001that I know I'm a member of the NAACP the Beloit chapter as well as the League of Women Voters and the moderator for tonight's forum in service to the League's mission to encourage informed participation in government the league and the NAACP sponsors candidate forums a public venue for candidates to express their views and positions on issues that matter to you the voter the league and the NAACP are nonpartisan political organizations that neither support nor oppose political parties or candidates switch to a larger font so this forum is being live streamed as well as recorded by the School District of Beloit you will be able to find it on the school district YouTube recordings there are three candidates running for two seats on the school board they are and this is an alphabetical order Amy Levy
002Ryan McDonald Hugh and Brian Nichols again in alphabetical order candidates we want to thank you for being civically engaged and for your willingness to be here tonight to share your views so voters can make an informed choice on Election Day everyone please join me in welcoming and thanking these candidates that was practice of laws after this there will be no applause until the end so we wanted you to get it out and get those juices running but we ask that you refrain from Applause we ask that you turn off your cell phones please and um remain quiet wait until the end to generate your applause you'll have time for that okay we'll have questions um the questions that I will be asking the candidates tonight are a combination of those submitted in advance of the
003Forum by the League's notice in public press releases and on social media questions submitted from our in-person audience members and one question each from the Beloit league and the NAACP candidate question cards and pencils are found on all the seats please raise your hand to have your card picked up or if you need additional cards you can submit questions in this manner throughout the form can they practice raising their hand who will help them you will come when they raise their hand okay I see somebody has a card thank you candidate questions received in advance of tonight's Forum were previewed by League members who sorted them by topic check them for redundancy and made sure they were relevant to all candidates as the league does not accept questions targeted to a specific candidate questions received
004from the audience tonight will go through the same process two organization members one from each group serve as our question checkers we will turn to additional questions prepared by the league and the NAACP only if questions from the voters fail to fill the forms one hour time frame the league will do its best to be sure information in any question is accurate and truthful that's our responsibility it is not our responsibility to police the content of the candidates answers or call them out for misinformation we bring their views to the voters in this venue unfiltered so you the voter can align your values with those of the candidate who you feel best reflects them okay to the candidates you will each have two minutes for your opening statement we'll start with foreign Nichols and then
005we will go in order Amy Levy will be next and Ryan McDonald here will be third so Brian can we get your opening statement no more than two minutes please thank you Angela well it's nice to be here thanks for thanks for coming I'm Brian Nichols as Angela said I've been in Beloit about two and a half years kind of moved all over the country grew up in Southern Ohio West Virginia and arrived in Beloit about two and a half years ago and uh glad to be here in about six months into living in Beloit the School District of Beloit caught our attention in the newspaper when I started taking it and uh so kept an eye kept it watched and read and and I just I've decided it's time for me to step up
006and get into public service and then try to help make a difference in the Beloit school system it's important our teachers our teachers are important and that's that's the main thrust of my campaign uh I I say that their supporting teachers so students can learn and I don't think it's I don't think it gets any better than that that's uh that's the way it was when I grew up and I think it should be that way today and I'm going to focus all my efforts on working with the teachers and the board and um of course ultimately the kids they're the ones that that they're the ones that make a difference and they're going to be they're going to be running this country in a few years or city or state or whatever and they
007need to have a great education thank you so first of all I just want to start by thanking the NAACP Beloit branch and the League of Women Voters of Beloit for this opportunity to answer questions um uh prepared questions from the league and the NAACP and also from the audience and thank you Miss Moore for agreeing to moderate um just as an introduce an introduction my name is Amy Levy I am a wife I am a mother of two amazing students who are enrolled in the School District of Beloit and are thriving I am a proud Converse cougar I am a McNeil Lancer and I'm a proud purple Knight graduating in the class of 1996. I'm an HBCU graduate completing my Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Alcorn State University I am a buckeye
008don't worry if there are any Badger fans in the room I won't hold it against you I'm finishing my MBA at the Fisher College of Business of the Ohio State University and I'm also licensed professional educator licensed to teach business education Broadfield science and chemistry in my day work I am so proud to serve as the racial Justice director for the YWCA Rock County the reason that I am running for re-election I am very focused on a few things focused on student achievement equity and adherence to establish board policy to become to continue to be an advocate for family and Community engagement with our district to support decision making that leads to financial stabilization and to Champion efforts outlined in our 20 to 22 to 2025 strategic plan which I'm so proud that this current
009board played a role in creating and finally approving thank you so much for being here this evening McDowell good evening everyone thank you for attending thank you for having us here tonight my name is Ryan McDonough I'm a local business owner I'm a U.S army veteran I am the father of three boys and a stepfather of two three of which um are attending UW programs right now one has graduated from UW Platteville and the other one's actually working for my business my goals is a board member would be to have more achievement in the school system safety in the classrooms and support for our teachers and I think there's many different ways of doing that and I think those should be the main focuses of a school board member um I guess that's all I
010have for my open thank you all candidates we'll just review the timing a little bit our time Keepers here on the front row so that each candidate can see her and each candidate will have two minutes um for their response not reading the script and as they get close to the end if they get close to the end she will raise um like a yield sign to tell them you're getting close uh you have 30 seconds left and once the time is up she will raise the red sign indicating that the time is up it's over okay does everybody understand that and of course our candidates we want them to understand that all right we'll go to the first question and we will start in our um other order with Amy Levy number one Ryan
011number two and Brian Nichols number three so Amy Levy why are you running to be on the Beloit school board at this particular time thank you um so the reason that I'm running for re-election uh is I am truly invested in the School District of Beloit and the City of Beloit born and raised here we have a lot of challenges facing our district we have a lot of change that is coming up I have been very proud of my service on the board over the last three years not many new board members are given a leadership role as soon as they enter the board and I'm proud to have served as a chair for a couple different committees on the board and have been useful there and served as a resource to my colleagues on
012the board I always come prepared I ask thoughtful questions that I believe help us achieve better decision making on the board I am so proud that our current configuration of the board has finally instituted a practice where we are able to evaluate our superintendent which is so important we have been able to support staff through the decision making on the board and and providing a superintendent we've had a lot of turnover but I'm so excited that Dr Garrison is here now and really working well with the staff I want to continue to focus the things that focus on the items I outline mind in my introduction we have a referendum coming up we have reconfiguration coming up and they're tough decisions that need to be made to make sure that our district is financially stable
013I have a skill set I have the patience I have the experience as a board member and understanding the process that's going to be helpful as we continue to make difficult decisions on the board and also I'm running again because I love the School District of Beloit we have so many amazing staff members and Educators we have some truly gifted and talented and amazing students who are involved in so many different activities and represent us well and I want to continue to be a champion of the School District of Beloit to promote all of the wonderful things that are happening here and continue in my service as a board member thank you we will now move to Ryan I'm a Beloit resident and I do believe that we need to focus on our children's future
014in the city in the school district and right now our grade levels are not where they need to be or are Reading Writing math levels are not where they need to be that would be my main focus would to have the give support to the teachers to provide them the resources that they need to be successful in the classrooms and I really want to see our more kids graduate from from high school and be able to move on to College move on to trade programs be ready to be be in the military if they choose to do so but it requires Reading Writing and strong math skills and I just believe that's the main focus we have to look at is achievement in our schools thank you Brian um well I think I might have
015got a little ahead of myself on the first first question but anyway um well I as I said earlier I I'm you know my focus is is the teachers because they're they're the they're the heart of the education system they're with the students every day face to face teaching them the things that they need to know and they need to have safe classrooms they need to have very little distractions because they've got us they've got a challenging job ahead in front of them and uh and again the this the students the students learn when they're in a in a safe disciplined learning environment and they um you know they're gonna they're gonna move on and when they get out of high school they've got a lot of choices to make they can go to college
016and get a four-year degree a two-year degree they can go to a technical school they can go into the U.S military um they can you know they can not everybody's going to be a doctor and a lawyer or you know an engineer or whatever there's a lot of different things that so they need to be educated so that they can make the choices that they want to make to serve the community the state and the country um we we just we just need the expand and expand the vision for the kids of the marvelous choices that they they have and uh you know I we my wife and I come from a long background of a lot of teachers in our in our fellow families and uh we know how hard they worked uh throughout
017the years and uh there's still some of them are still working hard and uh in the school system so that's that's a big reason big reason I'm I'm here thank you okay I just said a wonderful thing and you didn't hear me I'm sorry we'll start the next question with Amy Levy and um Ryan and Brian Nichols just a quick question since I started the last round am I to start this round as well well let's go in that order thank you for asking um please explain your understanding of the current referendums and whether you support them foreign excellent question um so our our referendum that will be on the ballot for August for August for April 4th um has two questions so they are both non-recurring the first one uh has a one-year term
018and the second question has a two-year term so let's start with the first one it's a facilities referendum in the amount of 19 and a half million dollars um again this is a non-reoccurring one-year referendum ask for the facilities the main use of that 19.5 million dollars will be for HVAC upgrades for school safety also included in that is the entry rate at Beloit Memorial High School and also upgrades to our athletic fields as many of you may or may not know we have some very talented student athletes and we have placed in those competition in a way that would afford US to host events but because our turfs and our fields are not up to code we often have to play games that we should be hosting on other fields as a visitor so
019that's included in the facilities referendum the second question is a operationals referendum it's non-recurring it has a two-year limit the first year the ask is for nine million dollars and then the year after that correct correction the first year is for 14 million and the second year is for 9 million um that portion of the operational ask will be used for technology for curriculum and instruction and for social emotional and behavioral health programs so those are the two questions that are on the the referendum again for April 4th um if this is approved it will allow us to replenish our fund balance as many of you are aware per policy our fund balance is recommended to be within 14 um 14 to 25 percent of our operational budget we are currently just below that amount
020our fund balance is used for a lot of things it's used if there's an unforeseen emergency that comes up in the district to avoid short-term borrowing if we have that cushion there but the other thing that I want you to know about the referendum is if the referendum is approved our mill rate that's currently at 4.78 will remain the same and again that second year operational ask um if approved the projected mill rate is expected to stay the same so what does that mean for your pocketbooks for every one hundred thousand dollars of value that you have in your property it will be a charge of four hundred and seventy eight dollars so if your home is more than a hundred and thousand you would scale that up accordingly um we just had a decline
021in our mill rate prior to that we had been holding steady right at ten dollars and ten cents so we've had a drastic decrease in the mill rate which is a discount to our taxpayers and we currently have one of the lowest Mill rates in this state um and the great news about the referendum is if it is passed the projections is that your portion of the tax bill for the School District of Beloit will not increase so it's able to provide financial support for the district so that we can Implement um with full efficacy our strategic plan without increasing your tax bill for the portion that goes to the School District of Beloit and yes I absolutely support the referendum both question one and two thank you Ryan um well first of all for
022the next board it's really not going to matter on the referendum because that's an April 4th issue uh so the next board is really not going to have any determining factors or determining decisions on that um but I do have some questions about it there are some concerns about it right now our Esther 3 funds today um we've spent 269 000 and that those were from numbers today or yesterday of 18 over 18 million dollars that we're supposed to be receiving and they have not been used so I I do have a concern why that isn't being used for facilities because that is one of the things in the asset program it can be used for and it also can be used for educational materials so I guess to me until I get a good
023explanation from the administration why we're not using that money I I would not support the referendum at this point and that's you thank you the ref the referendum I I sort of have questions about it too um you know uh I've been looking at some of the data and and uh you know there's I understand that we want to have a beautiful athletic field and a state-of-the-art field and and those are nice things to have um I was an athlete in high school and uh uh but at the same time I think we need to we need to be uh we need to be good with the budget we need to we need to we need to not be here in the first place yeah I know that's easy to say but uh We've we've
024uh looking at the data from the past few years it looks like you know we've had declining enrollment and and now we're now we're kind of kind of paying for that and and looking for a referendum um you know I'm I'm not I'm not 100 convinced that we won't have the city the the citizens and the taxpayers of the city won't have um increases in taxes in a couple of years after the first one would be paid off so um and you know the the well actually the second one the first one the first one is is General obligation bonds so that could go on for 20 years to pay that one off so um I just think my background is is in operations and sales and I had to produce an operation budget every
025year and uh you know you you stuck to the budget it was it was the needs and then I had a capital budget that were the wants and those sometimes got approved and sometimes didn't so the operation budget is something that you're managing every single day of the year uh you you propose it it's approved and you have to you have to stick to it you don't go over it if if there's if there's a rainy day then you know you take care of that and and move on so I would be an advocate of a more critical budget management um than proposing a referendum thank you thank you our next question which the district be doing to address the issue of declining enrollment and we will start with Ryan for this question um I
026believe the way the district needs to address this is by focusing on getting the teachers what they want in the classrooms and approving improving on achievement it I mean it all goes back to achievement it all comes down to the students if we want to draw people here we do have great draws for students here I mean we have some great Sports programs we have some AP programs and great jazz band those are all positive things that that can bring students here I was listening last night they were talking on the school board meeting about uh having a co-op for a hockey program that brings students into the school or at least onto our campus and they get to see how things are here so I think I think increasing enrollment we really need to
027focus on the students and the teachers in classroom safety I think if we if we can improve all of those things I think enrollment should gradually increase just through success of our programs thank you we'll go to next thank you well this goes back to my back to the opening statement you know we got to focus on the teachers we got to give them what they need safe classrooms safe learning environment so that they can they can spend all their time in the classroom with with the students um this the scores need to be improved and that's that's going to take some time it's not going to happen overnight I think the students population will will start to grow it's gonna it's gonna you know it didn't it didn't get here again yesterday or just
028last year it's been come it's been coming down for a number of years I wish Dr Garrison shared with us in one of the meetings so um we just have to be diligent and you know and work the plant plan the work and work the plan as we used to say and uh uh give the kids the the things that they need to be successful um there's I know there's one of the topics that's come about is uh you know uh mental mental health issues and that's it that's getting in the way of of uh some of the learning in we need to address that and and get get that taken care of so that nobody gets left behind and uh and and the other thing and and I don't even I honestly don't know
029if we do this anymore but um you know I don't believe every student is ready to move forward next year not all the time I don't and I think we we provide a disservice if we move a child ahead who's not ready to go they might need to they might need to stay back a year and uh and then and then they'll you know they'll progress and catch up with the others and uh because if they go forward and they're not ready then they're going to be farther behind so that you know it's like a no no win catch-up so um that's that's uh that's my story thank you just a procedural um from the audience can you all hear Brian well I don't hear him that well here so okay good thank you I'm
030sorry I didn't wow I'm glad I said something I'm sitting right up here Miss Moore would you mind repeating the question please I would love to and your last you're the last one to have this question just so that you know what should the district be doing to address the issue of declining enrollment thank you so much um unfortunately declining enrollment is not unique to the School District of Beloit or even the state of Wisconsin schools across the country are experiencing declining enrollment and according to DPI that is actually projected to continue for the near future now to the question of what the School District of Beloit can do um we have to tell our story we have to focus on making our district the best possible option for all of our students uh in
031the City of Beloit I hopefully some or many of you have had the chance to visit our School District of Beloit website which is beautifully maintained and shares a lot of the hard work that our district is doing again to promote the School District of Beloit things like our partnership with carousalis this is a partnership that connects students and families with mental and health care providers at no cost to them it's confidentially done again when we talk about mental health this is a resource that is happening in the School District of Beloit we can help promote and stick to the implementation of our strategic plan which if you're not aware covers several areas including culture and Leadership engagement so that student family and Community engagement at Equity finance and looking at the whole child which
032is critically important just some recent stories I always love sharing good news about the School District of Beloit and all of our amazingness thank you 30 second warning the walking School Bus which was a grant that that has been given to Gaston elementary school which is going to help get our students safely to school starting this fall many of you are familiar with our Jazz program we again will be at our 11th year of essentially Ellington there's a new AP African-American studies course programs like our loads of success that works with our students and family our grow your own I'll stop there thank you thank you our next question what is your plan to make the School District of Beloit the best educational system in the Beloit area and we'll start with Brian for this
033question well I think we I think we need to build on the things that are working very well um you know it was mentioned about the jazz band and the uh you know the walking school walking to school I mentioned that yesterday and uh the AP classes I guess we've got one of the largest slate of AP classes in the state and those are all good things to build on we need to make sure that all the kids coming up have the access to those to those opportunities and uh um it's again I I'm not I don't want to I don't want to sound redundant but at the same time everything goes back to the teachers it really does um you know they're they're the heartbeat of the school system and uh I've got to
034meet several of them and you know they're everyone I've met is is smiling and and they're they're encouraged and they're doing their job they love doing their job and uh we need to we need to continue to give them what they need every single day to to be successful and make the school districts successful I'm a proud I'm proud to be here in in the City of Beloit I really am and uh we we it the school system affects the entire city it's the only thing that really affects the entire city all all at the same time and it uh it builds for the future for the city as I said earlier the city the state and the country so uh Let's uh let's make the purple Knights uh front and center and uh unlike
035where they currently are so that's it thank you thank you we'll now go to Amy Levy would you repeat the question please Miss Moore yes what is your plan to make the School District of Beloit the best educational system in the Beloit area thank you so much um so I'm a firm believer in leading from your lane um there are specific roles for the superintendent and his administration and there are roles for the school board and I think we work best when we lead from our respective Lanes as many of you know the three major roles of a school board member is to hire support and evaluate our superintendent which we are doing um to review and edit policy which is near and dear to my heart I'm into a proven annual budget yes we
036do other things like approved hires and curriculums Etc but the day-to-day operations of the school board really is the responsibility of the superintendent and his very capable cabinet so what can the school board do to move the district forward well it's really simple we can do those three major things that I outlined and we can make sure that our superintendent his cabinet and his team throughout the district have the resources that they need in order order to implement the Strategic plan so yes classroom safety is important academic achievement is important yes making sure that we're tending to the needs of the whole child which include mental health supports social emotional and behavioral supports which we are doing so continue to not get in the way but to lead by offering the resources needed so that
037the teams that are in place to handle the day-to-day management of the School District of Beloit can continue excellent work thank you and Ryan there are a few different things I would propose the board into the teachers into the administration um I think one of the main things we need to do is to keep our great teachers and to offer teachers a a good good program well all right so it'd be what I have planned or what I think would be a great idea all right with the schools being shut down we know that a couple of them are going to be shut down what I'd like to see is maybe possibly having one of those provide child care for the teachers the young teachers um it's a good use of the space and it
038would be a good good incentive for teachers to want to work in the Beloit School District a good extent incentive for them to stay in the Beloit School District um I also believe in online transparency and what I mean by that is for the for the teachers and parents to connect online have um your homework assignments post on their reading assignments and have it available to everyone that'll get the parents more involved and we really do need more parent involvement in the school system and I believe if we did something like that um it would have that it would get more involvement parents would know what's going on with their students or with their children and it I think it's something we could do fairly easily everything else is online I don't see why that
039can't be and I know some of it is but there are problems with actual access of the internet and I do think that's something that would have to be provided to make sure every student does have access at home to the internet excuse me um and then also enforcing the code of conduct I do believe that needs to be done and it needs to be done by the book by the policy of enforcing the conduct or the code of conduct and right now there are multiple instant instances where that's not happening thank you our next question what would you suggest the district do to correct the budget problem if the referendum does not pass and we'll start with you Ryan this time well I think one of the big things would be looking at the
040sr3 funds um that's only a short-term solution it's we have about 18.5 million dollars remaining on that and that could solve some of the budget short-term budget issues uh the long-term budget issues it I think we have to be fiscally responsible we have to spend on what needs to be spent on and like not have a wish list and a need list that's that's what we need to do to balance our budget thank you Brian same question please thank you well as I alluded to earlier I you know have had to balance budgets and for provide budgets and so forth in my uh in my career and uh you've got you know you've got you've got to balance your budget I mean it's it's critical we all we all have checkbooks and checking accounts and
041if we don't balance it uh we can get in trouble and so um you have to it takes a lot of time and you just have to you have to look at every single expenditure uh or potential expenditure to see if it's if it's needed or if it's if it come falls under the want category um uh I too agree that some of the Esther's funds could be used for for the like the HVAC at the Beloit Memorial High School that could come out of there and you'd still have about three million dollars three and a half million dollars left to use for educational materials to help the students um and uh we we uh we just we just have to analyze our decisions before we before we make them and put them on paper
042and uh before you know I understand the the the school district is in a challenging spot right now and uh uh we just we just have to manage it better manage this expenses better that's it thank you Amy thank you so much for the question um I appreciate the sentiment of of wanting to manage our resources better I just want to put to make a couple statements um because everyone may not realize this um but there have been zero increases in ongoing per pupil funding authorization by the state of Wisconsin for the last two consecutive years so that's zero percent increases in per pupil spending um couple that with inflation which I'm sure every household represented is aware of so it's not a mismanagement of money um but it's there has been zero increases in
043funding there is inflation there is not the rate of reimbursement for special education um that was promised by the state for years and years and has never come to fruition so this is a very nuanced situation that we find ourselves in and again the School District of Beloit is not unique in that aspect now our budgets are fluid things which is great you don't want to budget that's static the most recent budget that we passed projected of 4.5 million deficit is that great no are we working to make sure that at the end of this budget cycle we don't end with a 4.5 million dollar deficit absolutely for those of you that are following the work of the board closely you will see that we had a presentation last night for Mr Mark Duff and
044Dr Garrison helped with that we have done strategic hiring freezes which have we have realized a savings of one million dollars so that takes our 4.5 deficit to now 3.5 and because we've done those freezes that will have implications for next year the reconfiguration and the repurposing of some of our buildings is also going to bring additional savings um and Ours superintendent and cabinet are always looking for ways to making sure that we are coming in at a valid balanced budget eventually um so those savings are ongoing thank you thank you next question do you think it is important to fund diversity equity and inclusion we'll start with Brian for this one yes um I think it's important I I don't want it to be I would not I would not want it to be
045get get in the way of educating our kids um there's there's a lot of things you know obviously there's a lot of things going on around us in the country and in the city and the state and uh uh you know I I quite frankly think we're pretty Equitable and diverse Society uh you look around I mean you look around the school student population in the city population here and I think we're we're a pretty diverse group um I've worked I've worked with very diverse groups my entire career and um so um I I think we're doing a great job of working with diverse groups and and being inclusive to to bring everybody in um you know I mean you can look around the room we're all we're all different and that's that's good that's
046what makes the world go around um so I I think in you know I think diversity equity and inclusion is is good as again as it doesn't get in the way of educating the kids thank you Amy same question thank you um with all due respect um I it is unclear to me how diversity equity and inclusion and some ad belonging to that as well would have the potential to get in the way of educating our kids um it's imperative to the education of our kids and should be the through line of everything that we're doing it's my assumption that we all want our kids to be Global Citizens um to be able to relate to communicate with have empathy for and appreciation of the experience of other people and cultures um and that needs
047to hopefully it has begun before they've reached our schools but that's something that that we are responsible for using as a part of the education of our students when we talk about the whole child um the other point that I would like to just be clear about is that diversity does not equal equity and diversity does not equal inclusion putting a bunch of people in a room together that look different is great having them all sit at the table is great but if you don't have a voice if you don't have access if you don't have agency then we're missing out so I think that diversity Equity inclusion and belonging is imperative I think that is highlighted in the unfortunate situation that our students had to endure at the basketball game last week I think
048it's not just imperative for our district but for all districts that have our level of diversity that have less that have more are doing Equity work to make sure that we are respectful that we are appreciate of cultures that are different than our own thank you Ryan same question I I do believe it's important um I don't really I don't know if the school system really should be spending a ton of money on that I really do believe that we need to look at Reading Writing math science Civics history um I think those are the most important things that students need to get through high school we need kids knowing reading at grade level by the third grade if they're not reading at grade level by third grade what's going to happen in a sixth
049grade seventh grade and eighth grade it's to me I believe that's the most important I do believe it's it is an important issue I do believe Equity is very important but I I think the main focus should be on our core subjects thank you okay our next question what differentiates you from the other candidates and we'll start with Amy well thank you for the question um I don't know the other two gentlemen that I'm sitting next to very well um so I'm going to make some assumptions here um I think what differentiates me as a candidate for re-election for the board of education is that I I am a product of the School District of Beloit I want every student to have you don't have to follow the same path but to have the same
050opportunities that I had when I left the school district Beloit they prepared me very well I was able to compete on any stage I've been at hbcus I've been a student at pwis I mean I've always felt competent and prepared and ready to compete with any other student that I was in contact with I want that for our kids if our kids want to go directly to work if our kids want to do military service whether that's trade whether that is a traditional to your four-year College I want them to have the confidence and the Educational Foundation to make choices that are going to serve them and their families the thing that sets me apart is that I have experience on the board I know how bored work happens I know how to get things
051done I'm very proud of my three-year record I am comfortable with allowing my record to speak for itself it may sound simple but I read I come to every school board meeting prepared to execute the business of the board I don't take board decisions personally I'm able to work with just about anyone I don't let relationships or lack thereof get in the way of my decision making I'm a champion and an advocate for our districts our students our staff and our family um and I think the City of Beloit would be well served by having me re-elected thank you Ryan um I'm a local business owner so I do understand what it takes to run a budget we have to do it daily we have to work with different vendors different other businesses so there's
052a lot of coordination that takes place so it'd be similar to having to work with School administration and with teachers you have to all work together to bring things together to make the job happen and our job is to make the children better and to make them successful I'm also United States Army veteran and I led a squad there and I was in a NCO position in our Battalion headquarters so I'm used to working with multiple different groups of people and those are my leadership strengths my budget strengths I also do care very much about children I'd like to see these kids graduate and work for me or become my boss it doesn't matter um to me that's the most important thing is to get our children where they need to be in there where
053they want to be and I and I will fight to do that that's very important to me um and this community is important to me it's keeping food on my table um I have great customers so it is very important to me that everybody in the community is successful thank you and Brian the same question please could you repeat the question please yes what differentiates you from the other candidates thank you thanks for repeating um well I I'm a people person I always have been I love I love being with people I love setting knee to me with people and just talking about you know whatever if it's where they were working whether we're having fun whether we're at somebody's house um out in the yard talking to the neighbors and uh you know I
054my career's mostly been in management where I've managed managed other people and uh sales and operations and I enjoyed it I I you know and it was always it was always a diverse group of people and you know we we all got along we we uh we built consensus we uh we worked we worked together to make make the uh make the outcome good for everybody um I've worked you know worked and unfortunately I've worked with some some folks that reported to me that uh you know had health issues and or a spouse had health issues and I was always um I was always uh doing what whatever we could as a company to make sure that they had all the benefits that they need to take care of their loved one uh sometimes at
055the very end and those are those are challenging challenging times but I always I always did it with the with a with a smile with a with love and and uh appreciation for the person that I was working with so um I I you know I walked into one of the schools the other day and got a tour and I walked into a pre-case Pre-K room and the little kids all looked up at me smiled and waved at me and that that just that melted my heart because I by the way I forgot to mention I have six grandsons and a great granddaughter and uh so it was and they're not here so um it was like uh Grand Grandpa Grandpa by proxy so it was just it was you know and that's what I
056love to see is seeing the Kids In Action and if I'm elected I'm going to be spending time in the schools yeah you can bet on that and uh and talking to the teachers and talking to the principals and the administrators so um I just I just think I'm you know I'm cut out for this so here I am thank you thank you Brian so as we bring the form to a close I'd like to remind voters that this forum was filmed by the Beloit school district and will be available on their YouTube station this concludes tonight's candidate form on behalf of all eligible voters thank you candidates for your participation and to all of you for attending Betty oh they get a two-minute close oh thank you I don't see that in my my
057notes I certainly don't want to take that away my goodness well you get a two-minute close to wrap up um and let's start with Brian and move to Ryan and then Amy thank you Betty this is an important part ah yes the closing yes for my closing remarks um I will just say that it's been an it's it's been an incredible journey so far in this process and and this tonight has been very good um I love seeing again all The Smiling Faces uh in the in the crowd or the audience and uh I want I want to make you guys proud that's part of my that's part of my goal is to make the citizens the teachers and the kids proud of of having me uh working for them on their behalf um I
058want to help again I want to help the city and the school system be better and and bring people back bring people into the community and which will bring more students into the community and uh it'll it'll it'll be rewarding in all all respects of uh of the process so thank you thank you well first um I would like to thank everyone here for having the opportunity to be here tonight um it's something a little different I haven't done very many of these before but it's been a it's been a blessing to see everyone and I really am looking forward to working with you the parents the teachers the community as a school board member and I will work hard and take questions I'm not going to let him say anything from the band should
059be I want input from everyone to make decisions and uh thanks again for having me and hopefully we'll see you soon thank you Amy so again thank you to the NAACP Beloit branch and the League of Women Voters of Beloit for this opportunity thank you again Miss Moore um for moderating this event and to the gentleman to my left and to my right it's been a pleasure to sit between you and answer questions this evening so thank you for that opportunity um I am so proud of the campaign that I ran in 2020 and I'm equally proud of my last three years of service being a public servant is not always easy it is time away from your family it is when done right it's a lot of preparation but it's all worth it um
060I believe that those who can serve and have gift and abilities to do so have a responsibility to do so I'm so proud to have the support of the Beloit education Union and the blade secretaries Union I hope that I have earned the votes of you in the room and those that are watching and that will watch I am excited at the opportunity to continue to serve this District but it's up to the community and if the community says yes then I am well prepared to continue my service and I look forward to that opportunity and just really grateful to have this chance to spend some time with each of you this evening thank you this concludes tonight's candidate forum on behalf of all eligible voters thank you candidates for your participation and to all
061of you in the audience for attending please give yourselves a round of applause and a round of applause for these candidates thank you all have a great evening and I certainly hope to see you at some place but at the polls on April 4th thank you