsuccessful bids for Rogers City Council, said she helped recruit Aguirre to run for the board specifically because she thought it needed a Hispanic representative.
"You've got two really good candidates," Smith said. "I think the voter really needs to think about how important it is to a Hispanic or Latino individual to see someone who looks like them if they need to deal with the School Board. I can't imagine coming up with a better candidate to run and to serve us."
Aguirre manages her and her husband's heating and cooling business. She earned an associate's degree from Northwest Arkansas Community College in 2012 and hopes to attain her bachelor's degree in business in the near future.
Smith said she has been a customer of the Aguirres.
"They are very ethical people. That's a big deal for me," Smith said.
Aguirre, who speaks both English and Spanish, has volunteered as a translator for the district during parent-teacher conferences and other events as needed. She's done that for six or seven years, she said. She's also volunteered her translation services for a couple of years at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, she said.
Aguirre and Sultemeier said they are pleased with how the district is being operated. Both said they don't have an agenda or anything they would like to see changed.
Both candidates also joined current board members on a tour of the district's school buildings. That tour was stretched out over four days during the first two weeks of the school year.
"That was really eye-opening, in a positive way," Sultemeier said.
"They are great people," Aguirre said of the board members. "I had a really good time with them."
Aguirre might become the first Hispanic to serve on the Rogers board, but she won't be the first to run for it. Ada Aguilar ran for a board seat in 2009 against incumbent Walter Schrader. Aguilar received about 20 percent of the 140 votes cast in that election.
The Zone 5 race is the only School Board contest in Rogers this year. Board member Kristen Cobbs' term also is expiring, but she didn't draw an opponent and will get a third term.
NW News on 09/04/2015