The five candidates for Hays USD 489 were interviewed by the Hays Post. Their responses are being presented in a question-and-answer format. The other candidates running include: Kelly Ancar, Ken Brooks, Craig Pallister and Curt Vajnar.
Three seats are available on the board. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Age: 46
Occupation: Director of Client Services at Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services
What do you think qualifies you to run for the school board?
I have four years of experience on the school board. Before that, though, I was a librarian, before I was a public librarian here in Hays, I was a system librarian at the Northwest Kansas Library System.
In doing that work, I would frequently provide training to governing boards and library boards. The way the statute works in Kansas, they're very similar in structure, in power and in how they operate. Knowing how the function of that governance works for the school, which is something I value immensely, I felt I would do a good job.
Do you have a child or grandchild currently attending Hays USD 489 schools or did any of your children attend in the past?
My son just graduated in May. I took him on a tour of the new Hays High. We just drove around it right before we opened it, and he was mad at me because he didn't like going to school and wanted to go learn there.
Why are you running for reelection?
I think we're doing great things in this district. I think we're getting better and better statistically, our star ratings, our scoring, our teacher retention rates, all of these things, teacher satisfaction rates.
There's work to do, and I think we can do it, and I think we can do it well. I think that my belief in the value of public education means that I'm going to work to make things better, and that means using our strategic plan and vision and values to really drive decisions. I really like that direction we've decided on as a team in the strategic plan.
I like the boring stuff like really parsing out, 'OK, is that a good policy?' The negotiations, the budgetary explanations, I like the nerdy, nitty-gritty stuff. It's really satisfying for me as a volunteer to be able to really give back to my community in this way that a lot of people don't like.
Do you support the district's five-year capital improvement plan? If not, is there anything that you would change about it?
It is a working document. As things become priorities or we discover that there will be a significant price hike in four years when we're planning to do them, we might move that up because it's easier or better to do it earlier than later.
I support the five-year capital outlay plan. It is something that we take advice on from the administration and work on together. If board consensus says, 'That's not important,' or 'What's the value there?' the plan is a working document, so it should change. It does change.
The capital outlay plan is a plan to maintain our physical spaces for the future. Before we passed the bond, almost all of the criticism that I heard from the community was about how Hays USD 489 did not take care of its buildings, and that's why we were in this mess. That's why we needed so much money for the bond.
It's a big bond. It's huge, and we're very, very grateful to taxpayers for it. It is a beautiful gift we're giving to the future by doing this. If we don't take care of these buildings, this gift that we've been given by these taxpayers, we are, once again, not being effective managers of our resources.
We are being careless and disrespectful to this investment, and I feel like that is what the capital outlay plan is meant to do, is to make sure that we are always in a position to maintain the safety and function of our facilities.
Do you support the plans for the remaining bond projects? If not, is there anything that you would change about those projects?
Yes, I support the plans for the remaining projects. The middle school should be done by December. We will be working on Felton [Elementary School] shortly thereafter.
The costs for these projects are laid out in the bond project tracking that we're looking at regularly and updating. The overall cost hasn't changed very much as we make more money off the bond [interest], which is not the same as raising taxes.
As the bond earns more funds, we're able to reprioritize or adjust expectations. We passed the bond, and then we experienced an enormous spike in construction costs. This was going to be different from what we had all pictured, right?
But the space allocated to the bodies in the schools was always the goal. We were cramming children and high school students into a too small band room. We're not going to be doing that now.
We're going to be putting middle schoolers in an appropriately sized band room, and middle schoolers in an appropriately sized choir room. It's all going to be useful for the students. It's going to work for them and the teachers, too.
How would you view your role as a school board member, oversight with administrators and teachers handling day-to-day operations, or the board manages all aspects of operations?
The governing board governs through policy and supervision of one employee. That is the official statute. It's the policy of the board that, together, all seven of us share a duty of oversight over the superintendent, who is in charge of operations.
We govern through policy, and we are allowed to make recommendations and ask for details where we need them in order to approve spending.
For example, there are certain expenditures that we are required to approve, and overall bills we are meant to watch. We are powered to trust but verify, and that is our role. Individually, we have no power.
So I don't know how we would oversee the minute details of day-to-day operations, because we would obviously never be able to see all of the details—seven of us, all at once.
Do you think the district is adequately managing its budget? If not, what would you change or cut?
I think so.
Most of our funds are going toward staff. I can't tell you how many times I've heard about it; even when we're discussing issues with parents, they're often talking about staff. There aren't enough staff, or there should be more staff in this kind of role, or there aren't enough paraprofessionals, special education paraprofessionals or custodial staff.
So much of our budget, the majority of our budget, is humans. I would like to increase the para pay to more than the starting wages are now, which is, I think, in the $13 range.
These people are responsible day to day for our children and keeping them safe and helping them grow. They also need to integrate time for teachers to communicate and engage parents, and that means we need to have enough [paras] so that they're not just struggling to meet the day-to-day [requirements].
We are working to reduce other costs and some staff-associated costs. The [teacher's] union and the board have been talking, and we've presented on the health insurance problem.
We have a number of people who have health insurance available elsewhere, but they take our insurance, take our fully covered plan. That's something that we're working on. We could reduce costs in that way, and that savings will allow employees to have a better take-home [pay]. It might also help with the increases in benefit costs.
Of course, when you have enough staff and well-qualified staff, then you also have less turnover, which costs less overall. I support effective management of those resources.
We cut a building [Lincoln Elementary School]. We're going to cut another building. [Rockwell Administration Center will be closed, and administrative offices will move to O'Loughlin Elementary School, which will close as an elementary school.] That will be another building that will not be a drain on resources.
Combining the middle school and high school campuses means that you can be a much more effective management of secondary education resources. You can have a couple of shared teachers. You can introduce some subjects earlier. Perhaps there's room to have a librarian [shared between those two buildings].
Each elementary school will now have its own librarian, and that is an incredibly effective resource management when you add a librarian to a building.
When we cut staff, we aren't supporting children. When we cut things like transportation, we're not supporting families.
Are there any policies that you think should be changed? How would you change those policies if you had the ability?
Our policy book is about 300 pages long. I've read it, but we write things down so we don't have to memorize them. If somebody came to me with a policy that they felt needed to be challenged, I would talk about it.
I don't think that we should keep doing things just because that's the way we've always done them. I also think that if a policy is already vetted by, for example, the [Kansas Association of School Boards] and the past administrators and past boards, then I would have to have a really good reason to change it.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I really enjoy serving on the school board. I enjoy being a part of the community in that way, being invited into classrooms and being able to watch the children grow.
I met a lot of the kids who graduated last year. It was really cool to watch them walk across the stage. And there are a few more kids that I've known that long in this district.
I've been serving on the policy council for the Early Childhood Center. This will be my third year. I love the foundation that it sets for the kids who are entering our district.
They're entering our district at zero, and their parents are asked to make decisions about what's happening for Head Start. It's a beautiful thing when the parents have the time and can give that of themselves.
I love being involved in the creation of an environment where we can foster every student's academic wishes and needs so they can look back and see how they were valued in this community. I want every kid who leaves Hays to know how well they were valued, and I want them to want to come back.
As told to Cristina Janney/Hays Post