001administrator and I'd like to sincerely thank you for your time this evening joining us for our Schoolboard candidate Forum uh this year's candidate Forum we have three individuals that will be introduced our incumbent is Holly schwitzer a challenger Pat Tony and Andy Thorp this year we're have two openings on our Board of Education with our spring election on April 1st so the goal of tonight is to give our community an opportunity to get to know our candidates prior to the April 1st election vote uh so that you can make an educated Choice as to who you feel would best represent yourself and our school Community to help support our district mission of success for all students as a school Community that's what we strive to do on a daily basis again if you had a
002question that you wrote down for consideration I would kindly ask that you submit it uh up in the the box next to me here is there anybody that would still like to have an opportunity if not I'm going to hand these over to Hans and he can start processing through them and I will continue on with with a brief introduction so this evening tonight's event is recorded and we welcome all of our visitors that are joining um on our YouTube channel as well and please share that messaging with uh friends and families and community members so that they can have an opportunity to listen to our candidate for individuals this evening tonight's questions were developed by our Board of Education uh over the past two meetings we took time as a board of education and
003myself to develop questions which they felt are relevant to support finding out U um who our candidates are relationship to their views on education and the Outlook of Education as a whole but always bringing it back to our local assessment here within the school district of New London as I had mentioned earlier the questions that are submitted for consideration uh Hans will look at them uh there very well may be some questions that um he may already ask as part of our script tonight and if that should happen that question would just kindly be eliminated from tonight and then our time frame tonight we're looking from now until approximately uh 7:30 so about a 90-minute window here and if we are able to take um one or all of our questions from the community we'll
004do our best to see that through but just note there may be a chance that every question that was submitted may not be asked for this evening so so with that thanks again I'd like to introduce Han Thompson um lawyer attorney at sweni and Associates represented in New London uh very grateful to have him take on this responsibility as a individual that does a great job with our candidates tonight so Hans the floor is yours all right great thank you and again my name is Hans Thompson this is probably my fourth year doing one of these uh so the process if you've seen one of these before will not be very much different with the exception of we'll be adding uh questions from the uh the audience as well we're going to start out tonight
005by giving each of the candidates uh approximately two minutes to introduce themselves I'm going to be keeping time and uh moderating the questions as we go along we will stagger uh who gets the first opportunity to answer one of the questions so uh we'll start off first with Holly so Holly if you would please uh introduce yourself to the audience my name is H schwitzer um I was born and raised here in New London my husband and I have five children uh three of which are still in the New London School District um I'm currently the only board member that has children in our elementary school um I have two children in our elementary one in our um intermediate uh the last 15 years I've worked as an administrator at a local Financial firm um
006my husband and I are both very active with the bear cck Lions um we really enjoy being involved with our community um our kids are active in multiple Sports which eats up a ton of our time um you can usually find us somewhere between wrestling and basketball or softball out and about um like other mamas out there the reason I ran for a school board three years ago was because I felt like I did not have a voice I went to those Schoolboard meetings and I felt like everything that I was saying was falling upon deaf ears and that's why I ran that's where my passion grew and um my kids are what drive me and that will that will always that will always be the case that will not change I've stayed true to
007my campaign promises from the last election and um I just I I just had to step out from behind the podium and make a change here I am today running for my second term thank you Patricia Tony would you please introduce yourselves to the audience yes thank you um first of all thank you you all for being here because I think when we want to be involved as a community and find out who is running what our interests are um we need Community input and um so I really thank all of you for being here um first of all I'm Patricia Tony Pat Tony um some of you may know me I might look familiar some of you may not know me um but I I want to introduce myself um uh we have lived
008in the New London area for 44 plus years um I feel committed to this area and I've often referred to it that this is home and when you're a home member you get involved and so whether it has been involved with different organizations committees events throughout our our city and um area I just think it's one way that you can give back um I've been a I am a hospice volunteer I'm a member of the chat committee um some of you may know me from my work of Mission of Hope um but all of it has been being either part of a committee or an event or something it's it's a way that I really feel that I can give back to this community um the reason I'm running for school board is because I
009really do believe that our children our youth are our future and we need to have people actively involved saying what is it that our community can offer them what is it that our school Community can do my background is nursing I've been involved with public health nursing uh which included some School counseling as well as school nursing I am also a licensed professional counselor and I feel that really does prepare me from the work that I've done with individuals students families to really look at the obstacles that they can have as well as the things that work well for families and I think that's what we need in a school Community as well um the other thing that I really um feel so strongly about is our teachers and I'm glad that I can represent
010them as well and be an active part my my mission will be to to bring my P passion and energy and be a team player on the school board so I really um invite all of you to listen and certainly ask for your vote thank you and Andy Thorp please introduce yourself I'm Andy Thorp I am 36 years old and I am a lifelong New London uh born and raised I have a bigger family that kind of kept me from moving out of New London when when I first started out of High School I started a Mason apprentice apprentice apprenticeship and I I wanted to move out to um get the warmer weather to kind of work it where Winter isn't a thing but it's the family the community that kind of kept me here
011um yeah I've I've recently I've just been getting more involved in the community I volunteer at Victory Church and the children's ministry with my wife um we also coached my son's t-ball team and plan to do so again this year which we're kind of looking forward to um yeah like the main reason I'm jumping in run for school board is just being an advocate for parents and just basically looking out for the children I I want to see the children get a a good solid Education Without a bias like we all H have our own opinions we shouldn't be taught Reading Writing arithmetic with radical ideolog ideological um biases behind them um I'm I'm really really looking to stick up for girls um keeping biological males out of girls Sports and bathrooms school should be
012a safe place for all K children and that's that's what I'm standing on all right thank you so we'll start here with the first question and we'll put this to Pat first you'll have approximately 60 seconds to answer each of these questions okay you're going to have to time me all right got my watch right here what do you think the current biggest issue is in public education um one of the concerns and I think one of the biggest maybe concern that there is is our students have to feel safe and secure in their environment of learning um this is imperative because if we want our students to feel comfortable to be able to achieve they also have to feel safe um and when I talk about safety I'm not just talking physical safety I'm
013talking that emotional that emotional that they may look different they might act different they might come from a different culture nationality identity but if we're here to represent all students we have to ensure that that is felt by our students to learn so public education is obviously a needed service in our whole community and I know that kids can be very resilient but at the same point it's important to follow our mission which is success for all students and to do that I think they have to feel safe and secure thank you Andy what do you think the current biggest issue is in public education I would say the growing influence in the federal and state bureaucrats Who tie funding to mandates that don't always align with local local values it often leads to school
014boards that priorit prioritize compliance over listening to the voices of the parents and the voters um the people that elected them as a result they're pushing and implementing policies that may not be practical to the community or the best interest of the kids uh case in point last year um last August Clintonville School Board along with many other school boards adopted the radical gender identity that came from the title Title 9 changes where they allowed uh boys and girls to switch bathrooms locker rooms and even be in other sports based on gender ID um these these other boards felt they had to go along with this in order to keep receiving federal funds for school launches thank you and Holly what do you think is the current biggest issue in public education I'm going to
015say issues um I I think there's well that's cheating funding funding is a big issue um declining enrollment that's a big issue another thing is our teacher shortage we need to retain our teachers our good teachers but we also need to figure out a way way for those kids that are going off to be Educators especially in our district to bring them back to make them sticky they know they know our district and they know our culture I think there's three and I'm going to stick with it all right thank you Andy we'll move on to the second question in your estimation what does the school district of New London currently do really well and is there anything anything you would want to see changed right away I can't think of anything that I would
016change I would say that the district listens well to parents and citizens of the district um we've got lots of teched choices including autot Tech which hly also supported um there's a growing number of um students participating in extracurricular um we've added a lot I would say I wish I was in school now like with the ice fishing team and a bowling team and also they added a girls wrestling team there's just lots of new options for children to get into thank you and Holly in your estimation what does the school district of New London currently do really well and is there there anything you would want to see change right away our district is amazing at offering options for our students if you guys have never looked this is our course description guide and
017it is thick I believe there's over 130 different courses that our high school students can choose from and it's it's arranged from everything from math to Art to uh you know physical education um technical education uh nursing woodworking metal working you name it it's in this book we have an awesome opportunity for our children here um I also feel like we do a good job with our facilities we keep them safe and clean um going to other schools for sporting events it's nice we we've got it really good our facilities are nice um and it's it's you're proud to be a bulldog especially when you go to some of those other places in in UC uh the other thing I think we're good at is upate updating technology um and getting our students College and
018Career ready uh and our budget we've been really good about spending our money wisely thank you and Pat in your estimation what does the school district of New London currently do really well and is there anything you would want to see changed right away I I think as I've attended some of the PTO meetings across the different elements elementary schools and board meetings and and met with students for the senior interviews one of the things that really stands out for me is when I see the staff's passion and their loyalty to the school district and to their students and yes there there we need to continue to make sure that our teachers stay here within this District it's always easier to uh retain a a teacher uh than trying to start all over again and
019get them acclimated to the district and all the different things that are going on but that really stands out for me the passion and the loyalty and the parents there are parents that are you know when I've gone to different meetings they are very much involved and they want to be involved they they see the importance of that um I think the communication with our city with our chamber with the the hospital with the other different um groups within our community I think works really well and and I know that the variety of services clubs classes all the curriculum I mean it's awesome so I I'm really proud of that one of the concerns I have though is the obvious the the amount of things that get put onto that classroom teacher because we're expecting
020a whole lot more than just educating about perhaps a reading skill thank so okay thanks all right and olly you will start with the next question are you in in favor of raising taxes to cover budget shortfalls yesik that's a pretty vague question how big are the shortfalls and have we looked at other options before we you know get to that point I'm I'm sure hope so um we've been really good at at keeping a balanced budget and making smart decisions when it comes to spending in our district with Sesser funds we try to um use that funding for stuff that wasn't going to be a reoccurring expense um I think that's something that our district should be very proud of um what's really important is we need people to be able to afford to
021live here so I guess as a last resort a very last absolute Resort yes what do you do all right thank you and Pat are you in favor of raising taxes to cover budget shortfalls no no one wants to hear about taxes being raised nobody does I don't either um I think in recent years referendums have not successfully excuse me successfully passed when when that is always the item on there I think though that there can be a lot of emphasis and um discussion with our state legislation of what they are giving to our school districts how that can be helpful to us what resources can come to within our school district um we as a board has to be fiscally responsible we have to look at those budgets we have to stay within the
022limits um again um we have to look outside of that and and see you know how proactive are we in talking about the needs of our district to our legislation to make sure that they can afford um or give to to us to afford our school districts thank you and Andy are you in favor of raising taxes to cover budget shortfalls I would say as a last resort instead of um instead of asking taxpayers to contribute more we should focus on spending the money more wisely and PRI prioritizing ensuring every dollar is used efficiently um also eliminate wasteful spending um we need to find better ways to allocate our resources um before considering any tax increases we need to take a hard look at the budget and make sure it's being spent in in the
023best way possible thank you Pat question four will go to you first there is a bill being considered that would add fluency in cursive writing to be added to English language arts standards for elementary school do you support this concept for New London School District if I'm understanding this right I believe that's act 20 that is being discussed and it's a state law that requires schools to um provide and to assess and support Literacy for students prek all the way through third grade um and even though cursive writing is no longer kind of taught um there there is some discussion about it I mean there's facts that we use laptops and everything we do is printed and it even can be considered are kind of outdated but there are some studies that show that using
024the brain to the hand coordination um really does help to um retain information comprehend information um and I think sometimes even writing can be faster for students but I have to be honest um I'm not uh a third grade teacher I'm not a reading specialist I'm not a language arts teacher I need to pull that information from our our experts that are right in our district and learn from them as to Which Way um if this is a direction that act 20 will be dictating thank you Andy there's a bill being considered that would add fluency in cursive writing to be added to English language arts standards for elementary school do you support this concept for the New London School District I do why I was ever removed like kind of boggled my mind like
025when I first heard that they didn't teach it anymore it was upsetting to hear cursive writing isn't just penmanship it helps with find motor skills um and cognitive development there are studies that show that it just helps in general I just think that um it's it's not going to hurt right that the the the positives outweigh the negatives really um I I know it is being taught in second grade basically just so they can write their write their names but like to have this will more so push the kids to keep using it because I don't see kids continuing to write with it without this so yes I'm for this Bill thank you and Holly do you support adding fluency and cursive writing to be added to English language arts standards for elementary school in
026New London School District absolutely we live in a digital world it's more than just a writing style it connects us to our history think of all the documents that are written in cursive think of the Diaries the papers they're all in cursive the sad thing is is I know kids that have graduated from this District that can't read it and they can't write it and it's recent and they're in and they can't read and write cursive that that to me is not okay it's our history it's there's studies that show that cursive is good for the brain for both young adults and children there's actually a quote that I heard a few years back actually my last campaign it's the use of a pen and paper gives the brain more hooks to hang your memories
027on I am 100% for brain cursive back School District thank you Andy question five will go to you first the current national Administration has proposed to eliminate the US Department of Education tell us if you think such a proposal is good for our district or not and why yeah I think it is very good for our district eliminating the um US Department of Education and shifting Federal funding to block grants would be a positive change um local Educators and state leaders have a lot better idea of what our kids need um compared to the federal bureaucrats that just give you blanket statements for everything um we we would be able to um allocate more resources where we need it most rather than being forced to follow one one sides fits all mandates um the shift
028would Empower parents and teachers and local officials to make best decisions for all students and teachers thank you Ali the current national Administration has proposed to eliminate the US Department of Education tell us if you think think such a proposal is good for our district or not and why well if they do end up eliminating it funding definitely needs to continue to feed our education system so the state would definitely need to be prepared to handle such a change the vast majority of the budget for the US um Department of Education goes to financial aid for students or for um for students going into college and other obligations I personally don't like all the strings um that come with Federal funding and sometimes I feel like the closer education decisions are for our or the
029education decisions are to our local schools the better you know at our last board meeting um one of our board members asked our principal one of our principes if he could snap his fingers and fix something what would it be and what I got out of his comment is there's so many things that teachers have to do whether you know there's the pre prea the ACT there's the five 500 IES that they have have to do they need to teach they need to be able to teach and mold these kids thank you and Pat the current national Administration has proposed to eliminate the US Department of Education tell us if you think such proposal is good for our district or not and why um I am not in favor of eliminating a a federal department
030because the whole goal of that was to ensure equal access for students and parents and staff to receive resources and benefits um having a Consolidated place where they could go to get that information and have it as a resource um I I just feel that that would be a part of what would be eliminated um education is primarily a state and local responsibility but the Department of Education provides a lot of funds and strengthening that you know through research sharing ideas all of that and bringing it back to our districts if we don't have that department overhead I'm really worried about that some of our um southern states with maybe a lower social economic status and ready with poverty I'm just worried about what that would happen to those States as well um why would
031we want to cut off essential resources that are beneficial to our staff our families and to our school thank you question six we'll start start with Holly please discuss your views on the Title Nine regulations that were implemented in 2024 and then struck down by federal courts you support the current policy of the New London school district of no biological males on girls teams absolutely I have four girls we have an we have a son at home also my kids play hard they train hard they put the time and the sweat in and the pain that comes with it to compete to have that taken away from a biological meal is not okay to me it's not there are stories across our country where female athletes have been severely injured by a biological males and
032girl Sports take it take a look at our district Alone look at the talent that we have here look at our athletes now throw a biological mail in with those girls do they deserve to have their scholarship maybe ripped away from them or um something because they are competing against a man a boy biological male no let our girls compete against each other thank you Pat please discuss your views on the title 9 regulations that were implemented in 2024 and then struck down by federal courts do you support the current policy of the New London school district of no biological males on girls teams um as I understand the regulations of 2024 were to expand protection for LGB TQ um students and this was to include protection for their sexual orientation and their identity Title
0339 specifically also states that that those kinds of programs uh are mandated because of the federal financial assistance I really do believe that any guidelines that we have that are going to protect students is is very very important I know that in the dist in our district policy 411 clearly spells out the equal opportunity and it does talk about in there that in no way in that policy this should be construed in any way that we are saying biological males can perform and compete in girls sports that's not part of it um I support this policy in theory I I you know don't know if in some future time there might be more discussion on that but right now I am a not aware of any biological male in our district that is looking at
034any type of involvement in school girls Sports so to me right now that isn't an issue to have let's fix the before it reads thank you and Andy please discuss your views on the title 9ine regulations that were implemented in 2024 and then struck down by federal courts do you support the current policy of the New London school district of no biological males on girls teams I do support that it's it's only the best way to be fair um again you saw it all around the nation especially a good case and point was Leah Thomas who was I forget what university she swam for as a male he he was mediocre at best and then hops into the women's pool and he's shattering she's shattering records um it is science that men boys are just
035bigger stronger than girls and it would create an environment where girls just won't compete because it's science um I'm I am glad that title 9 reverted back to the 2020 version of Title 9 I think that title 9 should Safeguard all students fairly and not be used as a political tool thank you question number seven will will go first to Pat with one and six students between the ages of six to 17 of that 59% of high school students experiencing a mental health disorder each year mental health is one of if not the leading deterrence to Student Success what would you propose the board of education do to look at what could be done within our district to help students deal with this and help to prevent mental health issues first of all I started
036out by talking about some of my background which does include being a mental health therapist as well as a school counselor and being involved with um providing therapy and counseling to family and students there's multiple complications and levels in all kinds of these issues so I feel I am qualified to do to talk about this um in any of the surveys done by schools um counties and and hospitals always mental health is the number one issue um I'm really pleased as I was kind of looking over some of this to talk about some of the initiatives that are happening already um I was really pleased to hear about um HOSA which is our health occupations um division here at at the high school and their their whole program about calm through the curriculum so that
037they are bringing in ways of that students can be helped in regards to so that they are able to lessen their anxiety and um support that feeling of of being belonging to an um a group and helping with their achievement their relationships their balance of how to manage school and and work and and all the other things and I think we have to look at how else we can do this can Deca help with this can um our sports teams FFA all the organizations that are involved do we need to have more classes offered that actually deal with this the other part of this is thank you okay Andy with one in six students between the ages of six and 17 and of that 59% of high school students experiencing a mental health disorder each
038year mental health is one of if not the leading deterrence to Student Success what would you propose the board of education do to look at what could be done within our district to help students deal with this and help to prevent mental health issues mental health is a major barrier to Student Success um but schools are meant to educate not act as medical health clinics in my opinion mental health fund funding is more of the job of the state and local entities such as Community Mental Health and Social Service Services the Board of Education should work with these County entities and provide resources and support to staff that can recognize mental health disorders and pro and then provide the resources needed for that child student to obtain the help they need thank you and Holly
039what would you propose the board of education do to look at what could be done within our district to help students deal with mental health disorders and help to prevent mental health issues um I can tell you what I wouldn't do um I wouldn't be so quick to shut down our schools and create an environment of social isolation if you look back over the last couple years especially with Co and I know everyone's sick of hearing about Co but it happened kids are still feeling the Mental effects from Co including mental mental illness depression and anxiety our teachers aren't doctors but we do want them to recognize warning signs and forward those concerns on to to parents and Guardians um when I got on the board um all new board members sit down with the
040director of teacher learning and the director of pupil services and there's a sheet on our website that goes it has resources for community support and mental health that I didn't even know was out there so you know maybe making those resources available and letting people know that these are here they're out there thank you question number eight we'll go to Andy first studies show that parental involvement in their children's education results in higher academic achievement unfortunately Studies have also shown that involvement has continued to drop over the past 10 years what are two of your ideas for re-engaging parents in their children's education uh parental involvement is crucial for Student Success and we need to find ways to re-engage families um first we should uh create more opportunities for parents to get involved such as
041hosting like family engagement nights or workshops or volunteer programs if they can fit it into their busy schedules um I also think that retention policies could be effective you know like if a student isn't cutting it obviously work to get them up to snuff but also getting them to know that they could be held back with and letting their parents know would kind of set that fire underneath them to motivate them to get it going thank you Holly studies show that parental involvement in their children's education results in higher academic achievement unfortunately Studies have also shown that involvement has continued to drop over the past 10 years what are two of your IDE ideas for re-engaging parents and their children education this was a tough one for me um the reason is is because think
042about it I have three hours with my kids from the time I get home from work until the time that they're supposed to be in bed that includes making supper cleaning up doing their 30 minutes each three kids in the elementary or intermediate between Elementary and intermediate bath time bedtime that doesn't in include any sports it doesn't include anything else 3 hours with our kids I think that you know in our school strongly urges kids to be involved in extracurricular activities so now throw in those practices two times a week sports are sports and extracurricular activities are important it keeps our kids um mental health better it it shows that they have uh better achievement in with their grades it keeps them away from drugs it it it um it I lost my train a
043lot I'm sorry um it helps build self-confidence and character but 3 hours we need to figure out how to quit robbing from Peter to pay Paul as parents that's what we need to do thank you and Pat studies show that parental involvement in their children's education results in higher academic achievement unfortunately Studies have also shown that involvement has continued to drop over the last past 10 years what are two of your ideas for re-engaging parents in their children's education I think first of all it's important to think um and realize that lack of involvement doesn't mean necessarily lack of interest and there's all kinds of obstacles that can be happening of why that person isn't involved um and I think sometimes we just have to start with that one-on-one relationship and conversation as to what
044is limiting some someone from being involved what is it that's setting up that the the the problem that they can't get involved um and I think that relationship starts right away as a new student comes into the doorway you know one of the suggestions might be when there's a new student that comes into a a school classroom many times we might have a new buddy for them well maybe that same thing has to happen a new buddy um with a new family member that comes in or what about the new Budd with just you know someone that hasn't been involved but reaching out to them on a onetoone to say this is why I like going to the meetings this is why I like being involved come along with me is transportation a problem do
045we need to do something like that I think family engagement family um involvement is huge um maybe we need culture fairs and ethnic food fairs so that we can actually learn about those other cultures that might be in our district to help kind of bring that about you're going to cut me off I can tell I wanted you to take a breath first all right Holly question nine goes to you what is your position on mask and lockdown mainten mandates in schools during the covid-19 pandemic and how do you believe schools should respond to health guidelines in general it's those mandates that got me here in the first place I think it's important to review the facts and the data we had board members saying that the data provided was was inaccurate um I actually
046reached out to the Department of Health in September of 2021 wanting to know how often numbers were being updated and I got back to the board with those that information um I believe that a parent should have a say when it comes to making a decision regarding their children's well-being I basically begged for parents to have the choice to mass their children or not that is their child and when there's a risk there must be a choice it's called informed consent the loss of learning was huge during covid the lockdowns the mental health was extremely affected and I'm confident that this was only this the lockdown only fueled our chronic absenteeism and there's surveys there's surveys that our school district did show me that it this is on our website look it up it our
047mental health Staffing shortages student learning support absenteeism support student support for working parents and reading support report in early grades thank you Pat what is your position on mask and lockdown mandates in schools during the covid-19 pandemic and how do you believe schools should respond to health guidelines in general remember I said my background is public health nursing Community Health um that is what it is and it gives me insight and knowledge as to why this is necessary covid if we're using that as an example is a communicable disease it's spread by droplets respiratory shearing and um the first line of defense is always good handwashing the second is to prevent the spread of the virus one way we do that by preventing it from spreading and that way when it doesn't spread it doesn't
048mutate so then we have a you know another area wearing a mask to prevent the spread is absolutely needed and yes I do support that that that was useful it was a necessary to do it it was important to not spread the disease farther than it did uh Federal lock down that happened it was necessary um and I I hope that with that going forward our emergency preparedness for our district our community will also look at and consider what's happening now with the measles outbreak this is going to be happening again and uh we have to be um proactive about that thank you and Andy what is your position on mask and lockdown mandates in schools during the covid-19 pandemic and how do you do you believe schools should respond to health guidelines in general
049uh the mask mandates during the co pandemic were not handled in my opinion very well I do believe that uh it should have been parents' Choice whether their child wore a mask um these measures disrupted not just academic process but also social and emotional development um as a result you can you can see a lot of students are behind a full year from the at home learning um I believe that schools should have should have remained open during this because of the lack of being held accountable at home with children a lot of the times on their own whether their te you know being able to be at home as a teenager but the the younger ones obviously parents were probably home with them but you didn't get a whole lot of good learning out
050of that whole year and you see it in in the grades and academic levels that they're at right now thank you question number 10 will go to Pat first how can we make learning a priority and continue to improve student achievement for all students um it's been mentioned an attendance is an absolute Foundation that has to be for our students to learn and Achieve and the the link between parental involvement and understanding why that attendance is needed that's our first step we have to be able to convey to people why it's important that their student be in school what can they benefit from it why is that taking them away away from it um I think that's a a positive thing that we have to do and and certainly that continual feedback to the parents
051as to if they student is achieving and look at they've been attending every day but now they missed some so now they're behind um but I think education goes beyond the classroom and I think if there's a way that we can draw into um anything with student achievement whether in our Sports whether in our our organizations um there's just so much importance in that because unless we have kids attending and seeing the importance of that you know there is going to be um obviously a disagree a disability for them um but we also have to make sure that they feel safe valued and welcomed to be in that classroom thank you Andy how can we make learning a priority and continue to improve student achievement for all students uh I think it starts with teachers
052uh we need to retain are are good teachers that we have in the district we need to give them the resources and support they need to meet the students at their each individual levels of where they're at um with targeted plans to keep them learning um second is is addressing the root causes of the learning gaps whether it's um mental health or access to technology or even if it's family support and then how we Bridge those gaps and then lastly just having a culture of what we have success for all Su all students like want want want to have higher expectations for grades and and to be able to push kids to want to have higher grades thank you and Holly how can we make learning a priority and continue to improve student achievement for
053all students accountability is one um you have to remember not to go back to co again but during Co time we were sending kids home like crazy and when I say like crazy they were getting sent home for not feeling well just fague they were sent home for chap lips they were sent home because they had red cheeks they were sent home because they just didn't feel well which is fine if they don't feel good they they don't belong in school but these kids and parents got accustomed to their kids just coming home every time there was an ailment so do we have an attendance problems absolutely accountability now where we have to hold parents accountable and kids accountable let's get you in school you can't learn if you're not in school we need to
054keep good teachers in our district in our curricula we we all have the goal of providing the best and most thorough education to our students thank you all right and uh the last of our scheduled questions goes first to Andy and that question is what is the role of the Schoolboard the role of the school board is to not be a rubber Stamper but to provide oversight and Leadership to ensure that schools meet the needs of students and families of the community um this includes setting policies improving budgets and making decisions about the curriculum and the programs and the staff the board works with the district leaderships to ensure the schools are effective transparent and accountable um most most importantly the school board represents Community Values priorities and advocating best interest best interest interest of
055of the students thank you hly what is the role of the school board being a community advocate for our parents and our taxpayers um policy making hiring and reviewing our superintendent approving budgets curriculums assessing compliance with po policy standards and working on in approving our school calendar there's so much more than goes into this than that but that's that's gist a it all right thank you and Pat Uh what is the role of the school board the board has many responsibilities the number one is governance um being that oversight um doing strategic planning having goals set up for the school district and obviously being accountable a strategic planning involves the goals being um you know creating a team creating a vision as to which way that district is going to go what we're our focus
056is going to be being fiscally responsible as well and board members need to be team players they have to believe in the mission of the organization without any Personal Agenda And I stress that because they have to be willing to give up their time their energy and keep themselves educated as to what are the current issues and trends that are going on that's part of a Board responsibility I think again consideration of all the the students and the staff to ensure safety well-being and improving Student Success that's the overall governance of a board thank you that concludes uh our uh previously arranged questions and again these questions were developed uh in coordination with the current school board and uh and uh District administration um now we're going to switch gears a little bit and we're
057going to look at some of the questions that were submitted by the members of the audience and so the first question we'll start off going to Holly and again we'll do 60 seconds um Holly what do you feel is the district's main priority moving forward and how is this your focus as a board member um our our strategic our strategic plan we put a lot of work into that and um that's something that we uh regularly review um we've got some really good goals on there and it's something that we really need to keep striving um for excellence for our students that's strategic plan we it's there for a reason thank you Pat what do you feel is the district's main priority moving forward and how is this your focus as a board member I
058think our main focus is to stay fiscally responsible to our community to our school but to provide the best education that we can give um that does mean holding people accountable it does mean the board members being accountable as well um the Strategic plan that Holly mentioned um I remember Scott bringing it and sharing it and looking at all the different Avenues this is the the main kind of the map that we we can go by um the the board members need to embrace that look at it um see what way that we can do that and um go with it support it thank you and Andy what do you feel is the district's main priority moving forward and how is this your focus as a board member I would say keep keep going with
059what we're doing providing kids just all sorts of all sorts of classes they can get into just to allow them to get into the job market or college tech ed or trade school um just just to be able to get out of high school and contribute to society uh just having a place that really allows them to grow and become a part of you know contributing to society thank you the next question will go first to Pat and that question is what experience with Educational Theory do you have and what is your main philosophy on education my background includes um education being having a masters in education looking at both from the school counseling as well as um from the Community Counseling um the educational and the and um what was the second part of
060that excuse me the what is your main philosophy on education the main philosophy is that every student achieves but it might look different every student is not going to be with the same skill skill set the same strengths and we have to be able to individualize that for all students that doesn't mean that you know we're going to not educate them but we have to listen to how we are going to do that and that might be an individual plan bearing with them that their disability or their superability so um being able to certainly identify that um plan for that and be obviously the achiever that we want those students to be as well as good citizens thank you Andy what experience with Educational Theory do you have and what is your main mean philosophy
061on education say mean mean philosophy on education would be being able to instruct all students to be able to grasp what they're being taught regardless of how it how it has to be explained to one might not be the same to another but in to be able to teach all to know know what there's no understand the lesson in whole just so that they all understand thank you and hly what experience with Educational Theory do you have and what is your main philosophy on education I'm a mom I don't have a huge education but one thing that I do know is that our kids when they walk out of this school they need to be career or college ready whether it's they're going to be a farmer or whether it's they're going to Harvard whatever
062it may be we need to make sure that they're going to be a functioning member of society College and Career ready thank you the next question is going to go to Andy first some of the candidates have made family or Traditional Values part of their platform what does this mean to you Traditional Values would be how I grew up through school being how I was taught just being taught Reading Writing arithmetic without a a bias um Traditional Values being that boys went into boys' bathrooms girls went into girls bathrooms boys and girls played in each other's Sports and if they played together it was labeled coed um that's my idea of Traditional Values thank you Holly some of the candidates have made uh family or Traditional Values part of their platform what does this mean
063to you I am one of those candidates um and I I do have to mimic um Andy on this one I you know when when I grew up it was um you know having reading and writing and arithmetic and that's what it was there wasn't all this other stuff thrown into it um it it really comes down to just getting back to the basics thank you and Pat some of the candidates have made supporting family or Traditional Values part of their platform what does this mean to you for me it means acceptance it means being non-judgmental it means loving that neighbor as myself it means those traditional things that my mom taught me things about uh supporting me to learn in whatever way that I wanted to and whatever way that I career I wanted
064to go into um you know very non-judgmental and very compassionate uh woman that that I obviously learned from um going to a parochial school I also learned those things about always helping the our neighbor so um I mean I think those are are important values um and that may not be listed as maybe that I wasn't listed as one of those traditional um but I am you know those are important values that I I think have brought forth me to who I am today thank you the next question uh will go first to Holly and that question is if elected What specifically will you do to help the teachers and administrators provide a foundation for all students to develop their strengths and talents in order to succeed in school and Beyond well as a board
065member you can only give a vote um it's a it's a team effort so what the board board says is what goes even if you even if you don't agree you still have to go with it and support it because that's how it was voted on um I think being an advocate for teachers and for parents um in the the last couple years we've significantly compensated our teachers for their their workings what they've done with our our kids I think we have great staff um we need to keep supporting our teachers we we focused on you know maybe pulling some of the stuff away that was um you know maybe making more work more doing how do want to say more doing doing more harm than good but um making it easier so they're not
066so overloaded um and I think we need to continue to do that we need to figure out and strategize how we can keep doing that um there's only what is it one teacher for what's the average 20 is the students is that right but um and that's a lot we need to to focus on how we can give them the support that they need to keep moving forward thank you Pat if elected What specifically will you do to help the teachers and administrators provide a foundation for all students to develop their strengths and talents in order to succeed in school and Beyond I think for our teachers to to know the board for the board to reach out to them to be present to hear what they are are offering what they are hearing about
067in their classrooms um if if someone feels feels validated by being listened to by what they are saying is has worthwhile and meaning that person is going to be more likely to connect and I think the the one-on-one connections are going to be very very important um because that's how we're going to retain our teachers that will continue with our um certainly our achievement for our our students um but to listen to them to support them we need to be present with them get to know them you know give validation to them help their morale thank you and Andy if elected What specifically will you do to help the teachers and administrators provide a foundation for all students to develop their strengths and talents in order to succeed in school and Beyond definitely be an
068ear be more ears than mouth listen to the teachers and administrators they know what's going on they know what they need to do listen so that when it comes time that board members get together and need to do something for them we can we can get get them resources we can get them whatever they need whether it's new technology but just to put them put them up on a pedestal because they are the ones that are teaching our kids and it's them who basically Drive the boat thank you all right so we uh talked earlier about the Department of Education and the fact that it may may not exist here in a little while um and uh if that were to happen there is a belief that um this District stands to lose approximately 5%
069of its annual budget if the federal government were to go through with that plan to uh eliminate the Federal Department of Education and gut Medicaid how do you propose that we as a district would make up for those cuts while maintaining the federally protected rights of students with disabilities mental health and other medical conditions and this question is going to be uh posed first to Pat I think it's a a very important question right now because the elimination of the Department of educ ation which would perhaps cut that Medicaid we have to understand that with Medicaid there are certain requirements already that are set in place and so that it's not going to cut from necessarily some of those special education programming but it might start cutting from some of those other um Regular education
070some of the other kind of services and that's really alarming so um losing 5% might right off the top say Well that's not a whole lot but yes it will be a whole lot because our district very much is going to have to sit there and look at what are those top priorities that cannot be eliminated and then come up with some really strategic ideas how are we going to still provide those Services because again some of the special education funds will be secured but it will impact on some of the other education um and we will have to address that being fiscally responsible I don't know right off the top top of my head what you would cut thank you Andy if uh as a result of federal cuts the district were to lose
0715% of its annual budget how do you propose that we would make up for those cuts while maintaining the federally protected rights of students with disabilities mental health and other medical conditions as tough as it would be yeah you would have the the obvious choice would you you would have to look into the budget and see where you can reallocate funds and shift shift where you're spending money to put money where money needs to be and take from where you can and it at and if you have to I guess you ask for more taxes all right thank you and Holly if the district were to lose approximately 5% of its budget because of federal Cuts how do you propose that we would make up for those cuts while maintaining the federally protected rights of
072students with disabilities mental health and other medical conditions I guess I would be interested to see what the state would do and how they would be prepared to step up to handle this change um I think that there's going to be if it were to happen I think there would be quite a few sleepless nights um from our Administration team trying to figure out what's next um I I I said before you know as last case scenario that that it may come down to raising taxes I as I said before it's always last case scenario but you got to look at all avenues what you don't want to cut things CU you know for years it's like we've been Thrifty trying to do the right thing but what what are our options at that point
073thank you all right so uh this is my last question from the audience and I think it's a good way to wrap things up and the last question will go first to Andy and the question is what is one major goal you wish to accomplish as a board member um just really getting things done learning learning from other board members on how to be a board member and just contributing um I don't know what that looks like but working with an already great group of board members to produce the best for possible scenario for teachers and students alike thank you and Holly what is one major goal you wish to accomplish as a board member I want to continue to be that advocate for parents and for our taxpayers um I you know I said
074it before and there's nothing worse than feeling like you're unheard when you have questions or concerns I want there to be open communication and I want honest feedback and I want transparency from our board and my goal is is to continue that thank you and Pat what is one major goal you wish to accomplish as a board member I want to bring passion and energy to a board I want to uh continue to be a supportive person um to the board I stress team playing because I think that's just absolutely vital and my work has always been involved with trying to bring out the best in people and bringing out the best of a board um I advocate for fairness and that's for students parents teachers Administration that we just need to do that um
075there isn't any Personal Agenda and I think that's huge so I think for a team playing um board we have to be listening to each other um bringing ideas forward sharing our ideas coming up with ideas going forward but not having personal agendas all right thank you that concludes uh our presentation this evening um I just want to thank all of you for participating tonight and for also uh being candidates in this election I know it's not easy and uh it's it's important um so I appreciate you being willing to commit your time and your energies to the district and to the students so thank you very much again again I'd like to Echo the what Mr Thompson was saying thank you to candidates there's no easy job to go up in front and uh
076share your thoughts in a public setting with nearly 40 people on the opportunity which lies ahead of them so congratulations to all boarders our board thanks you for participating tonight uh for the members that joined us this evening I would encourage if you have a question you'd like to ask any or all board members there they will be around there are some refreshments in the Commons area if you so choose um Mr Thompson thanks again board members thank you yes thank you and I encourage everyone to to vote appropriately on April 1st thanks again everyone [Applause]