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.
Matt Orr
Age: 40
Profession: Vice president of Operation for Hess Services, Inc.
Incumbent: No
Do you have children or grandchildren who attend(ed) Victoria schools?
I have two children in the Victoria School system, one in each building
Why are you running for school board?
I had always wanted to be involved with the school board because I have a passion for learning and I love the number of opportunities that are available for kids to actively get involved in sports and activities when they attend a small school district. I started to realize that now was the time when I needed to get involved from conversations with frustrated parents, teachers, and staff in addition to conversations with school board members. The frustrations from so many angles, led me to believe that we needed someone who is experienced in budgeting, purchasing, human resources, leadership and conflict resolution, if we are going to start pulling these pieces back together.
If you had one thing you could change about the USD 432 school district, what would it be?
I currently have concerns about our spending, but I will need time in the budgets and district policies to see what the current plans for the funds are and what the rules are around what approvals are required. In the last meeting, I saw the board approve capital expenditures that seemed high to me for the work being performed, and the quotes were from a single vendor. I would push to utilize a multiple quote process for expenditures over a threshold to work to keep costs down.
What is your opinion of the Hays USD 432 administration? Do you think you could work with the current administration moving forward?
Yes, I think that I could work with the current administration. Having attended several recent school board meetings, I think there are several items that warranted further discussion by the board and the administration. Also, I thought some of the decisions should have been tabled until a more thorough look at the costs for the proposed work could have been completed. One key example would be multiple expenditures that were single source bids and in my opinion over spends for non-essential items.
What is your opinion of the current school board? Do you think you could compromise with the incumbents who will remain on the board?
Absolutely. Our school board is made up good people. I have coached with some of them, our kids play sports together and go to school together. I think that in many of the situations that I have had concerns with, during the school board meetings that I have attended, could have went in a different direction if someone would have asked the right questions to prompt a further discussion.
What do you think the board’s role should be in the day-to-day operations of the district?
In my view the board is there to be oversite of the district. They are put in place by tax-paying voters to be good stewards of the money allocated to the district. So they need to find ways to utilize the funds available to best benefit our students and look for opportunities to provide our teachers with tools to help them better the education of our students. The school board is also there to be decision makers on topics that are often complicated. They should review plans put forward by the administration and make decisions in the best interest of the district as a whole. Then the administration should execute those plans. Every board member won’t be an expert on education and how it should be performed. That is why we rely on our teachers and the administration. The school board is made up of elected officials so the administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, and community should be able to raise concerns to people that they have elected to serve as their representative.
What are your opinions of the school district’s discipline policies and how they have been applied?
It is more than difficult to make an informed statement about how discipline policies have been applied without being in the room where the information is presented that is not available to the public. I can say that I based on my current job and previous jobs that I have been in leadership and management positions for coming up on a couple of decades. Rules need to be in compliance with regulations and the standards defined by the district policies. Then they need to be applied in a consistent manner otherwise people lose faith in the leaders and the rules.
What do you think the school district should do to improve student test scores and academic performance?
I think that academic performance of a student is a combination of the foundation and expectations set at home by the parents, the ability of a teacher to identify and connect with the learning style of each student, challenging students to excel, and the absence of distractions in the classroom. The school system is responsible for 3 of these 4. The best foundation for achieving these 3 is experienced teaching professionals and an aligned, supportive administration.