Submitted
Thomas M. Wasinger announced Friday he has filed to run for a seat on the USD 489 school board for this election year.
"My decision to run at this time centers around two issues: the decision by the school board to pursue another bond for improvement to school facilities and the hope to broaden the membership of the school board as it relates to the experience of the current board members," he said in a press release.
"The USD 489 board has signaled its desire to develop a new bond proposal by April of next year," he said. "To be clear, I believe a bond reasonable in scope and cost would be approved by the voters.
"But as someone who participated in every meeting of the 'Vision Team' during the last bond effort, I believe it is critical that the overwhelming majority of people who voted against the last bond have a voice on the school board this time in order to ensure the DLR group (the same architectural firm which "guided" the last bond process) does not rush the process this time around (which begs the question why an April 2022 deadline) and that the criteria for the design of a bond generated by DLR's own polling data actually forms the basis of any new bond proposal.
"With regards to diversification, there is only one current board member who makes his living from working in the private sector," he said. "Given my 35 years of experience running businesses in Hays, however, I believe adding my voice to the school board would help broaden the approach of the school board as it makes its decision."