T. Antonieta Butler supports health, community interaction

SUMMIT COUNTY — Summit School Board candidate T. Antonieta Butler aims to improve student health and encourage unity for Summit students as well as the community at large.

Her background in education, health care and parenting gives Butler a unique perspective on many of the issues the district faces.

“I really want to break the language barrier, and my commitment is to get community engagement between the board and parents,” she said.

Butler grew up in Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America. She gained experience learning English during two months spent as an exchange student in England. She first arrived in Summit County in January 1999.

She said Summit is the best community for raising a kid, and that she's running for office as a means to giving back to it.

“Kids are eager to learn in this community,” she said. “They need a chance to participate and give back to the community.”

Butler said adults need to be aware of their actions in front of kids, and that she's taught her daughter, Abril, 8, to volunteer, such as with Make a Difference Day.

“She doesn't mind to get up early and do it,” Butler said.

Butler's been involved in education for 18 years, most recently as a volunteer room parent and secretary of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Upper Blue Elementary School.

She said she taught chemistry, physics and thermodynamics at a technical school in Argentina for 15 years. The students were aged 15 to 18.

She holds a chemistry degree from ENET, a technical school in Argentina.

Butler said she's attended school board meetings since August and has been eagerly researching the issues.

Butler attends the Agape Outpost Chapel in Breckenridge. She's involved with a local physical and nutritional activity group and volunteers as a car seat technician.

“I have a full-time job but always volunteer for everything around the community,” she said.

Her work involves nutrition education for the federal Women, Infants and Children program at Summit County Public Health. She said she's also a certified medical interpreter.

Butler's nutritional education work involves classes for breastfeeding mothers. She hopes to one day be a lactation consultant.

Nutrition and activities

If elected, Butler wants to trim the budget without harming the arts or paraprofessionals.

“We need to find other ways to cut our budget,” she said. “A school can save a lot of money in lunches.”

She said she frequently has lunch with her third-grade daughter at Upper Blue, and that the portions for first-graders are enough for an adult.

“A lot gets thrown in the trash,” Butler said.

She also supports getting kids involved with after-school programs by the time they reach middle school so they're too busy to “have time to get in trouble.”

For some parents this can take some sacrifices, but it pays off, she said.

Butler also supports the International Baccalaureate program, which encourages open-minded learners.

“They work together and respect each other,” she said, adding that it opens kids' eyes and minds for the future.

Butler said that with bilingual students in every Summit school, the paraprofessionals who help English-learners are essential.

Having been a Spanish-speaker learning English earlier in life, she understands some of the struggles English-learners have in Summit schools. Taking a test in a language different from one's own can be extra tough.

“Sometimes questions are tricky, and if you have a person there who explains it, that's really good,” she said.

Butler supports internships for Summit High School students to begin pursuing their interests “because it's so hard to find what do you want to be in life,” she said.

She suggested internships ranging from utility plants to offices or laboratories for students in their last two years of high school.

“You need to have those opportunities,” she said.

Regarding the school board's relationship with the community, Butler said she wants to think of ways to get more parents involved.

“I think they're doing a good job, but always communications can be improved,” she said.

Butler said board members need to frequently be visible and active in the community.

Robert Allen can be contacted at (970) 668-4628 or rallen@summitdaily.com.