The Hays Post sent questionnaires to all the candidates who are running for seats on the Victoria USD 432 school board.
The candidates who will appear on the ballot include Janea Dinkel, Terry Dinkel, Haley Gagnon, Brenton Hoffman, Jacob Hunter, Douglas Kuh, Tammy Lichter, Matthew Orr, Morgan Pfeifer, Gregory Sander, Tammy Lee Schumacher.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 7. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
To find your polling location, click here.
Jacob (Jake) Hunter
Age: 38
Profession: Journeyman Metering Technician at Midwest Energy, Inc.
Incumbent: No
Do you have children or grandchildren who attend(ed) Victoria schools?
Yes, 2.
Why are you running for school board?
I have tried to be, in my adult life, a civil servant. I served with the Gorham Fire Department for 9 years before moving to Victoria because of work-related reasons. I think that the openings on the board are a good opportunity to show my kids that they should never sit on a sideline when the time to take on a leadership role presents itself. We should all be ready to take up the mantle when it comes to the education process, and what better way to do that than to be a part of the process itself.
If you had one thing you could change about the USD 432 district, what would it be?
I go back and forth on transparency, and the accountability of ALL members of the district, be they faculty, board, or students and parents. Modernity, in recent years, has come with great powers in technology. That is a good thing! It can also have its drawbacks. With transparency, there should simply not be a record — that is public knowledge — that shouldn’t be publicly available, but there are also certain criteria or issues that need to remain in executive sessions for legal and privacy reasons. On accountability, I believe that we all can do a better job of making ourselves accountable for our children’s behaviors. I don’t think kids have changed as much as society’s expectation of them has. These challenges start at home, lets make it nicer for the people who are helping you build them into something we can all be proud of.
What is your opinion of the current administration? Can you work with them?
I have no personal qualm with any of the current administration. I can work with anyone, and I am here to help with whatever the board needs.
What is your opinion of the current board? Can you compromise with the incumbents?
I think the current board is doing a fine job. Policy gets handled, punishment gets appropriately dealt, bills get paid. In the wide scope, they accomplish the necessity of their job. I think the incumbents on the board will be fine with “new blood” coming in, and we will have to adjust to each other as with any new endeavor.
What do I think should be the role of the board in day-to-day operations?
The Board should only have a slight impact on day-to-day operations. Obviously, policies will infect those operations, but members themselves should not be overtly present in the daily operation of the school, as a board member. There are times and faculty who are serving both roles in faculty and board members, and maybe we are better served for it, maybe we aren’t. I can’t make that judgement until I have more experience with the matter.
What are your opinions of the school district’s discipline policies and how they have been applied?
Individual disciplinary actions should be, and I think are, handled in executive session and are upheld to a legal standard that retains all the rights of the accused. As for broader, more policy-oriented discipline, I think our current board does a fine job of asking questions in referencing policy and standard amongst our fellow regional districts and citing them for their examples. I’ve sat through several of the board meetings concerning policy and listened to them go through other district’s experimental policy changes and their benefits or downfalls. They learn with others who, like them, are learning themselves. I don’t believe there is a policy application issue, I think some may find some policies unpleasant, but their application and adoption are two separate arguments. No single act will please or placate every person.
What do you think the school district should do to improve student test scores and academic performance?
Testing scores are an unfortunate measure of the era. As goes the scores, so follows the funding, which is a significant issue. It also places a sometimes-unbearable amount of pressure on children to perform at any cost. I don’t advocate for making testing easier, but instead for making teaching more effective. Effective teachers make the students better, and better students do better things. The best way to better teaching is better funding. However, throwing money isn’t always an available option. The better option is pick each other up, play for the same team, hold ourselves accountable and our children, and make better citizens who make better decisions. It’s not a short or easy road, success never is, but it’s the right road. Support the people who are supporting our kids’ futures, and that problem will almost always take care of itself.