Steamboat Springs — This election season, four Hayden residents are running for two open seats on the Hayden School Board.

The two with the most votes will replace outgoing eight-year board members Vance Fulton and Sharon Nereson.

Tammie Delaney

Steamboat Springs native Tammie Delaney has lived in Hayden with her husband, Patrick, since 1994.

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The couple met while managing bicycle tours in New England and Europe.

Both their children are Hayden High School graduates who benefited from the school’s academics and vocational education programs.

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“Great schools create great community, and on an economic level, that’s one of our biggest assets,” Delaney said.

With a new district superintendent, Delaney thinks it is the perfect time for the district to do some visioning for the future.

Delaney has an array of professional experience. She has worked in special events coordination, vacation planning, ski resort lift ticket operations and has facilitated community visioning and land use planning for the town of Hayden. She currently owns Wild Goose Coffee at The Granary.

Greg Hermann

Greg Hermann has lived in Hayden for about five years and thinks his engineering background will help the school district carefully analyze the present and plan for the future.

“I want to do the service,” Hermann said.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cornell University, Hermann has been a consulting engineer in Northwest Colorado since 1977. For the past 12 years, he has been a board member for the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some highly-skilled people in that organization,” Hermann said.

Herman has no children and is in a committed relationship with a woman who works in special education.

Hermann said he thinks the most important use of tax dollars is investments in children and veterans.

With his engineering background, he wants to take a careful look at the school district’s facilities and plan accordingly, so there are no additional burdens placed on the district’s taxpayers.

Kevin Lind

Kevin Lind said initially, there was little interest from community members to run for the school board, and he was encouraged by people associated with the school district to run.

“Having four people step forward is terrific,” Lind said.

Lind and his wife, Wendy, have an 11-year-old son, and Lind has been involved as a volunteer at Hayden Valley Elementary School.

The Linds have lived in Hayden nearly 10 years and own Axial Arts Architecture. Lind thinks his professional experience would be valuable on the board. He said his job requires extensive collaboration, sometimes with multiple parties who are all aiming for improvement.

“I know it’s hard to go beyond the status quo, but with all of us in our daily lives, there is always room for improvement,” Lind said.

For the past three years, Lind has been on the grant committee for the Steamboat Springs Education Fund Board.

Lacey Ramos

Lacey Ramos is a Steamboat Springs native who has lived in Hayden for the past nine years.

She is currently finishing her master’s degree in speech language pathology and works for Moffat County School District.

Ramos and her husband, Nef, have three children in Hayden schools.

“Now that I’m getting done with my master’s degree, we decided we wanted to be more involved in the community,” Ramos said.

Ramos said she thinks the existing board members have done a good job, especially given the challenges that face a small school district, such as tight budgets.

Ramos said she has a lot to learn about being a board member, but one of her focuses would be on developing a plan to reduce teacher stress and workloads.

“If they are running on empty, it’s going to be hard to have education as a priority,” Ramos said. “Reduce stresses of the job so they are a little more free to enjoy teaching.”

To reach Matt Stensland, call 970-871-4247, email mstensland@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @SBTStensland