MONTE VISTA—The Sargent National Honor Society held a debate and meet and greet with the five candidates who are competing for three open seats on the Sargent Board of Education. Sargent voters will make their final decision on election day Tuesday, Nov. 7.
A short introduction was read about each of the candidates. Following introductions a series of questions were asked by moderator Ethan Reschke. Candidate biographies were presented in a previous edition of the Monte Vista Journal. The five candidates are Michele Peterson, Tyler Kyffin, Nathan Burkhart, Yael Defaye and Tyler Mitchell.
Some of the questions and answers from the debate are as follows:
What inspired you to become a school board member and what will your primary duties entail?
Peterson: I’m a firm believer in community service, and I think we all have to volunteer our time and energy to build a stronger environment. I have volunteered my time on numerous boards...I’m pretty sure that everyone I serve on would say that I not only show up to the meetings, but I donate my time and I help in various ways. As far as my primary duties, I think it’s going to vary depending on what the board needs at that moment. However, my main obligation will always be to maintain the education of the students.
Kyffin: I am interested in serving on the school board because if we don’t take time to serve our community then how can we expect things to improve? After a while people retire or move on and we have to step up to fulfill that civic duty for our kids. As far as primary duties, number one is education and serving goals and budget for the school.
Burkhart: I decided to run for the school board because I wanted to serve the community. As far as primary duties as a board, we need to make sure we stick to our duties. The board doesn’t run the organization but they oversee the organization. I’d like to support the administration and let them do their job.
Defaye: The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the question is my kids. I became interested in what my kids were doing in school after seeing certain programs. Also at some point you realize that you have to give back to the community. As for primary duties, my interest would be to evaluate the situations per issue and helping the budget and doing what needs to be done. Making sure we support education that’s the most important.
Mitchell: I decided to run for the opportunity to help our district grow and provide a quality education for our students. As a Sargent alumni I have a passion and dedication to the school district. As a member my primary duties would be communicating with the community, administration and other board members and making sure we’re moving in the right direction. The main goal of the board is to be communicating with the public and administration. Public education is always changing and as board members we have to do research and analyze our test data to make sure we continue to be a school with distinction.
How will you support your administration and teachers, please provide examples.
Kyffin: I think the best way to offer support is simply by being a good board member. A good board member doesn’t step outside of the boundaries of the board and make promises to people or try to do anything outside of the board walls. I am a big supporter of public education. I’m a product of it. Sargent School is the keystone of our community. The best thing to do is community outreach and keep everyone involved.
Burkhart: The best way is to let them do their job. Don’t micromanage by any means. I feel if the board is having to micromanage the administration we probably have the wrong person. Support them and let them do their job without stepping on their toes.
Defaye: The first thing to do is to listen to them and what they have to say. They’re the ones working with the kids and in the education system. I have seen the students, superintendent and teachers give reports to the board and that is nice.
Mitchell: The most important thing for us as a school board I think is to communicate with the administration and the teachers. Teachers know about teaching they have great ideas and we need to ask questions, and we can all lead the school in the right direction. We can work together as a board, we can come up with a good solution to provide support.
Peterson: Listening is by far the best way to support them. We need to drop our preconceived notions, open our minds and truly listen to them. If we are not listening then we cannot resolve anything.
With each of you having a personal interest in the district, for example, having family as students and or staff, how will you hold yourself accountable as a board member to make decisions for the good of the school as a whole rather than for the interests of family?
Burkhart: I have sat on boards more than once where I have made decisions that are for the best of the organization even though maybe personally I did not like it. You have to remember if you are making a decision based on fact or on emotion. Most of the time if it’s on fact you’re wearing the right hat, if it’s emotion then it’s personal.
Defaye: When you sit on a board you are part of a whole. The whole board makes the decision rather than one person. The decisions we make can’t be personal. Therefore it’s important that the board gets along together so we can make good decisions.
Mitchell: In order to do that you just have to be a responsible board member. There’s a code of ethics for being on a school board and part of that is exactly about this question. If there’s a conflict of interest you have to set yourself. I love all the kids here. I think being an ethical, responsible board member will take care of it.
Peterson: The school has to be able to balance itself to be able to function. I have three kids they’re each in a different building, and all three are different. The school is just a larger example of that. Each area and kid has different interests. If we were to make a decision on one end that can possibly hurt another we really need to question our decisions.
Kyffin: I think the short answer to that is integrity and accountability as a person. I feel confident that the five people up here will do that if elected. I think there’s a code of ethics we need to follow. There’s checks and balances, and with those I think we’ll be successful.
What are three areas you are interested in improving and how will you improve these areas with specific ideas?
Defaye: The first area I thought of was communication. We need to be open about decisions we make and why we made them. Ensuring that information is accessible for everybody. I think Sargent is changing in some ways, and we need to communicate those issues. Second, in the high school I think we need to provide more labs and workshops to prepare students for jobs. They may be able to get certification in different area. The third is to promote citizenship in our world around us.
Mitchell: The first thing is having a Friday school program. It’s an opportunity for kids to come to school on Friday and do four-hour session on different subjects. I’d like to see that program grow and happen more frequently. The second thing is community involvement. Getting the community involved in the school is important. It would help them to be proud. The third thing is extracurricular activities. The more opportunities these students have, the better. The more stuff they can do, the better.
Peterson: My number one thing is community engagement. Right now I think many around have left or feel somehow disconnected from Sargent. We need to build better relations. A few months ago I was at a meeting and someone came up with the idea of two board members having a meet and greet once a month. Just so the public can be aware and have an open dialogue. Our wonderful budget is the second. I’d really like to see the mill levy and that isn’t going to happen without community engagement. These two things go hand in hand. My third thing is extracurricular activities. We need to pull in those kids that are leaving to others schools for other programs. We really need to look into that.
Kyffin: This question relies heavily on the assumption that there’s a lot of things wrong with the school. I’ve been really happy with the education that my kids have received here. The school has become the center of our world. I’m thrilled with the amount of opportunities that the school affords with the budget. I would like to see better communication and community relations. One pet peeve is that I would like better civic education for our kids. I would like them to understand that bills originate in the house and there’s a legal way to address things they may disagree with instead of rioting in the streets.
Burkhart: The biggest thing that came to my mind is community relations. The board needs to represent the whole community and not only part. The second thing is keeping our extracurricular strong. The third thing is the budget. The board has to watch the budget and understand the bottom line. We need to understand and limit those so that nothing creeps up on us and isn’t something we weren’t expecting