Welcome to the Henry F. Schricker Library at Edgewood High School. And this is a candidate forum sponsored
by the League of Women Voters. My name is Ralph Shaw, and I will be the moderator for the session. And
I'm delighted that we have all four candidates for the Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation
School Board who are here today to answer your questions. And that's really what we're trying to do
is to hear
Whoever is here and you are representing the whole of the school corporation with your questions. We
are glad that the event is being recorded by CATS, Community Access Television Services from the Monroe
County Public Library. And so our friends and neighbors will be able to watch what we've asked and how
they have responded as they want to make their decisions about for whom to vote for school board.
So we have the four candidates and we're going to begin with each of them giving a one minute opening
statement about who they are. The first two are from the Bean Blossom District and the second two from
the Richland District. So those are the two races, one for each district. So if you're comparing people
and deciding where to place your vote, that would be the comparison you'd be making. After that, we
will go to questions from you.
And we also have some questions that were submitted in advance by people who responded by email. So
we'll work sort of back and forth. But the main idea is to get your questions forwarded and brought
to the candidates. And yes, if you have a question, it would be wonderful if you could come up here
so that people can hear what you have to say. If you'd rather not, Carol Gardner has note cards and
pencils if you want to write something down and have
If you want to write something legibly and have me read it, I would be glad to do that for you. So however,
whatever works best for you in terms of getting your questions onto the floor. So we'll have the one
minute opening statements from each of the candidates. Then we'll go to questions. At the end, we'll
have a minute for closing statements. Again, one minute. And surprise, they will each have a minute
to respond to the questions unless it turns out to be a question that seems
require a lot more than one minute to respond. Okay. So we will go ahead and start alphabetically. We'll
start on the end with Krista and move down this way. Okay. My name is Krista Curtis. I'm excited to
be running for school board. I have three
reasons why I'm running for school board. The first is that I really am excited and energized by the
things that are happening at Edgewood and definitely want to be a part of making this a great school.
Second reason that I'm running is that I am concerned for public education. I think the decisions being
made at a state level that are impacting funding
are something to be concerned about. And the third reason I'm running is I think that I have some really
good experience to help with those challenges. I've been a part of boards. I know what governance means.
I've led people through change. I've managed large budgets. And I've had to be involved in complex decision
making. And I know what it's like to have to take a lot of input from a lot of stakeholders and work
through that to get to a good decision.
So those are the three key reasons why I'm running. I'm happy to be here tonight. Perfect. And Jeremiah.
Yeah, I'm Jeremiah O'Neill. A few big reasons why I decided to run. Initially, I realized that Krista
was running uncontested, so I figured I might as well get in there and make it a choice or an option.
And then secondly, I have four kids that have went
Ellisville schools here, Edgewood and three of them are special needs and we've had our fair share of
problems. And so I don't want to pretend like everything's perfect and I want to make it better. And
I think that's really bad. I'll have to say about that. And then that'll just kind of encompass everybody,
every other kid too. And if I have to fight for my kids that need special services, then all the other
kids need them too. They need somebody to advocate for them and I'll be the guy to do it.
My name is Dennis Adams. I am running because I want to use my experience to help with the school and
a school I love. I went to Edgewood. All my family went to Edgewood. Kids, grandkids go to Edgewood.
I've lived in this area my whole life. I have a long-term business
experience. I've worked for the same company my entire career. I also have a lot of experience with
the state legislators. I am state president of our trade association and I helped pass our bill in 1987
and 15 times we've had to amend that bill and I had to go testify in front of
legislators. I've had to meet them one on one and I think I can use that. I'm also involved in the federal
side with our trade association. One thing I really want to do is I really want to thank the League
of Women Voters. This is such a positive thing to get this information out to the public and have forums
like this. I know they've been around for almost a hundred years promoting voting and I think that's
just a real, real nice thing they do.
Hi, my name is Kelly Scholl, and I am running for school board because I am passionate about public
education. I started my career in public education. I taught for about 12 years at high school, mostly
physics, and I
When I decided to leave the classroom, I went into higher education. I now help faculty at Indiana University
with their teaching. So I've spent my entire professional career in education. And I would like to be
able to give back to public education at the K-12 level again. One minute is hard.
I also want to thank everybody here for coming tonight. It's great to be able to talk to folks and be
able to have them hear from all of us and the League of Women Voters for hosting us as well. Thank you.
If you have a question, you can raise your hand.
start with an icebreaker question, and we'll just sort of go backwards down the road. So starting with
Kelly, the question, and you have a minute for response, because it's, what do you think is the most
critical issue that RBBCSC faces today?
So I think that the most critical issue that our corporation faces is building community, coalition,
and being able to have that strong foundation. I work in educational technology. The thing that I know
is that everything changes very quickly. The other thing with education is as new elections happen,
at the state level, at the federal level, the problems that we're gonna have in public education are
dependent upon those folks that are changing in those offices. So the challenges that we face are constantly
going to be changing, and so being able to have a background and a solid ground in caring for students
and educators is the thing that I think
helps me face those problems, but building the coalition, the community across our entire community,
where we can listen to everybody, is our most critical issue. Thank you. Gosh, that's hard. I think
one of our biggest challenges are budget cutbacks. How the money's being spent, how we're spending money
in a school, how much money we're getting from the state, how much less money we're getting from the
state in a lot of cases.
I'm from a business background. I think that business background, I know how to look at a budget. I
guarantee you I would question every line on a budget. I just came back from a board meeting and we
went through our budget line by line and determined what shouldn't be there and what should be there
and that was something that I bring to the table. Another thing is we're in competition. As a school,
we're in competition for teachers, we're in competition for students and we have to be
We have to have the best, and competition for teachers. We have to have the best teachers. We have to
have the best administrators. We have to want kids to come to our school because of the teachers, the
curriculum, and the facilities. The facilities are important because kids can go anywhere now. They
can go any school for any reason without even having a reason. So thank you. 60 seconds. Yeah.
I think the budget and money is a big part of it, but I think we've got to start right here at home
and fix problems here before we worry about going elsewhere for answers. Same as Dennis, it sounds like
I do a lot of commercial real estate work, project management, I manage hundreds and hundreds of facilities
that probably make this place look very small. We talk about budgets all the time, we talk about return
on investment, we talk about
where we spend our money and where do we get the most value. Do some of the projects that we have going
on around here serve everybody? I'm not sure that they do. I wonder sometimes if maybe money could be
spent differently and provide a better free and appropriate education for everybody that attends RBB.
Well, I'd have to agree that I think the biggest challenge right now is funding. Dr. Sanders has shared
publicly that the school corporation is going to need to find a million dollars to cut in expenses this
next school year, and that's not a small problem. And you have to do that while still supporting students,
because as you said, every student deserves an education. I mean, the law requires this community school
corporation to provide every student with an education.
And at the same time, we need to be able to appropriately pay our teachers. So I think that the school
board will have to, I think they're already doing it, and I think you're gonna have to continue to look
at every penny that gets spent, every project, while at the same time meeting their obligations. So
I think related to this, the other big challenge is making sure
that our legislators understand the decisions they're making and the impact it's having at a local level.
And I'm not sure that they always do. So somehow we have to tell that story. Are there questions or
people thinking of questions that you're going to write down to funnel to Carol?
So I don't have an infinite number of questions suggested by the public, by the way. So you should,
as they used to say in kindergarten, put on your thinking cap and be thinking about the questions that
brought you out here tonight. What would you really like to know from these people? They are assembled
here. I'm sorry. I do have questions. I thought someone else was coming up here to ask questions. No,
if you want to come up here, that would be great, because then Kat's going to be sure to record your
question. Thank you.
So I'm Jeremiah's wife, and we have four kiddos. Three of those kiddos are autistic and have utilized
services at RBB. We've had an amazing experience up until this year. That's no secret. So I have some
questions specifically for Krista.
You posted a September 8th video on Facebook, and it said that a board must ensure district policies
actually work. When families have used the complaint process, raise concerns directly with the board,
and still lack a documented resolution, what should the board do to verify that administrators address
the problem? Yeah, that's a great question. I have thought about this a lot.
Did the minute start? As we know, it's not the board's job to run the corporation day to day, right?
But I do think we need to listen. I think we need to pay attention to what parents are saying, what
teachers are saying, and what students are saying. And so when we hear feedback, I think we need to
ask questions. I don't ever think you should just assume policies are working. It's important to go to where
things are happening and understand it firsthand. My belief is that because I deal with this sometimes
at work and you hear things and you you don't always know if it's a singular situation or if there is
a systemic trend and I think one of the things I always try to pay attention to is there's that old
adage you know where there's where there's smoke there's fire and the more that you hear something it's
very likely that there's a problem that needs to be addressed.
And so that's how I would handle it. I would ask questions of the administration. I'd go back to the
policies. Are we following the policies? Are they working? If not, then we need to look at revising
the policies. I guess my question too is, I mean, if you look at some of the board policies, school
board members do have oversight over superintendent and administration. They do have oversight
and accountability and transparency.
to assure those policies and that those issues are being resolved. So we can't just, to me, I don't
want to go on a tangent, but we just can't go back, push parents back to administrators and say, well,
you know, we can't do it because we don't do the day-to-day stuff that's on administrators. I think
that there are people in the other parts of the room that want to hear what's going on here.
Is this mic not- It is recording to cats, but it's not- Okay, I'm so sorry. I'll try to speak louder
if that helps. So just as a parent experiencing that, I just think it's important that as a group of
parents that approaches a board with an issue,
We just don't push them back to administrators and then it just fizzles out and it's gone So I guess
my next follow-up question would be What objective evidence would you require before accepting that
a serious administrative problem has been resolved? I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not a school board
member yet So I don't exactly know how they do that today I
I think that some of it is you just have to ask good questions. And if it's not lining up and it's not
making sense, sometimes you have to go with your intuition. But I do agree with you that part of the
role of the school board is to hold the superintendent accountable. Well, I can speak as a parent that
has come to the board with issues that was promised that this would be looked into.
and never heard a single thing back from that. So that was a concern of mine as well. Could we kind
of broaden the question now and ask the other candidates for your ideas? Yeah. So I have one more question.
OK. Just be thinking about the relationship between the school board and the administration. We'll move
on. School board and the administration. OK. So my next question would be for Kelly.
And my question is, given that your husband is the principal of Edgewood Intermediate, what specific
safeguards would you provide to like independent oversight when board decisions could affect his employment,
his salary, and staffing, and professional accountability? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that.
I really appreciate that because it's not something that has come up and something that I have been
able to address publicly so I do appreciate that question. So first I will say that there has not there's
not a shortage of or this wouldn't be the first time that there is a school board member that has a
relationship with somebody else that works in the school corporation. There was a school board member who wife
did work in the corporation and has since retired, and there is a board member whose wife currently
works in the school corporation. So it's not unusual. Second, I will share that you can talk with my
husband at any point in time. We do not always agree. We do not always see eye to eye, and we are not
afraid to be in conversation with that. And then finally, I thought about this before running a lot.
I would recuse myself from any administrative contract conversation. That is not something that I would
want to participate in because I can obviously benefit from that. Okay, I think that's all my questions.
Thank you. So when the minute runs out,
Please go ahead and finish your sentence. We're not going to come up here with a hook and pull you off
the stage or something like that. So the question that came up, the specific question, but more generally
about the board and the administration, this is a question from the audience. If the district office
doesn't resolve an issue, can the parent go directly to the board to make them aware of the situation
and receive some backup?
So let's go first to Jeremiah and work around this way. Sure. Yeah, I mean, that's what we did. You
feel like you're not getting the support you need at the school level. You could go to a school board
meeting. You could air your concerns and your grievances. They should be heard and they should
be investigated and
and more than probably just a fleeting thought, you know, some actual consideration and time and effort
put into how that specific concern could be addressed. And then, you know, there's always ways to escalate
above and beyond the school district. So there's usually a chain of command when there's an issue where
in business. So you have steps where you make your
um, feelings known about a situation. But I am open to any time take questions or answer questions that
I can if it's something I can deal with or could. I'm I'm like Krista. I don't know. I've never been
on the board. I don't know all the rules, but I know that I take calls 24 seven.
from my employees, from my customers, and I will do it from any citizen or anyone who has a issue if
they don't feel like it's being handled through the proper normal channels. And I will address that
any time. I'll take emails, calls, texts. I will take that information. But I weigh everything. I weigh
both ends. I want to hear everything anyone has to say, and then I'll address it with the proper
proper people that hopefully could fix the problem. If it's a legitimate problem, we want it fixed.
So. So community members directly communicating with board members. Again, I am not a board member,
so I do not know if there are rules about this, but I know that we have all said in it previously that
course we want to listen that's the point of us being here we want to serve the community we want to
serve public education and so yes I would take I would be happy to listen to anybody that has an issue
that hasn't been resolved I know that I myself as a parent have had issues that haven't been resolved
and I've had to be the person continually going back and
for months asking for what the resolution is and it's not a great feeling and you want answers and I
want to help be a person that can find those answers. So the seat that Jeremiah and I are running for
was held by Angie Jacobs who's retiring and when I was thinking about running for school board I had
a conversation with Angie about like what's this like and one of the things she told me was that
Her goal was to always be a safe space for people to provide feedback, whether it was a parent or a
student or a teacher, that she created a reputation that people could come to her and give her feedback.
And I think that's really, really important. And that's part of the reason I ran, is I wanted to do that.
a person that people feel comfortable coming to me and giving me feedback. I don't believe anything
is ever perfect. I think there's always room for improvement. And so I think we have to hear it firsthand.
So I don't know, as was said, I don't know all the rules for how we're going to manage that. But I do
want to be a place where people can come and provide feedback. And I think if you hear, as I said, if
you hear feedback multiple times,
that likely means there's a big problem that needs to be addressed and then I would want to work with
the administration and my hope would be the administration would be open just like I was open that they
would be open to that feedback and that the resolution would be clear. Kelly had a specific received
a question specifically about conflict of interest and we received an email question that was that
that connects with some of the same issues more generally. So what I'd like to do is to start with Krista
with this question, and Kelly, yeah, if you feel that you have something more that you want to say on
the topic, you can, but we'll just start at that end and work this way. And the question was, are there
any board voting or oversight areas where you might have a conflict of interest, and if so, what are
those and how would you handle it?
I'm not aware of any. I have been attending board meetings over the past few months to try to understand
the business of the board a little better. I'm not aware of any. I do work for Cook Medical and the
New Life Sciences Training Center that's being built out here. We are looking to partner. My company
is looking to partner with them, but otherwise I don't believe that I have any conflicts of interest.
So I definitely don't have any relationships with any person on the board, in the school district, with
any contractors that do any work at these premises. No, zero issues there. And as far as the nepotism,
it's a bigger problem. I call it a problem. It's a problem in my workplace all the time. It causes lots
of issues and it's not,
Just Andy and Kelly. There's a lot of other issues like that in the school district. So yeah, I mean,
I can see that being a problem. So my sister does work in the budgeting office, but she does not have
any, she's not supervisor to anyone. She's not involved in any policy issues. If anything came up, I
would recuse myself, but I don't believe that is any kind of conflict at all.
entering this race with no obligation to anybody. I don't owe anybody anything. I haven't promised anybody
anything. So I am open-minded on all subjects that come up. I've been going to the board meeting since
I decided to run. I had to miss one just to try to learn. And I didn't know that much about it, but
I'm learning a lot. I knew what basically a board did was
budgeting issues, policy issues, and hiring the superintendent and making good choices on that for our
leadership. And I don't feel like I have a conflict. So my husband does work in the school corporation.
And I did already address that. The other conflicts of interest that I would see, I do have two children
in the school corporation. They are involved.
children. Athletics, extracurriculars, show choir, and sometimes there are budget lines that come across.
I see those as for all students, not just for my two students, but I would definitely be open to not
participating in those parts of those conversations if that felt unfair. There are five board members
for a reason, and so I
would be happy to recuse myself from those conversations. But in general, I work in higher end. I deal
with lots of big budgets as well.
and budgets that are specifically in buckets, similar to what K-12 budgets look like, and that you can
only spend money in certain ways. And so I'm very familiar with what that looks like and understand
that while approving a budget for maybe a choir event, that that couldn't be spent on teacher salaries
and things of that nature. So, sorry, I'm out of time.
I will leave it there. I think it's interesting to me to just hear their comments on this question,
because it's so clear that the school board has to represent the community. And if you had people who
are not of the community trying to make decisions for the community, that's a different kind of problem.
So it's definitely a balancing question wherever the problem arises or lies.
Another question that came from the audience. Could each, oh, let's see, we will start with Dennis and
go this way around the table. Could each candidate discuss how career and technical education could
advance in RBB in the next five years? So career and technical education over the next five years, what
prospects do we see?
big believer in all kids are not going to college. They don't want to go to college. When I was in school,
they didn't want to go to college. Having the steps to go into other industries, the last school board
meeting talked about a partnership with Eli Lilly to have steps to go from high school to college to
them. That is huge. All of the different partnerships they have with the other
biosciences companies around here, because there's so many of them, and having those partnerships with
kids that will go to college, a lot of them, but then there's the trades. The trades are amazing. There's
so many, a plumber can make more than a college graduate now. And having those trades, and whenever
we came to the open house that they had, and seeing the audio video over at the
over at the elementary or junior high. That was amazing to me on what they're doing and what they're
learning in AI and what they're learning in video is to me steps for the kids in every aspect from college,
trades, workforce. I think it's all needs to be through the school to develop the kids to what they
want to go into. So I believe in education in any form.
So if a student wants to graduate and go to higher education, that's great. If they want to graduate,
the goal here, the through line is graduate. We want to have all of our students graduate and want to
go into trades. There's still education, right? Tradesmanship education is kind of
the foundation of education and how we are passing on skills from one to the next. I don't think that
any one education is better than another if that's what serves the student and that's what they want
to do. So continuing to explore the ideas and possibilities to partner with folks in our community that
would be willing to offer trades and technical education.
still education and I think education is a benefit no matter what it looks like. That includes service.
Folks that want to graduate and go directly into service are getting an education through that service
and by serving and possibly getting credits in addition to further education beyond service as well.
So I think that it's important that we continue to look for partnerships in ways that we can serve every
single student in the education that they want beyond the high school.
I should write it down when you ask I'm sorry. How career and technical education could advance in our
BB in the next five years okay well first of all I think our BB is already well on its way I mean there
are 16 career pathways that are available right now in the high school. And I mentioned the life sciences
training center that's being built I think
through the Ready Schools initiatives over the last five years, they've done some pretty incredible
things. I agree with what everyone said, that every kiddo should be able to follow their path, whether
that's trades, that's community college, it's four-year degree, it's the military, they should be able
to follow that path. And I really, one of the things that I think is really cool is the focus that
RBB has on, they want to make sure that every student leaves with a plan. Dr. Sanders talks about this
a lot. They want every student to leave with a plan. So I think we're on our way, but I think there's
more that can be done to expand, especially into the trades. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely good stuff
for sure. Some kids are going to go to college. We're still going to need lawyers and doctors and dentists
and all the things.
I think trades, the life sciences, that's super important. I think that that could be expanded on in
the offerings. There's lots of different fields and trades. A lot of you have probably seen the statistics.
We're losing trades, people. People are retiring quicker than they're coming into the trades. And it
won't be long before we don't have the service people to keep our
our buildings, our infrastructure operating in the way it does currently without having more young people
join the trades. So I'm not saying I would push anybody in the direction suggesting that that's the
best fit, but I think it should be a better presented option and accommodate all those different kiddos
with something that may appeal to them because one size don't fit all.
So another question from the audience and there's still time for you to get yours in. What is one decision,
oh, we'll start with Kelly and go around this way. What is one decision the school board has made that
you disagree with and why do you disagree? Can I have a minute to think? You can't because I will say
we have just been so lucky with using this facility that people from the school stepped up and helped
regardless of how well educated they were and advanced degrees or whatever, this space was reconfigured
so that it kind of works for our forum. And so thanks to the school corporation for helping us and letting
us have this facility for this evening's presentation. I'm really very thankful for that. So anyway,
the question was what is one decision the school board has made that you disagree with and why do you disagree?
This one's throwing me off a little. I am racking my brain. I think that we're lucky to live in this
community, because I cannot think of a single thing. That's not to say the school board hasn't made
a decision that I possibly disagree with, but I don't think that it's anything that would be major,
a major decision that I can
I can think of. I think the board members that are currently serving have done a great job in leading
us and leading RBB in partnership with Dr. Sanders and all of the teachers in the corporation. I'd be
open to hear if somebody, whoever submitted the question, if they had something they disagreed with,
I'd be open to be in conversation to hear more about that.
because I honestly can't think of anything, so sorry. So first of all, I don't know that anything in
the past, like recent past, I would say that I've disagreed with the decision. I have heard conversation
at school board meetings at times where I'm like, I don't
agree with that comment, or I would not have handled that that way. So that has happened for me. I'm
not going to be specific about that right now. But the thing that came to my mind when you asked the
question was actually about my son, because I think that's probably what sticks with us is our kids'
experiences. And my son was a COVID kid, and he didn't get to have his graduation. And that was really,
really hard. Like while I understood the need,
the impact of that those few months on those kids and then to go off into the world and deal with that.
I mean, it's going to be something they carry with them forever. We did when he graduated from college,
we tried to make sure we celebrated it because it was a big deal to him. And I think we have to recognize
that when these kids go through wherever they land after they leave, it is a journey for them and it
deserves to be celebrated.
I have a couple right off the top of my head from personal experiences. So beginning of this school
year was pretty rough for us and our family. And several families had to come together and push for
change. And part of that process, we actually tried to push for some more formal policy, especially
how it relates to special education safeguards. How are we ensuring that
our special needs children, you know, one of ours is nonverbal. He could not come home and tell us how
his day went. If he went to recess, if he went to lunch, if he had specials, if he had speech therapy,
if he had occupational therapy. So we really feel like a lot of families felt like there should be something
better in place to document and keep parents informed about how services are being delivered to school.
And that was.
delivered to administration and the school board. Didn't really go anywhere. So that's one, and I think
it's really worth investigating. And part of that was cameras in special ed classrooms. And Indiana
talked about passing the law a year or two ago. It just didn't go through because of funding. My time's
up. But I could talk about that for hours. So I have tremendous respect for our school board, for our
current school board and past school boards.
I do not have an issue where I know of a vote that I disagree with, but I also haven't been following
as much until recently as I would in the past. I remember back when I was in school how much respect
I had for the school board members then, and I think that continues. The administration I have respect
for and the school board. I do have one issue I don't think it's a school board issue that my wife keeps
bothering me about is kindergartners only having 20 minutes of recess.
because that's an issue that I have had people come to me about. I don't know if that's a school board
issue, but that is something that has been, several people have mentioned it to me. And my granddaughter
goes to a school in Indianapolis and she's in kindergarten and she has two 15 minute recesses and a
15 minute where they rest, put their head down and rest. So that's the only comment I have on that.
Thanks. So this one also came from the public. While teaching experience provides valuable insight into
education, school board responsibilities extend beyond the classroom to include policy development,
financial oversight, strategic planning, and superintendent accountability. I just realized I didn't
say where we were starting.
So this one goes first to Krista. Okay, so you've got that huge list of responsibilities. Okay, education,
we have responsibilities beyond the classroom to include policy development, financial oversight, strategic
planning, and superintendent accountability. What qualifications and experiences do you believe are
most important for an effective school board member
And how do you distinguish the board's governance responsibilities from the day-to-day responsibilities
of educators and administrators? It's a big question. That was a lot. Yeah. Let's make that 90 seconds
to respond.
What was the last one? OK. The last one was the second part here. It was about the separation of educators.
Yeah. So what qualifications and experiences do you believe are most important for an effective school
board member, the qualifications and experience for you? And how do you distinguish the board's governance
responsibilities from the day-to-day of educators and administrators? Sure. OK. And I can go over that again
for each of you before you jump into it, if that helps. I honestly think the most important thing is
that you care. I think that's the most important. I don't think there's anybody sitting up here who
doesn't care. Care about school, care about kids, care about teachers. So I think that's number one.
I have experience in every area, but superintendent accountability, that's new to me, but I do understand
holding people accountable. I do have experience in all of those other areas. I think that that can
be valuable, but I don't know that you have to have all of that to be a good school board member. I
think that you have to listen. I think you have to have a willingness to learn. There's a lot of regulation,
and there's a lot of policy.
And I feel like I've been trying to learn, but I've barely scratched the surface. So I know the school
board members go through an orientation. And so I think a willingness to listen, a willingness to learn,
always putting students and teachers first, I think are the most important things. So this whole issue
about governance versus day-to-day is very interesting to me. And I think Nicole asked a really good
question related to it. You know, as a board,
As a board member, you're told policy governance, not day to day. But it's hard. Because if policy doesn't
lead to the right day to day outcomes, you have to understand that. And then you have to go back and
revisit policy. So I'm not sure, as a board member, how you can set policy if you don't understand the
outcomes of that policy. So it's a question I've wanted to ask board members about to better understand
how do they navigate that.
because you can't disconnect them. Probably a good thing. Okay, so just to recap for you, Jeremiah.
So the responsibilities for the school board members extend beyond classroom to include policy development,
financial oversight, strategic planning, and superintendent accountability. So a range of responsibilities.
what qualifications and experiences are most important for an effective school board member and how
do you distinguish between governance and day-to-day responsibilities? I think the very first thing
that I think would be important would be listening. People don't come forth with issues
I wouldn't say most of the time if they're not really issues. So I think you have to listen. You have
to take what they're saying seriously. You have to look at it through their lens because we all walk
different lives. You have no idea what they're going through and you need to empathize and sympathize
and listen to what they have to say and try to understand how you can make a change that would benefit
not only that person and their child, but maybe every other child in the district. The governance piece,
yeah, I mean, obviously,
all of us would have a lot to learn. I'd be the first one to say, draw it out with crown so I can understand
it. Because I don't know how this works. I'm going to learn. I'm willing to learn. I'm always quick
to research and dive into things and try to understand them better and try to pick it apart and figure
out how it can be better. So yeah, I mean, I think if I missed any part of that, please let me know.
I'm not sure. Yeah.
Speaking of experience, I already mentioned that I had a board of directors meeting for another trade
association I'm a member of. And it's very similar to a school board. The most important things is we
dictate the policy. We go through the budget. But the most important thing is we choose the leader,
the president of that organization. In the case of a school board, it's the superintendent. It's very
important that you make wise choices with superintendent. I think we have an excellent superintendent.
But you have to make those decisions, and you have to have good hires. Once you have good hires, then
you let the people do their jobs. You trust the process. And if something goes awry, then you address
it. You're always open to that, but you let the process take care of itself to a certain point. So I
think that's very important that we do. I wrote some stuff down, so I don't need to recap, but thank you.
So I do have experience in education, as I already shared, and I do think that that experience is valuable.
Knowing in advance how policies land and what policies mean when they go passed down to the classroom,
I think is important having that experience, or at least helpful.
As far as the rest of the things, the policy, the financial, the strategic planning, those are all things
that I currently have experience with in my current professional career. I am a director of faculty
fellow programs at IU, and I manage all of our budget for that.
policies for how those programs are implemented when they start and end all of those sorts of things
for as far as strategic planning and incorporating new technologies as they come along so we don't have
a program for AI we need to create a program for AI we need to create several levels of programs for
that so that we have things that we can up skill faculty first and then we can talk about how are you
adjusting your curriculum and literacy
over those things. Oversight is also something I do not necessarily have experience with for an individual
other than the people that I work with but not over an entire school corporation. And then how
keeping the things different between the school board and the day-to-day of educators, similar to what
Krista said, it's really hard to separate those two things, and also because the policies that the board
create do directly impact what happens in the classroom. I know that from experience, and sometimes
it can be really great, and sometimes it can make the job harder of educators. But I will also say that
it is not the
board's job to tell educators what to do or to tell administrators how to do. It is to work through
policy to make those day to day things easier for educators and for kids. So it is not our job to run
the day to day, tell people how to do the day to day, but to create policies that support
the educators and the administrators who are professionals and have degrees to empower them to do the
things that they know how to do. Thank you. Big question. So the next one starts with Jeremiah, and
this is a question from people here.
Do you support banning any books from the school libraries? And if a request to ban a book came to the
school board, what steps would you take to make your decision? No books on my list to be banned at the
moment. We've got hundreds and hundreds of books at our house, and hours and hours of reading happen
every day at our house, and I'm not gonna be the one to tell kids what they can and can't read. I mean,
I would look to
The board members, if there's overwhelming majority support for something, I mean, convince me. I mean,
I'm open all ears. Tell me why you think that we should man a book. If I think it's ridiculous, I'll
tell you that. I would be open minded to why and listen to the reason. But I believe in trusting the
process of the people who are in charge of determining what books are in the library. I don't know of
any issue. I haven't heard any issues.
But I believe that the teachers or the librarians or the administrator who oversees it have the kids'
best interest in mind. And if there's somebody that proves to me that it's different, I'll look at it.
But as of right now, I don't know of anything that's going on right now, so. It's a funny question sitting
in a library. I, in general, am not
would not be open to or not be an advocate for banning books. Education is or knowledge is power. Education
gives power to students. I do think age appropriate books are important. So I'm not going to have the
same books in the high school library that I would have in the elementary library. And that is important.
But I think that
As long as we have age appropriate books in our libraries that in general I'm not gonna be banning books
like everyone else. Obviously open to listening and hearing perspectives of the community and listening
to anything that might be outrageous. I do agree that if there was something that was outrageous, I'm
pretty sure our librarians would be on top of that. I trust them as professionals, so.
In general, I would say no. I think that kiddos are gonna go learn things, whether you make it available
or not. I'd prefer to have conversations with my kids around tough subjects. So I would say no. I've
assumed the question is kind of being asked in the sense of the things that we see happening around
the country. So I would say no, I'm not cool with that. I read a lot of books growing up and learned a lot
from those books. I agree with age appropriate. That's something I've had to watch with my own daughter.
She's asked sometimes to read books that I've not let me check this out. Not yet, but we will get there.
So I would say generally no, and I would much prefer to have conversations with kids about tough subjects
than ignore them.
to compliment everybody who has submitted questions so far. Your penmanship has been excellent. Thank
you so much. If somebody wants to test my ability and write an illegible question, go ahead. Okay. So
this next question starts with Dennis. Four years from now, what does it look like for you to be a successful
and effective board member or for you to have been a successful and effective board member?
four years from now what it will look like? For our school to be so attractive that no one would want
to go to an alternative school or a charter school. They want to come to us because we have the finest
facilities, we have the finest teachers, we have students who are graduating and going on for successful lives.
And we balance our budget. I'm going to watch the budget. It's very important to me. Taxpayers are the
ones voting for us. It's a lot of people don't have kids in school anymore. So they wonder, why am I
paying taxes? Well, we want to be stewards of the budget and the money, make sure we're spending it
correctly and we're not wasting money and we're not raising people's taxes.
And our kids, the 300 kids that are going to the charter schools, are coming back to our school. And
we want to give them every reason to by having all the teachers, facilities, and extracurricular activities
that make them want to come back to us.
four years from now, if I were a board member, what does success look like? I think a school corporation
that builds good communication with our community, with our parents, that is open and listening, that
is transparent about the direction that they're going in all manners and the gathering feedback on
on those directions to make sure that we are headed in a place that our community wants and that keeps
kids safe at all levels. I think that we do a really great job with safety right now and I think there
is always more things to look at and
making sure that that is our highest priorities, that we are communicative and transparent with our
community and keeping kids safe. Yeah, the thing that's I think been on my mind in terms of four years
from now, what I want to support is I really do like this idea of every student leaving RBB with a plan
for the future. I'm not sure if that's
measured today, it'd be great if we could measure that. That all this work, starting all the way down
in the elementary schools, I mean, they're talking to the kids at the elementary level about careers.
I mean, they're talking about teaching them, what do you like to do? Let's try things, see what you're
good at. And so that idea of every kid leaving with a plan, whatever that plan may be that is specific to them,
I love that idea, and I want to support that. I think there's other things, just like measuring academics,
graduation rates. I know they were looking at iLearn scores at the school board meeting last week. So
I think there's a lot of data. There's a lot of measurables to look at. And then I think I agree with
Dennis around fiscal responsibility. There are like, I think, 38 referendums this next week.
school corporations around the state who are trying to make up for the budget losses that they're facing
and that's not happening here and I I do think that's because there's been good fiscal responsibility
and I know there was you know back in 2018 there was some trouble and it went the wrong way and I think
the board and administration have gotten it back on track and I think it's important to keep it there
so that's what I would say so kind of
Top of my list, you know, I was at a board meeting recently and I'm pretty sure it was the high school
and some, you know, a doctor, I believe from IU came in and they were talking about mental health services
and counselors and things that it sounds great that they're bringing them in. It sounds perfect, but
the numbers, you know, it kind of seemed like it was like, Hey, that's pretty good. But in my mind,
I was like that, that many kids are depressed, you know, upset, you know, have, have,
I don't know. I just wonder if the environment at school sometimes could be changed to accommodate,
be more engaging. Maybe we could help their mental health. Maybe school doesn't have to be such a painful
place. Because for a lot of kids, it is. Not everybody comes to school and has a great experience. The
student satisfaction piece kind of rolls right into that. And then, you know, yet again, Sped here, I think
There'd be a lot of better things going on in SPED. There's a lot of equipment that could be utilized,
supplied, had on hand in the classroom. Let them touch it, feel it, see if they like it, see if it works
for them. If they don't have it in the classroom, they can't do that. So I think I would do all those
things. I feel like that would be an accomplishment in itself. And of course, the financial, physical
responsibility is a no-brainer. That has to happen, especially when you're talking about
pulling a million dollars out of educational funds and giving it to operational funds. This question
goes first to Kelly, and we'll go around the table. So Christa will be second. That's what I meant by
around the table. Do you agree with the new cell phone policy, and do you think it is effective in the
classroom right now? Are there any improvements that could be made?
So- excuse me. So- the cell phone policy is very tied to- the law that was passed at the state- I do
appreciate that the school board- allowed students to keep their phones with them- powered off- in and
away in their
School shootings are something that we all live with in our society, and that's a possibility. In looking
at those things,
the majority of those have been stopped or ended early because a student had a cell phone and was able
to contact somebody. So the fact that students are able to still have their cell phones with them, I
think is a really happy way to meet that state law and still allow students to have that device there,
that tool there to be able to help them. Okay, I'm out of time.
My daughter definitely doesn't agree with it. I heard about that a lot. I'm going to be very interested
to see how it works. I feel like in listening to teachers, they're very glad to have the opportunity
to have kids focused, and so I'm very interested to see how it works. I do think RBB took a good approach.
Some schools are not allowing them to take them to school at all. Can't have them on the bus, and I
think RBB tried to strike a nice middle ground.
The thing that I worry about is sometimes kids need to get a hold of their parents. And I've got a friend
whose son is diabetic and on a monitor, and I know she was very concerned about being able to reach
her son. And I know what I heard from the administration was, we're going to be flexible when that needs
to happen. And so that's something I think we need to keep an eye on, because if a
if a kiddo needs to communicate with a parent and something happens because they didn't then we need
to we need to think about being flexible so that that's the one thing that's kind of on my mind and
I want to see how it how it plays out. Yeah I'm sure the kids aren't thrilled. I mean yeah electronics
can be a problem right. They can get very caught up in them but they also serve a lot of great purposes
you know they used to say what 20 years ago you're never gonna have a calculator on you all the time.
but everybody in here does right now. But there's lots of other accommodations that could come with
a cell phone. A lot of kids might need it for different things. So that obviously needs to be considered
and looked at before you just say, no, you can't have it. And then I have talked to a few high schoolers,
and they thought it'd be a pretty good idea if the teachers did have their phones out, too. Everybody
can be invested in what they're doing.
So I like the cell phone policy, but what I'm really interested in is hearing the feedback from the
teachers and the students. It's such a new policy that at probably one of the school board meetings
coming up, they'll have more of a report on the feedback. And I'm kind of waiting to hear more what
they have to say. But overall, I think the policy's good because they do still have the phones, but
they're not on. So they're not distracting them.
They're following state guidelines. State mandated it. You have to follow it. There are unintended
consequences to most new changes and stuff. And I'd like to hear what the unintended consequences are
at this point. But I've not heard any yet. Looking at you, Krista. We're going to sit there and go down
the table. I think we're getting it now. OK. Don't worry. We'll change it at the very end.
What are your thoughts on the growing population in Ellitsville and how that affects facilities, particular
classroom size, so the growing population of the town? Yeah, this is a big topic, especially now that
we're looking at things like reorganization on the ballot next week. I have had this conversation with
Dr. Sanders many, many times because I've been involved in some community
initiatives where people have come to me with concerns that they're very worried about growth and can
the school accommodate growth. I think the good news is there's a lot of land here that is owned by
the school and I think there is room for growth. I think at this point we're okay. But I think, and
if you look at enrollment, it's been pretty steady. Even though the town has grown, the enrollment I
think has been around 2,600 students.
give or take 25 or so for a number of years. So yes, the town is growing, but the school's been pretty
steady. So right now I think we're okay, but I think it's something that we have to watch. And I do
think a thriving school is important to a thriving community. And so we don't wanna find ourselves in
a situation where we can't serve our community. So it's something we're gonna have to continue to watch,
I believe.
I know there's been a lot of debate about that. I've seen that. I'm not sure I'm gonna go too far into
that realm. But I think what I do know is that especially the intermediate school and the primary school
are already very near capacity. So I would be curious what the plan is to provide space to have more
kids go to those schools. Maybe we do have ground to build more
more uh you know facilities it looks like there's a lot of that going on around here but i i would be
worried that uh you know what that would look like and you know what the plan is to make sure that we
can house all those children so i had some concerns with it 20 years ago when they built in new elementary
schools because my daughter was in the first class she was one of them that had the silver shovel that
broke the ground for it and i thought is this enough
classrooms for our future, and then this area has exploded. It hasn't exploded with children at this
point, but I don't think the growth has stopped over here. From what I understand, there's even more
housing developments that are planned in the future. My concern has been a lot with the junior high
as much as any because of the size. It's more landlocked. It's a little smaller. I was in the first
sixth grade class in the junior high, and so
It's basically the same size as it was then. And now they are expanding it now. But I have some concerns.
But I think we're going to have to take a really hard look at the projected students 10 years, 20 years
from now. And this area has grown so much that are we going to be able to accommodate them with what
we have? And where are we going to go in the future? One thought I heard, a rumor at one time, they
thought about another elementary over more towards Bloomington for our school system.
I don't think anything ever happened with it, but it was something that was thought about many years
ago even then. I think that we're really lucky to have a growing community. I know there's a lot of
communities
that and school corporations that are shrinking and losing students and losing students means that we're
losing funding and losing funding means that we have to continue to make cuts. So I think a growing
population is a positive thing and that that we have found a way that the I say we as in the community
but the school board has
And school corporation has found a way to accommodate that growing population accommodate all of the
families that are moving in welcoming families making this a welcoming place to live and to.
have a high standard of education that people want to come here. I know when we moved here 12 years
ago we had a choice of where we were going to choose to put our kids in school. This was before Andrew
worked in the school corporation and we chose RBB because of the school corporation it is. So it doesn't
surprise me that we have a growing population and as we have handled it through the years I think we
will continue to be able to handle it. Sorry.
Why does my time feel shorter than everybody else's? Okay. This next question kind of connects with
the one that we just heard. And we'll go first to Jeremiah. Public school officials say they recognize
that school choice is a reality in Indiana. That means it's not enough to offer high quality education.
They also have to tell the public about it, which requires resources for marketing and communications.
So the thought about school choice and the consequences for RBB. I can understand the consequences,
right? The less students, the less funding. I kind of feel like choice is important, though. I mean,
you don't know everybody's story. You don't know how the child operates in that facility and
that environment. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell them, sorry, you're struggling. You're stuck here.
I think choice is important. So, I agree choice is important because we don't have a choice. It's state
requires it and money goes with the child and that's okay. There are reasons parents choose to have
their children go different places. Lots of reasons. We want to give them reasons to come back to us.
We have 300 kids now that aren't here.
and a half, three million dollars out of our budget. We want them to want to come here. We don't want
to force them to come here. Parents have reasons. They want a smaller classroom. They have all kinds
of reasons. They didn't have a good experience at the school, but we want them to come back to us. I
think it's just a matter of having the right
situation for them. We provide a lot of things that our other schools don't provide. We have more a
wider curriculum. We have the extracurriculars at this school are amazing. We have an amazing band.
We have amazing show choir. We have amazing clubs. We have amazing the arts that we have everything.
Give them a reason to come to me. And we also provide transportation. That's where our competitors
And I call them competitors because I'm a business person, but they are competitors. We have that over
them because we provide that. Every child in the state of Indiana is allowed and by law gets a free
public education, and we will provide the best we can to them because of that.
So I'm going to start by saying 60 seconds is not enough for this. I have more information on my campaign
website. I have a handout over on the table there if you're interested in reading my thoughts
more thoroughly. I believe students and families should have a choice, very much so. I do not believe
that public dollars should be going to schools that do not have public accountability. And that's my
bottom line there.
do think that we have a story to tell. We are competitors with the other schools, the charter schools
and the private schools. The problem with being a competitor with those schools is that we don't play
by the same rules. We aren't measured in the same way. They don't have to have the same requirements.
And it's not the same level playing field. And I think
as far as telling the story, we need to tell all of our successes. Yes, absolutely. And we also need
to inform them about how these schools are different. And that is an important part. I will go ahead
and say, I think Krista would be
an amazing person to be on the school board because she is a vice president of marketing and communication,
and I think that would be a valuable asset to have on our school board because I think that that is
something that we can improve upon. That's not a skill that I have, and I think that it would be a huge
asset. I agree with what everyone has said. I don't think there's one educational environment that works
for everyone.
I do agree with choice, but I think we also have to recognize that the amount of choice that is being
given today is fragmenting the dollars. And so we are providing choice, but we aren't providing the
funding to cover all those choices. I don't love the thought of public dollars also going to private
school tuition through vouchers. And so I think if the state wants to provide choice, okay.
then fund everything if that's the way that you want to do it. So that's how I feel about that. Resources
for marketing comms. Well, RBB has already been creative about this because the students are doing it.
And so if you go over to the innovation lab over here, you're going to see podcasting, video production.
There's journalism. My daughter right now is serving as a marketing intern, and they're
working to tell the stories of the school and the other students. I think they're doing a great job.
It's a great learning experience. But I do think we've got to go broader than our local community to
tell the story just for the reasons that I said. Thank you. I have a question. Sorry. Can I ask it from
here? Is that OK? OK. OK. Use your outdoor voice. Sure, I will.
a brand new educator looking to find a teaching job and I could look for one here at RBB or I could
go 15 minutes to the east and make 10 to 30,000 more or 45 minutes to the north and make 10 to 20,000
more. What would you say to convince me that it's worth it to be an amazing brand new educator here at RBB?
Dennis, you're up next. So I don't know the facts. I don't know how much the other schools are paying.
And I don't know if that information is accurate or not accurate. That doesn't matter. What matters
is the quality of life in this community, that people live here, the atmosphere. When you have a business,
you have a culture. And you want the culture of the school to be
in a way that makes people want to be here and want to come here and want to teach here. It's that you
have support from your supervisors. You have support from your school board and your community. And
you have that. And sometimes, yes, people do go wherever the highest paycheck is. And I don't blame
them if they want to do that. But some people want the quality of life. And people work in businesses
for long periods of time because of the quality
that's in that atmosphere and the culture of that atmosphere. We work as a company, my company, we have
people that have been with us 30, 40 years because of our culture, how we help people, how we address
issues, and how we address anything that comes up, we're there for them and to support them.
So you're a brand new educator, and you can make money other places. If you're a brand new educator,
making money other places to pay off your student loans is probably the best financial situation.
That said, I've worked in places where I did get paid more, and I didn't have as much support
from administration. I didn't have the colleagues that we have here.
You're all sitting here listening to two people run for each seat. How lucky are we in this community
that we have multiple people who want to serve on the school board? That's amazing. People here care
about education. They care about our educators. They care about our students. I've been in places where
the number one priority is athletics. And while we care about athletics, it's not the number one priority.
Kids are our number one priority, and you're going to be supported in that.
So funny she started where I was gonna start was my first question would be do you have loans? Because
I I've been there and you know got to make a living So really you're talking about recruitment, right?
How do we recruit the best? Educators to RBB and I think I would hope that it's some of the same things
that I'm hearing. I don't know that for sure right now I don't know how they recruit teachers, but I
would hope that it's
It's a great community to live in. There's a great culture here at the school. I would also hope that
you can grow and develop here. That you can do new things and that you're always challenged and that
your salary does grow as you grow as an individual. That would be my hope for you in coming here and
I would hope that you would know that you would be deeply appreciated. We should be able to make more
here. I think that
All the teachers should make a lot more. I couldn't, in my mind, think of a more important job that
anybody could have. So I don't really get why. I've asked for financial documentation from the district
via an APRA request, and I never got it. So I couldn't really dig into the whole story and where the
money goes and why we can't pay teachers more. Athletics are great.
very nice looking fields out there. Sometimes you've got to think about where you spend your money and
is it the best use of the money? I'm not saying it's not great for those fields to be out there, but
I bet there's probably some funds that would have been freed up if it wouldn't have been spent on that.
Thank you. That is about as much time as we have. We wanted to ask our panelists to give their closing
statements so they each have one, and we're going to go.
That direction starting with Kelly and move down the line to Krista at the last. So one minute for your
closing statement. I just again want to thank everybody for coming tonight. I really appreciate it.
appreciate that we all of my fellow people who are running for coming and for sharing their thoughts.
I don't think you necessarily have an easy choice. I'm really excited that again we have multiple people.
I'm glad as a voter myself that we have multiple people that we get to choose to be on our school board
and that want to serve on our school board. There are in the Bloomington schools
One person running, they are uncontested for all of their seats. There is no choice for the public on
who serves there. So thank you all for coming tonight and for listening to us, for asking your questions.
And good luck with your voting. So what I want to say is I love this school. I went to school here.
Everybody in my family went to school here.
I love this school. I've worked here and volunteered since I've been out of school. I love this town.
I've never lived anywhere but this area my entire life, and I've never had any dreams of going anywhere
else. I think a school is the center of a community this size. It's what
how we're labeled while people know Ellsville because of Edgewood and because of our school systems.
I want to do everything I can to help with my experience, bring that to the board to help the school
continue to thrive and go into the future, far into the future. So thank you all for being here and
that's about all. I do want to thank you all for coming. I appreciate it.
Good luck voting and I'm gonna actually opt for the remaining time I have to be in silence to advocate
for all the nonverbal students that go to this school district.
It's hard to follow. Yes, I appreciate everyone asking questions. I've seen people, Dennis and I were
talking before that I've seen people saying, hey, I don't know where people stand on issues. So sometimes
it's hard to know what's specific on people's minds. So it's very helpful that you are here tonight
and that you ask questions. So I do appreciate that. The more I learn about this, the more I am excited
about the possibility.
of serving on school board. I agree nothing's perfect, and I think there are a lot of challenges. At
the same time, every school board meeting that I've gone to over the past few months, I've heard incredible
stories about teachers, about educators, and about outcomes with kids. And to be able to impact something
like that is something that I'm excited about. If it doesn't happen and I don't get the seat,
I think everyone up here cares about the school and cares about education. So I don't think we'll lose
as a community. And I do agree that this community thrives when the school thrives. And we have so much
pride in this school. So I just want the best for it. So thank you. I have a couple of things to say
to conclude. So on behalf of the League of Women Voters, we're pleased to have this forum.
We have an online voter guide, and there's a bookmark in the back that you can pick up. It's vote411.org.
The League of Women Voters asks every candidate for a specific office the same set of questions, and
then you can compare their answers. So it's an online voter guide. And that is back there. There's also
a reminder that early voting has started. It continues until noon on Monday, November 2nd.
and then election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. So I hope that you will all take the opportunity to
exercise your voice and vote. Want to thank Katz very much for recording this important forum and it
will be shared soon with your friends and colleagues who will also be facing these tough decisions because
what a fantastic group of candidates. Please join me in thanking them for a wonderful presentation.