Candidate name: Debbra Zockoll

District:3
1. I grew up in St. George, attending Elementary, Jr. High and High school in Washington county. I attended
Dixie College, BYU-Hawaii and graduating from SUU with a degree in Elementary Education. I have been
married to my husband Tony for 40 years. We have two sons, Joshua and Jacob and three adorable
grandsons. I taught school for the Washington County School District for 30 years and currently serve on the
Washington County School Board. I have a huge passion for education and serving on the school board has
been my way to give back the to the education community.
2. My first experiences with the WCSD, was my own education. My children also attended WCSD schools and
received fantastic educations that prepared them for college. My grandsons now attend Crimson View
Elementary and are receiving great educations. I taught first grade in the Washington County School District for
30 years. I started my teaching career at West Elementary, (8 years) Bloomington Elementary, (20 years) and
Little Valley Elementary (2 years). As an educator I have a great appreciation for WCSD and I'm grateful for the
experiences I had in the classroom. When I retired I wanted to continue to serve students and the school board
has been extremely rewarding.
3. This is a tough question because education has always been funded so poorly that we are always looking for
ways to save money and trim programs as much as possible. So far, because of the good Administrators and
teachers in the district we have been able to keep all academic programs. I would have to say if we did have to
cut more it would have to be things that did not take away from the classroom.
4. The biggest challenges facing the WCSD now are GROWTH, TEACHER PAY, TEACHER SHORTAGE. The
district is currently building two elementary schools and a middle school to keep up with growth also, a high
school is scheduled to be built in the near future. The teacher pay and teacher shortage are tied together. We
have to continue our talks with legislators about funding and I believe truth and taxation is important in being
able to increase teacher salaries.
5. Hiring and keeping quality teachers in WCSD is a huge issue that I addressed in question 4. Truth and
taxation allows us to give teachers a raise but more important is the state needs to fund education at a higher
rate. I have had many meetings with law makers. I also attend legislative sessions every year to meet with law
makers letting them know how important education is and asking them to fund education. Right now Governor
Herbert has pledged education as his number 1 priority.
6. Washington County School District has so many great things going on. Students are getting great educations
and being exposed to many fantastic programs. The thing the district could do better is making people aware of
of the good things going on. Many people are not aware we have all the programs we have. The district has
recently hired a person to help with this and I'm hopeful that we will be able to celebrate what's right with
WCSD soon.
7. Currently WCSD has a dual immersion program that is leading the state. Many other districts are looking at
Washington County as the leader in dual immersion. We offer Chinese and Spanish now in several schools.
Test scores so far have shown that students are testing high in academics and speaking languages at
proficiency. This will better prepare students for college and employment.
8. Dual immersion is important to keep going strong in Washington County schools. I believe that we should do
all we can to add more schools to give more students exposure to dual immersion and work to be able to
continue dual immersion in intermediate schools, middle schools and high schools. This is an important
program that definitely needs to continue.