001You all ready? >> Yes. >> All right. Call to order the uh special schoolboard meeting. Uh today is Wednesday, February 11th, 2026. If you would please uh stand with me and join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> If you would please silence your cell phone devices, that would be appreciated. Um, next order of business is roll call. Secretary Batty, >> roll call. >> Mr. Arnold, >> present. >> Miss Jackson, >> present. Miss Farley, >> present. >> Vice President King, >> present. >> Myself, President Seer, >> here. >> All right, we have a 60, right? So that's everyone. We've determined that president here
002is the same thing. >> Excellent. >> Um, okay. So, today we're here to interview candidates for a school board vacancy. Uh we will be interviewing uh candidates in the order in which they submitted their letter of interest. Uh the first uh uh applicant is Nate L. So Nate, if you would come step forward and uh go around here and shake hands if you don't know Nate. Uh believe you have, but like how you doing? >> Good to see you. Thank you for being here. >> Great. How are you? you to have a seat there in the hot seat and uh we have some questions that we are going to ask. Uh and then at the end uh we'll allow you to have a closing statement in case you you know didn't answer anything you thought
003maybe want to answer or what have you. So um first question is by me just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself. >> U my name is Nate LS. I am a resident here in Leaport, a Leaport County resident. I went to New Prairie. You'll have to forget that. Um, but uh my kids are uh my daughter just uh is starting her freshman year at Pretty West Lafayette. She skipped her senior year and is not in the school of engineering. And I've got a son that's a sophomore, Finley, uh here in Leaport, and a son that's an eighth grader, Harrison. And uh I'm a pastor at Stacry Community Church. I run an organization here in town called the PAX Center, which is a food providing organization. We do community gardens with education
004programs and things like that. I'm also a uh an instructor at IvyTech where I teach uh leadership and communication. >> Awesome. Nice. >> Okay, Tucker. Uh so why do you want to serve for the Leaport Community School Board and what personally motivates you to take on this role? >> Um so education is tied into everything, right? So when we talk about the kind of important aspects of growing the port and being a part of a residential port, we've got community development, we've got econom economic development, we've got um just the the strength of a community and that's tied into education. It's everything. Um, for me, Tucker, I grew up with a mother who had my brother when she was a teenager. I was the fourth of four kids, and she was 20 when she had
005me. And, uh, the school system that I went to not only educated me well, but but it also it provided so many helps and so many assists and partnerships and collaborations with my parents. it it, you know, um was the the the place that taught me how to play sports. It's where I learned an instrument. It's how I learned how to have community uh with friendships there. When my mother died when I was 15 years old, it was the school counselors that did a grief class for me, you know, and they helped not only just educate me, they helped form me. And so for me, I think leading this school and helping to collaborate and partner with you all is an incredible task um because it's forming the minds and the hearts and uh the
006the just fabric of our community today and in the future. What do you see as the top two or three most important challenges or opportunities facing our school district right now and why? >> Yeah, that's a great question, Monica. So, I I think the two top ones right now are you've got we've got revenue challenges, right? Um, so we've with the way that the state is is moving with property tax and things like this, this certainly, as you guys all know, has created some challenges for revenue. And everyone should love lower taxes, but there still has to be money to fund the things that we love. So whether or not the school system is going to do a referendum, whether or not, you know, they're going to figure out another way for uh income to
007come in is I think an very important question that this school board's going to have to work through. Um but also I think the other big question is the way education is done in Indiana, it's a marketplace, right? We have school choice, we have vouchers, we all have these things. And I think what you guys have started and what you're doing and I think what Dr. Wood has started to do is craft an identity for Leaport Community School System. And I think one of the the challenges and one of the opportunities that this school board has is to continue to develop the identity of what Leaport Community School Corporation is. So that not only does our community know, but everyone that is going to want to come to Leaport Community School Corporation knows that this
008is what we're good at. This is our identity. This is who we are as people, right? We um are good neighbors to each other. We educate um at a at a high level. Uh we we want excellence from all of our programs and we get that. I mean our music program is incredible. Our athletics are improving. All these kind of things and um that's our identity and so continuing to evolve that is I think one of the big struggles that or not the struggle but an opportunity that we have here in the future. Um, how would you describe the proper role of a school board member in in relations to the superintendent, the staff, the board members, and the community? >> Yeah, that's a good question. Um, so ideally incredibly collaborative hand and glove relationship.
009Um I think the school board is um ultimately held liable for how the school system is doing because if the right team is not in place then you certainly that team has an accountability the administrators all these kind of things but ultimately it comes back down to the school board right you um and the rest of the board members here are in charge of holding this school in trust and Um, and so it's a big weight. I know it's a lot on your shoulders, but um, but hiring the right person and having the right administrator shouldn't feel adversarial at all, just like, you know, educators in their administration shouldn't seem adversarial at all. It should be collaborative. And I hope that's what you have now, but I I think it is. Um, from what I
010hear, that's what I would hope. >> Great answer. Um, can you give us an example of a difficult decision you've had to make either personally or professionally and walk us through how you approached it? >> Um, yeah. I mean, here's you don't have to go back that far when I think we all had to make tough decisions during CO 19 and you know, I pastor a church. I lead uh a nonprofit organization. I'm on different boards and things like that. and everyone was panicked and um nobody knew what to do, no one knew what to believe, no one, it just seemed like everyone was mad. Um and it didn't matter which side you were on, everyone seemed mad. And I think a lot of that stem from fear, right? As anger often does, anger often
011brings fear out in people. Um, and so I think one of the things that we did as a congregation is um, look at the root cause of what's going on. I is it really that people are angry at each other or are they afraid? And so, you know, Simon Senk often talks about going back to the why. Why is that actually happening? Um, why are people afraid right now? and what would can we do as leaders to acquies and help and uh work through some of that fear. There's lots of opportunities that we have here in the poor community school corporation. You guys had a pretty I don't want to say hard or challenging, but it took a lot of leadership in the last couple years to do what you guys have had to do
012here. And I think what happens in those moments is people get fearful, right? And when people get fearful, then they get angry or they get, you know, anxious. And uh I think one of the things I learned in that season, in that moment, is before we look at the actions of where what everyone's doing, look at the heart behind it. And you'll probably find that there's a lot of fear that we can address and help people through. Thank you. >> I think parents and community members often have very different opinions as how the issues like curriculum and extracurricular activities, discipline policies and budget priorities and so forth are handled. How would you approach that situation? And you you're well aware of the situation we had a few years ago with school withholding schools. >> I've
013heard things. >> Yes. Yeah. I think we've all heard of read about it. uh and uh you know a lot of strong disagreement in the community and we as a board had to face a lot of people. How would you handle something that with the stakeholders? How do you go about addressing it? So >> you may you may use the Lincoln school as an example if you wish because >> well here's the challenge right so leaders are tasked with tough decisions and sometimes they're not popular decisions but not all unpopular decisions aren't the right decisions still right and so that that is a hard that's a hard thing to live through when people ask me who I vote for I'm I'm I'm a very bipartisan person. I I vote in whatever person, especially on a
014local level, when I get to know people, the the question that comes to me always and people ask what I look for is will they listen to me? That's what I want, right? Will you listen to me? And I'm not even talking just like open your I'm saying actually listen to me. And I think as a school board, as leaders, whether you're leading a business or you're leading a school or whatever, I think people, whether you have employees, people want to feel like they're being listened to, right? Whether or not you do the thing they want or not, are are you actually listening to their concerns and trying to understand it, right? Now, that doesn't mean that we can do everything that people want. There's going to be desperate desires just from people in this
015room sometimes. But can we actually listen and understand so that we can actually address the concerns rather than speak over them or around them and actually understand where that concern is coming from, where that fear is coming from, where that anxiety is happening. Um, when you close a school, you you you don't just, as you guys know better than I do, you don't just close a school. You you are taking away memories from people. You're you're taking and there's a lot of fear for that. There's a lot of there's a lot of mourning and lament of that, right? And so and the question often becomes what's next then? And so I think listening to that, addressing those concerns as best as you can and helping people understand that even though you don't agree, maybe you
016do understand. >> Well, I don't and I'm going to follow up with talked to we didn't close Lincoln School. We repurposed it. That's And I'm very proud of what we did. Every board member in here took a lot of heat. We we held public forums and the people came out, you know, and I thought we did a great job of listening to public. We stuck by our guns and made decisions. And you know what? Today we're not hearing that. >> We've heard more people saying, "You made a great move. What you did by repurposing that school. It's helped out." And the leadership under our president superintendent has been extraordinary as far as I'm concerned. So, I agree with what you're saying, but there's going to be times when, you know, we may not agree, and
017that's okay as long as it's not personal. >> You you can disagree without being disagreeable, right? Um, and I think that's really important in leadership is, you know, I think we can disagree with each other and understand each other and understand that just because we disagree doesn't mean we're enemies, right? Um, and, you know, I kind of liken it to my 15-year-old son likes to do what he wants to do. Uh he's a great kid, but he still has he's getting a mind of his own. And sometimes I say no to things and he doesn't understand it. And eventually I hope he will. But um it's my job to be his dad, not to be his best friend. And so um sometimes you do the thing that you know is right and just and good
018and wise. Um even if it's not the most popular thing because you know you'll get there. And often times if the right thing happens and the thing that you're planning on does actually come to fruition, people will know they'll see it. And I think that's what's happened with Lincoln. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions or with Nate? Okay. Uh Dave, uh do you want to make a last statement or are you you good with >> Um I I'll just say that I I know some of these people back there. They're great people. And so um it it's an honor to to talk to you all. I want to commend you for I think what's been a really challenging year to year and a half. Um, but I am hopeful for the Lord Community School
019Corporation and I'd be excited to be a part of wherever the school system is going and help shape and form that future with you. Um, I think there's, um, some incredible opportunities to not only do what we know is right in this room, but to collaborate with, um, our local mayor and our local officials and our elected officials down in Kingsford Heights and, you know, all these areas that we have because we can't just forget that Leaport Community School isn't just in the city of Leaport. expands a a wide net, but um and with our local legislators to create what I think is um the next chapter of Lore Community School Corporation, which is going to be even better than the last. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much. So, uh you know,
020thanks for putting yourself out there. Um we are going to uh reconvene tomorrow at 4:00 to uh select uh select the the next board member. So, you're more than welcome to stay and listen to the other interviews or you uh you can you can both time. All right. I appreciate you. >> Nice meeting you so much. Nice meeting you. You good, Tammy? >> We're good to go. >> Okay. Y >> All right. So, uh the next interview tonight, we're a little ahead of schedule, but I think we'll be okay. Is uh Ma Batty. >> Hello. >> How are you? Nice to see you. >> Very nice to meet you. >> Nice to see you. >> All right. Thank you for being here. So, the first question is if you would please introduce yourself and tell
021us a little bit about yourself. >> My name is Mara Batty and I am a proud Slicer alumnist. Um, I'm the executive director of Leaport County Community Corrections here in Leaport. Um, I have a daughter who is a junior at Leaport High School. I also volunteer and uh, coach high school cheerleading here at Leaport. Um, that pretty much sums up what I do. >> Okay, sounds good. >> Sorry. So, Marco, why do you want to serve on the Leaport Community School Board and what personally motivates you to take on this role? Currently, >> I wanted to serve on the port school board because I absolutely adore and love my community and I feel like um as part of this community, it's an investment. If I want my community to grow, if I want to see
022our young people grow, then if there's a seat at the table, then I'd like to sit there. I think uh with my background in um community corrections and overseeing a facility with a diverse and huge budget, I think that I have a lot of qualities and experience that would help assist you all in the school. >> Thank you. What do you see as the top two or three most important challenges or opportunities facing our school district right now and why? Right now I would say enrollment. Our children have a lot of choices and we have to make the public school attractive again with um enrollment down that affects our dollars and the monies that the school system has. So I think those are the two things that affect our school system. A third thing I
023think is miscommunication. There's a lot of miscommunication out there and there's so many ways people get communication now via social media or word of mouth. Um I was uh blessed to be a part of the ambassador program and I got a wealth of knowledge being a part of that program and I think that that would benefit a lot of our participants and our people in the community. Um, how would you describe uh the proper role of a school board member in relations to the superintendent, the staff, teachers, and the community? >> I'm glad you asked that question because that's part of the miscommunication. A lot of individuals think the school board is responsible for the teachers, the janitors, the bus drivers, and they're not. The direct report to the school board is the your superintendent
024and the school board is to offer support and oversight for the superintendent. As far as the teachers, um the other administrators, the school board develops policies and procedures and wants to implement them to make them have a better working environment, but they absolutely just oversee the superintendent. Can you give us an example of a difficult decision that you've had to make either personally or professionally and walk us through how you approached it? >> I have been the executive director of community correction since 2023. And when I took over the facility, the facility was in bad shape and it had had some poor leadership. So when I took it over, I had to make some tough decisions about staffing. So there are different things. I had to rearrange staff and I had to let go of
025people or I had to move people who had been in positions for an extenduated period of time and they weren't ready to relinquish those duties. However, I had to make the decision to do what was best for the facility. And so that's what I did and I took a lot of um hurt, a lot of uh conversation. However, it definitely benefited the facility because that's what I had to put first. Anica, parents and community members are often very have different opinions as to how we issues like curriculum, discipline, uh policy, budget priorities, extracurricular activities. So, how would you approach a situation with the public? We've all been under fire, you will know on issues here lately. Well, in the past, how would you approach that young people? as you well we were in your community
026and that followed your committee directly when we're down here. >> Well, I think the first thing is we have to agree to disagree. Everyone is not going to agree. However, the students come first and what's best for the school system comes first. And another thing is you have to decide whether or not if the person that is disagreeing with you, if they actually are seeking knowledge or if they just want to be heard. >> And sometimes people just want to be heard. They want to vent. they want to complain and sometimes you just have to allow them to do that. Um there's no sense in going back and forth with someone who actually does not want to gain the knowledge. Sometimes you just have to listen, walk away, and agree to disagree. >> Anybody have
027any other questions up here on the board? >> So I guess something that came up, >> you are an executive of a publicly funded like organization currently. Mhm. >> Um, do you feel do you feel that your board like what would what is something that you would bring to the board based off of experiences you've had negatively with the board or positively maybe even with the board that oversees your position? >> Yes. I directly report to a board. >> Yeah. And so sometimes you have individuals who um are either on the board or part of the community and they don't necessarily understand all the decisions that you make, but you have to um rely on and trust that you're doing what's best for that facility or facility because of what I do. Um, I think
028it'll be the same way with the school board that you know there's people out there that will not agree with you or don't see the goal because sometimes we're tunnel vision and if you're going through a situation say you feel like your child is being bullied that's all you can see at that time but you don't see the end goal of what the school board is trying to do. So I think one of the things that I can bring to you is I think long term. So and everything I do is strategic. So I can't think for just right now or make a decision off the cuff. I take I sit back. I think about decisions. I think about how it's going to affect our future and I make the best decision for that purpose
029at that time. And also I pray about it and I make sure that my decision is guided by um my Lord and Savior. >> Uh how many members are on the community correction board now? I just served on that board a number of years ago. I just want How many members on there? >> I believe we have 26. >> Far far. >> Well, statutoily they have to have so many representatives from different people in the community. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Um, do you have any final things that you'd like to cover? You didn't get covered in the questions? I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity. Um I hope that it goes in my favor. I absolutely believe hands down that I would be a benefit to all of you
030on the board and a benefit to the school system. I love my community and once a license always sign. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. Uh so this concludes our questions. Um so like I said to Nate, uh we're going to make our selection tomorrow 4:00. Um and you're more than welcome to stay and watch these other couple interviews or you can take off. It's up to you. All right. Thank you so much. >> Okay, move on. So, the uh next interview is Kyle Kazlowski. >> Nice to meet you. Hello. Nice to meet you. >> Thank Kyle. So, uh, just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself. >> All right. My name is Kyle Kazowski. Born and raised in Leaport Slicer alumni. Um, currently live here with my wife's two
031children. Um, in Kingsbury School Corporation or school district. Um, currently I run a business, Case and Fire. I started myself shortly after graduating high school. Um, been running that ever since. Got a couple employees now and own facility and stuff like that. So, just mainly do a lot of that. Um, part of the Port County Draft Horse Association. I like big horses, so does my wife. Um, and we do that with the kids in the 4 and that kind of stuff. So, it's all I got a short story, I guess. Okay, >> cool. So Kyle, why do you want to serve on the Lort Community School Board and what personally motivates you to do that currently? >> Um, the reason I wanted to do it was obviously I have two young children. I want to
032help them or whoever it may be to get to the next point. Um, personally in my view with Leaport Slicer, Leaport School Corporation, it got me to be able to take good tests. I could write about whatever I want to write about, cool stories, what have you. My thought theory feeling on it is it never really prepared us for real life. >> We don't have any curricul curriculum on Texas finance taking care of yourself really figuring out actual problems not a math problem in a book per se. Um so my belief in on that is we maybe need to do that a little better for our students because not everybody's going to go to college. I never finished college. Started it. Decided I don't want to work in an office. I don't want to do
033that all day. Um so then I just kind of went on my own and had to figure it out. So if we could help maybe some of these young people do that, I think our community would be a lot better off. >> What do you see as the top two or three most important challenges or opportunities facing our school district right now and why? top challenge the very top one I believe is going to be always is money budgeting figuring out who's going to sacrifice who isn't going to sacrifice where can we sacrifice where do we not sacrifice obviously that's a very hard decision being in business you do it every day who you're going to deal with who's on your top of your priorities you know things like that what price you may sell
034something at what may come back and kick you in the butt later um do it every day um the other one I would day enrollment. Um, it's kind of our job to make it always better for everybody, but also two, you got to look at what's going on with the rest of the world. People moving in, people moving out, why are they doing that? We don't have no control over that. We don't have control over what factory leaves tomorrow. Talmet closes up tomorrow, you're going to use lose a lot of students. We don't have any control that. So, we have to always maintain within whatever the taxpayers give us, that's the money we have to spend. So, we have to figure out how to do that. Um those would see the top two I would
035say. >> Um how would you describe the proper role of a school board member in relations to the superintendent, staff, teachers, and the community? >> Um the biggest thing is we always have to hear everybody and we're always going to have to have per se fires that everybody has that we need to help figure to put out. Um and we also need to back all of our students, back our teachers, back our faculty. whatever the situation or problem may be, we need to always hear both sides of the story and then figure out where we go from there because there is always more than one side of the story. >> Um, can you give us an example of a difficult decision that you've had to make either personally or professionally and walk us through how
036you approached it? >> Um, I'm going to get kind of personal or probably real personal. Um, I have two children. Technically, I should have four. My wife lost two of them. Um, and so we lost one, we had one. We lost one, we had one. Um, two girls obviously I always wanted a boy. Um, but I have two girls. Love them to death. Like I told my wife, I'll turn them into what I want them to be. Um, whether that be boy or girl, tomboy, whatever it is. Um, and I got a little both in each. But the hardest decision we had to make together that we had to talk between ourselves, figure out what we want to do the rest of our lives was is when she went in, she had to have a
037C-section. And we had to decide whether or not we wanted to have more children. And between her and I, I could physically see and mentally see that even though I wanted more, she couldn't handle it anymore. It's a decision we had to make together that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. And obviously, we talked to the higherups above us and had to go kind of from there. So, that was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my personal life. >> Thanks, >> Kyle. Parents and community members often have different opinions of issues like curriculum and discipline policies, budget priorities, and so forth. How would you approach situations like that when you're you're going to have be faced with people that aren't going to agree with
038what we do, >> right? Um I know a lot of people have said they sit in this chair, obviously you got to hear both sides. Um and you do have to figure out whether they just want to complain or if they actually want to learn the reason that you're doing what you're doing. And then sometimes you can come to an agreement of, hey, you're right and wrong. I'm right and wrong. But we also have to figure out what's going to be best for everybody. We can't worry about the 1%. We got to worry about the 99% that show up every day, do the job, do whatever else, do whatever it may be. The 1% a lot of times in this world dictate what everybody else does. That is not that is not right. >> Well,
039many of the things that we've dealt with, people don't want to be confused with the facts. They want to believe it. They want to >> your generation and your social media. >> Right. Right. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody have any other questions? >> Uh, okay. Kyle, is there anything else you'd like to uh say or get out? >> Um, the only thing I can say is usually when we come together, if we make a decision, I will stay behind that decision. If it is wrong, I usually try to do what it takes to make it right. Um, and I'll live with whatever it may be. >> All right. Well, uh, that concludes, uh, interview. I appreciate your time being here. Uh you heard this earlier, but uh thanks
040for putting yourself out there. >> Um for sure. Um make sure you share this with your girls. They can watch on YouTube, right? So it'll be famous on YouTube. Um but tomorrow 4:00 we're going to make a choice. So you're welcome. >> Now, do we get to come to that or we just wait? >> We can. Yep. Tomorrow will be open meeting. So anybody from the public can come. So it's at 4:00 here tomorrow. All right. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Okay, >> Wendy. >> Okay. All right. Just want to make sure that was you. Um, you're we're early on your uh schedule, but I think you're probably all right. So, um, >> Norin. Norin. >> It was so. >> Okay. >> Nice to meet
041you, Monica. Nice to meet you. I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you. >> Ben, nice to meet you. I >> 8 minutes of steam right now. >> That's cookies and canvas. So I might make it. >> There we go. >> Yeah. Cookies. We got stand by too. So >> very cool. >> All right. So uh Wendy, if you'd introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself. >> Uh my name is Wendy Norin. I went to Leaport schools through fifth grade and then I graduated from South Central. Um I was an employee of the schools. I was a speech language therapist assistant for I put it in my letter but I'm really not good with peers. So that was my first job and I worked here. So I worked in I think every elementary school in
042the court. I the middle schools at that time because we had a Boston and a Kesley high school and all the new prairie schools. I did not do any South County schools. Um, then I left, worked in Greenfield Central. Same kind of co-op special ed situation. I was a behavior consultant. I did autism consulting here in Lortu for a couple years. I was a treasurer for the board of the ASMCI, which was the Autism Society of North Central Indiana at that time. Um, we ran a camp for kids. So, I also planned the camp. I usually did the older kids week. We did younger and older. um plan the camp, ran it for a week, um did events throughout the school year as well with those kids. Um I was married to a teacher for
043eight years, so I also have that background of knowing that side of education. Um and I currently have guardianship of four kids. They are my three nieces and my nephew. And so they are in elementary, middle, high school, and I won in unity here. Um so, oh, and I'm currently a photographer. So, it's pretty a little over 10 years I've been on business. So, I think that's it. >> Sorry. No worries. Um, so why do you want to serve on the community school board and what personally motivates you to do that right now? >> This was not on my radar up until last Friday. So, I just happened to be on the website looking up school menus and I was like, "Oh, there's an opening." Um, and I have a lot of teacher friends and
044I just kind of mentioned it like, "Hey, there's" And they all were like, "You should do that." And I was like, "You really think?" I I was surprised, but I had a really good like receiving and I thought about it a lot. And then yesterday, I was like, I'm just going to do this. Wrote the letter. Uh, spent all day today reading about exactly what school boards do. I know a lot about education, but I honestly do not know a lot about what I didn't I now do a lot about what school boards do. Um, and something I'm really good at is learning about things. I am really big on community involvement. I'm really big on our civil responsibilities. Um, I try to model that with the kids that I have in everything that we
045do. As a small business owner, I get to pay taxes quarterly and that is not fun. But when I do that, I make a list of all the things that my taxes are going to that I'm really happy about. And public education is up there as a big one. Um I'm really a big believer in community and um that's it. And modeling that for the kids that I live with now. It's really easy to be a complainer. Um and I don't like that. I'm like, if you complain about something, you figure out why it's like that and what you can do about it. And I don't honestly have any real goals for being on the school board. Um, I understand your limitations and I understand what school boards do. Um, I could probably list off
04650 goals, but I think you run as a school board, you run into places where you need to make goals. So, and I think I'm really good at that. So, >> what do you see as the top two or three most important challenges or opportunities facing our school board or school district right now and why? >> Um, in our schools, probably enrollment. Um, what schools are we just kind of had to switch up. I have a kid at Highland, so that was a big switch up this year. Um, it's been great. I think that I worked at Highland, too. Um, I think Lincoln I think that was a good move. Um, so I know enrollment, you're constantly going to be looking at that. Um, and along with enrollment comes financial issues and budgeting. Um, I
047budget for a small business. It's not quite the same as budgeting for a school district. But I do understand why you budget and how you budget and what constraints are in budget. Um, again, taxes and you don't pull money out of just nowhere. And there are always going to be places where you need more money, you need less money, you have to spend money here, etc. Um, and another one that's kind of maybe more niche would be like our middle school. Combining that into such a big thing. Do we keep it as a bigger school? Do we make that smaller? Um, and I know a lot of teachers at the middle school are struggling with the population and discipline and that kind of thing. I don't know that that's necessary necessarily something we would deal
048with, but policy wise that is something that will kind of like trickle down. So, >> how would you describe the proper role of a school board member in relations to the superintendent, staff, teachers, and the community? >> School board would be governance. We make those policies. The superintendent implements them. We make sure the superintendent is implementing them correctly. Um, same as we kind of like go down the line. Um, I worked in a school as an employee and the co-op too and I understand chain of command in the schools and also a school board member represents the community directly. So being involved in your community, letting them know that you represent them, but you don't necessarily take action when they come to you, but you make sure that action >> if necessary is made through
049the proper chain of command. Thank you. Welcome. >> Um, can you give us an example of a difficult decision that you've had to make either personally or professionally and walk us through how you approached it? >> Sure. >> Um, three years ago. >> Well, I'm nervous, so I cry. You're totally right. >> And I'm talking about a difficult decision obviously, but I had to take guardianship of my niece. Um and then six months later I took guardianship of her two sisters and her brother. Um obviously those that those are my sister's kids. So and they cannot live with my sister without going to to their story. There's a lot of hurt. There's been abuse. Um that was a very hard decision. It was life-changing for me. Um I was newly single and could travel a
050lot and I really enjoy that. Um, so I can't do that as much now, but I strongly stepped into that role. I actually took a quiz today when I was going through all the schoolboard stuff of what my core values are. Um, and one of them was family centrism, which truly I align with. There's nothing more important to me than my family. Um, I love being in the port. I have to live near my family. We see each other all the time. taking my nieces and nephew was a hard decision, but it wasn't something that I thought I would not do. It wasn't it just was a hard thing to take on. Um, the other core values I had were individual helping. I am always there to help people at an individual level and a
051community and community level. So, um, and we have a lot of community helping too in our house because we have a lot of kids that are constantly coming there. And I've seen a lot of different children from our community at all different levels and all different needs. Some have been really shocking to me, even as an employee of the school system, what I'm seeing now. Um, so, and I don't have any answers on how you fix that, but I am pretty aware of that. So, I think that's it. Thank you. Pretty rambly. Sorry. No, it's okay. You're good. You're good. >> How many parents and community members often have different opinions uh on issues like curriculum and discipline policies, budget priorities and extracurricular activity so forth and we've had to handle even the boards a
052lot of these things deal with. How you approach situation like that when the public has one desire or concern as opposed to being a board member now where you have to face those head on. >> Well, as being a new parent of four children of different ages and needs as what I approach them with is I have all of your interests in mind not each but also I have to attend to each individual person at the same time keeping all of your interest in mind. And so my decisions may not may not always seem fair to you, but they are fair to us as a whole and to all of our needs as a whole. And I think that's the same thing the school board has to do with the community. We cannot address every
053single issue and every person in need that we're going to you're going to run across. And because of that, you're going to have people who feel negatively. And I think one way to combat that is community involvement. Staying communive staying involved in your community, letting people be able to come to you. be open for discourse, but also sticking strong to I believe we made the best decision for our district in our community. >> Anyone have any other questions? >> I feel like at some point in my life I crossed your path. >> I was speech. >> I thought so. I thought so. Those times all lined up. >> And then I just talked to you in November about at Indie Ferrell's. >> Yes. Yes. >> Brothers. Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you for that. I
054I >> I read through that and I like surely I must have crossed your path with Jay, right? So it was good to see you again. >> Um you've done a good job. Jay speaks very well. >> I don't know that is third grade speech but maybe you right. So does anyone else have any other questions? Is there anything else you'd like to say? >> Everyone that you interviewed I really enjoyed getting to hear them and I think you have some some good qualified people. that conducts the uh the interview and all the interviews and so just you've heard this before but tomorrow 4:00 we'll decide and certainly appreciate you submitting your application and putting yourself out there. >> Okay, good. >> Thank you. Nice to meet you. >> Okay, so there is no other
055board there is no other business. Is there any board comment? Okay, so a future meeting we have a special meeting tomorrow uh at 4:00 and then the next board meeting is March 9th at uh 6:00. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move. >> Thank you, Jen. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All those in favor say I. >> I.