USD 305 School Board Candidates
Four of the five candidates for USD 305 School Board attended the forum
USD 305 School Board candidate Dana Kossow was not.
"There are two types of people in this country today: a consumer and a citizen," forum moderator Randy Picking said. "You are all citizens because you're interested in what's going on. These folks up here [school board candidates] are citizens because they want to run for a zero-paid job and they catch flack from radio talk show hosts."
Four other school board candidates, Mark Bandre, Scott Gardner, Paul Gebhardt and Ann Zimmerman discussed issues such as
- Identifying positives and areas of concern regarding local education
- Understanding how USD 305 intends to 'win back' parents and students that may have left the public school system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The balancing act between 'quality education' while at the same time understanding the local taxpayer burden.
- USD 305's library book removal policy and claims of 'inappropriate' books being kept on the library shelves
- Student Truancy
Positives and areas of concern in local education
Zimmerman
Positives
"We have a big initiative this year called visible learning, and it's looking at research of all the things that teachers do. Almost everything teachers do positively affects learning for the students, but there are certain things they do that have a bigger, positive influence on student learning. And this is a study of that and there are books on it," Zimmerman said. "We are training our teachers on it now.
"Thanks to our great super superintendent Linn Exline, the people are seeing what really works. And so if you've got a choice of two or three possibilities for teaching methods, and you can use the one that works better than any of them, that's what you want to do because the teachers all want the kids to learn. That's one of our big strengths this year positive things."
Area of Concern
"One of the big challenges now has become chronic absenteeism. There have been so many students since the pandemic who are absent. It was somewhat of a problem before but even more so now that students who are absent more than 10% of the year maybe make up to 40% of our students are absent that much of the year. So we have started an effort to talk to the parents to call them not just wait till their way to end, but to call the parents to check with the families and do our very best to get those kids back in school. Because when you're not there, they're losing out and the more they're gone, the harder it is to catch up."
Gebhardt
"Well, I think that we have adequate funding for what we've done. We have over the last 20 years increased twofold our amount of funding available. So looking at that it's a matter of how we spend so that we can avoid having problems with retaining good teachers, and quality teachers and ensuring that those funds are used for the appropriate reasons where we might spend on infrastructure or ancillary items. It comes down to the teachers and their function that really is the big one and that's that's been a problem for a while already. Making sure that we have good-quality teachers."
Gardner
Positive
"I think the positive thing is that the system that we're in right now and just the three to five years, we're not afraid to change as we learn more, we adapt, we make changes as necessary. That's the thing that we always have to be ready to do - modify what we're doing to change it in order to reach the goals that we're trying to reach," Gardner said. "If we're doing something that isn't working we need to stop as quickly as possible, change course and adapt the policy."
Area of Concern
"The thing that's a big concern, as far as I'm concerned, is the funding that we're supposed to get from the state for special education. Those numbers are drastically underfunded, and because of that, we have to take money from other areas to help fund it necessary."
Bandre
Positive
"I come from a family that's always valued education. I have a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. My brothers are both lawyers. My parents are both college graduates and three of my four grandparents went to college. So I come from that perspective, the current board president, he and I've talked long about the different ways people become contributing members of the community. But one of the really, really cool things about what USD 305 does is all the diverse ways we prepare people for whatever it is they want to do, but you can leave Salina South or Salina Central with a welding tech certificate from Salina Area Technical College. You can join the military.
"We prepare people in a lot of different ways, and part of the reason we're able to be successful and all the different offerings for those over many years of leadership from our predecessors on the board. For Mrs. Exline and her predecessors and superintendent and the great things teachers have done we've planned ahead financially. We don't see this a lot and let you very carefully study the budget that we put out each year. But Salina school districts are in great shape financially, they have adequate savings, and they have a master plan for making sure that facilities are well taken care of. For me, it's a real honor to be able to help shepherd that budget through the process. That's one of the key things the board does."
Areas of Concern
"I want to echo the two things that Ann [Zimmerman] and Scott [Gardner] said, getting kids to come to school is a real challenge. A part of that stems from poverty in the community. We have a number of families that just struggle with how to get from A to B each day," Bandre said. "We talked about a student recently where they just can't afford the gas money to get them in there but they're within the two-and-a-half mile range where we're allowed to do bussing. So solving some of those problems. I got one of the things we can do, that I hope to work on if reelected, is figuring out better ways to help inform our state and federal elected officers. The special education funding is a problem without a doubt."
'Winning back' parents and students who left public school during COVID-19
Bandre
"The pandemic disrupted a lot of things. That was not a fun time for anybody, any stretch of the imagination, and parents made choices. I want to make sure that every family has the ability to make a choice about the best place they want to go to school whether that's private school, or public school. I want to make sure that Salina Schools put their best foot forward on that. I think many of you've seen or heard over the last year and a half, I think two years now we've been doing some pretty extensive marketing programs. We actually hired an outside firm to do some studies of 'Why did people leave the school system to potentially do to get them back?'
"I'm sure you're aware that the state legislature has recently made it possible where students from other communities could choose to go to school here if they want to. That has pros and cons as well. One of the things we're worried about in the district is right now if somebody from Salomon wanted to send their kid to Salina, they could more or less choose which building they want to go to. If they pick our building that already has full seats, it's not fair to people who are within the district. You have to go to the neighborhood school that you live in. So try to find parity.
"But again, going back to the marketing study, we've tried to help make sure people know what the outcomes are from Salina Schools and to make sure they know that our teachers are wonderful people that are doing great work within the limited finances that we're able to use to pull everything together."
Gardner
"I would agree with Mark the marketing studies is powerful. But one of the things that I think we really need to be concerned about is giving them exactly what they need in order to be successful. We can do that we have to find out what they deem as important. So it's not about what we think or what we want. It's about being able to deliver what's necessary in order for them to be successful. As long as we're being meaningfully unique for what our community and what our people are asking for. We've all got our degrees and we moved on. We've got to make sure that the generation coming behind us is able to be successful."
Gebhardt
" I think that a lot of the pandemic brought on a lot of challenges that people weren't capable of getting past. It put challenges on the school systems and educational systems that they weren't able to get past. And I think they're getting what they need, just like Scott said, matter of fact, the unique taught lessons and information, the foundational skills is going to be the critical piece that needs to get together because, after the pandemic, we're going to have years before we actually truly see how much impact that actually made on everything we're having to deal with now and then making changes through each of these events and getting past this. It's going to be time before we get all out in the wash. So getting us to that point. I think it's going be the biggest challenge."
Zimmerman
"How to Win students back to public schools. Well, some parents learned during the pandemic, how hard it is to educate children, and they were happy to have kids go back to public schools and we were happy to have them."
"I hope that people can get good information about public schools in Salina, about us about USD 305. There's a lot of innuendo out there that you hear about public schools, which is not based on facts in our district. If you're hearing bad things about public schools, you might want to take a visit to our public schools and find out how hard those teachers are working, how engaged those students are, how much they're learning, and there is a lot of learning gap from the time that the pandemic and they're working very hard to make up that gap."
"I am concerned about kids who are spending their high school years and even their middle school years working online. So much of middle school and high school, we all remember, was about social interaction. You learn so much there now not all social action in middle school and high school is positive, but neither is social interaction anywhere. You learned to navigate things that you would never come close to learning if you were just doing things online. So the market study is good, we hope that the information is out there that people read it, that people hear it and get good information about our district, and that they will make wise choices. I think the wisest choice is almost always to go to public schools."
Balancing quality education with taxpayers' burden
Zimmerman
"Much of our school district money comes from the state and there's a 20 mill levy that's all across the state. Districts that have a very rich tax base which would include Johnson County Schools and maybe like some oil well schools out in western Kansas - they have lots and lots of income from that 20 mils and other school districts have very little value in their property taxes in their district." "That money is spread even is tried to spread evenly across the state to I mean, not usually but to compensate for those differences. And so already, there's a sharing of that part of the tax burden among the whole state so that you don't get a poor education because you live in one zip code, a great education because you live in another."
"We have an extremely well planned out budget that has planning for all our roof replacements and concrete replacements and so we do our very best to use every single dollar in a way that's not gonna hit us up with an emergency spending that we need to grab money from our local taxpayers that wasn't planned. So I think we're doing a really good job using the taxpayer money."
Gebhardt
"I think it's the best way of verifying that we're doing right by all the students and the teachers and the community as a whole by looking into the cost-benefit analysis or return on investment, making sure that the way that the tax money is being spent is being yielded back to the people through evidentiary filings, ie grades, making sure that the grades are up to snuff as a measure." "Making sure that we don't have anything sitting and nothing not being used. If we have investments in things that are not being utilized. Then we need to trim the fat because that's costing the taxpayers more money."
Gardner
"It comes back to education. That comes back to educating our adult citizens as to how mill levies and all of that actually work with the revenue neutral rate, and what it actually equivalates to because even while we're not revenue neutral, the average increase probably effects someone by about $9 or $10.
"We hear these numbers, but we really don't understand how the numbers actually work. And even working for the city. That's what I do, I look at numbers all day, and I find ways and find different methods to save money and to reduce costs."
"We might realize that it's really not that big of a number, actually, depending on if your taxes have gone up. If your taxes don't go up, it doesn't affect you at all. What you're actually looking at is we're going to get revenue from different things that were not on a tax basis, that particular year, but now they are."
"For example, we give businesses tax incentives. We didn't get any money from them because we returned it back to them. Well, now that those incentives are gone, we will tax them, and that money will come in. If we say we're not, that money won't come in anymore. We try to do things to get businesses to come to Salina. When that time is up, we have to go back and start to recoup so that we can do things for new businesses coming to Salina. If we never change that tax thing, we will never see that growth and we will not be able to get businesses to come in because we won't have the money to put into the system."
Bandre
"There's pros to go at first and this order approach. I want to tell you a quick story on this. My father-in-law has been on the school board in Garnett where he lives for 36 years. Believe it or not, this is his last year. He was on the school board when the Wolf Creek Nuclear power plant was built in Burlington. One of the fun things for Garnett at that time funds set in quotes was a lot of the workers doing the work in Burlington. Lived in Garnett. So the kids were going to school there at that time some of the revenue-neutral things Dan was talking about where the mill levy dollars are equitably spread across the state. It wasn't done quite the same."
"So Burlington and beautiful schools that will Creek ultimately funded but the workers were all living in Garnett, which didn't get some of that revenue. So there's some history behind why the dollars are better spread out but are allocated across the state. I hope that we keep doing that. Part of that comes from one of the answers earlier like helping to educate the folks in Topeka, Washington but how does the decision they make affect the local schools. As Scott mentioned earlier about the special ed not being adequately funded. I don't remember the exact percentage but it's something like 62% of what they're supposed to be funding might be worse than that is what actually comes through and that that hurts in every other sense."
"I think the key thing that the taxpayer needs to know is that Salina Public Schools has done an excellent job using the dollars that are available. There's been a lot of press the last couple of weeks, Salina Public Schools has found $4 million in savings over the life of the 30-year bond because of how it was refinanced. Over the course of all the bonds that USD 305 has done over its history. This company has found ways to save something like $16 million while having quality facilities."
"It's important for our students to be able to have quality facilities here new softball fields. All that's part of the system. So I think I'm biased certainly one of the good things about being on the board and having access to this budget for four years. But I feel really confident about the way dollars are being spent. I know my taxes have gone up in my house this year because somebody decided my house is worth more. So I understand that side too. But those dollars that come in I think are being shepherded wisely and you folks have questions about that. Let me know and we'll talk about it."
Candidate's stance on removing library books from shelves due to their "inappropriate nature"
Clarke Sanders, Republican State Representative, 69th District was in attendance for the forum. Sanders asked the candidates how they felt USD 305 is doing in alignment with keeping "appropriate" books on school library shelves. He cited a list of 30 books that have been deemed "questionable in nature."
"There's been controversy in the last two or three years about books on the school library shelves. In fact, I think there's a list of about 30 books that are questionable in nature. How do you feel we're doing in alignment with keeping appropriate books on school library shelves," Sanders said.
Bandre
"One of the really great things about any educational system is giving students access to literature. You have to be able to read. You have to be able to discern. We're all faced with things every day, especially with these things beeping at us. We all have access to information. There's tons of information we were talking about the good old days when my parents got a newspaper at home and that was the only source of information was that one public newspaper."
"Now we get information from everywhere. I think the key thing that we can do in our public schools is help young people discern what they're reading. How do you make good quality decisions based on what's there? I personally as somebody that followed things this last year, am aware I'm not in favor of banning books for any reason. I am in favor of educating our librarians and our students and making sure that the things that are brought into the schools in the first place have value behind them. Your definition of value may not agree with my mine but we're trying to make good informed decisions about what's there.
"The second thing beyond that, one of the things we did this last year during some of the contentions that Clark alluded to, was we've as a school board made sure that parents have a right to come in and have a voice and what their students are reading. Without a doubt, they should be aware of this. They have access to check with librarians about what what books their students are checking out. When my sons were in school, I didn't care what they read. I wanted them to read. I wanted them to inform themselves and learn how to interpret that literature, whatever it might be. But as parents, they have the right to come in and pull those back out if they want to. So great question. That's what I think on the matter and I want people to read and be informed."
Gardner
"I agree with Mark, as a parent, it is my responsibility to educate my kid at home first. It's my responsibility to give my kids right from wrong as I as I see it, are they going to be perfect? No. But as long as I know that I've raised them the right way. Then I want to expose them so that we can have that conversation so that I can tell you okay, this is how I did this is how mom and dad sees that. Before you get out into the public eye and you hear what somebody else has to say."
"I think far too much we don't educate at home. We look and let somebody else do it. And then when they do it wrong, we want to get mad. I know at my church, you drop your kid off. That kid is mine now. And so if you haven't disciplined them, I'm going to correct it. And my opinion or my statement back to you won't raise your kid I will, otherwise don't bring them here.
"I think that we have to do a better job of raising our kids ourselves, instead of blaming somebody else for not raising them the way that we think they should be raised. So I really don't care what's on the library shelf, because I raised my kids. That is something you don't need to be reading. I trust that when they get there to look at it like no, I'm not interested in that. Are they gonna always do that every time? No, they're not. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to expose them to that and then allow them to go to college and then get exposed to it and actually make the wrong decisions. So yes, let's have this conversation."
Gebhardt
"Much like Mark and Scott, I don't believe in the banning, because I don't think that solves the problem. I think if you're if you have questionable material on the shelves for the students, it's condoning it and condoning its endorsing. And so in that case, it doesn't if it doesn't benefit the students, then it's money not spent wisely. And in that case, it goes back to the librarians. Librarians need to be educated and they need to be judicious about how they curate their libraries."
Zimmerman
"We had three book objections this year, three different people. Not one of them was the parent of children in our schools. And not one of them had read the book. It was the same boook, "All Boys Aren't Blue." But we had a policy are you set up from the 80s that said what to do in a book objections. The first thing was to talk to the principal and the librarian at that school, and if they didn't agree with that, there was a committee from the school of faculty, the library and the principal and some community people, and they all read the book."
"The question was, is there enough social value or literary value or artistic value in this book, that if there's some part of it that makes you cringe somewhat, which there was from this one, but is there enough other stuff that it's still worth having? Does it deal with an issue that some kids need to know about? Then there was another committee from the other high school and more community people and then there was the appeal to the board and all of us read that book. And we all agreed that there was value in that book.
"I was dismayed that the objectors hadn't read the book. They took a couple of pages that will make you cringe and it's true did but they didn't read any of the rest of the book, as far as I can tell. And books are great things. I read some books in high school that were probably not quite appropriate to me. And it did not turn me into any kind of monster, I don't believe."
Closing Remarks
Zimmerman
"I am having a great time on the school board. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of meetings. It's a lot of reading every week. You're reading dozens if not hundreds of pages. But it is really worthwhile. I really want our schools to be great. I want our kids to be successful. I want our kids to be wise, to wisest 18-year-olds they can be when they get out of school and to have a great life on the way up.
"I had a wonderful time in Salina Public Schools, and a great transformative education can stretch minds, can stretch hearts, and can leave you with more wonder for life and wonder for the earth and the world. That's what I want for our kids to be full of wonder when they graduate and ready to discover more. When you turn 18, you're not grown. You have a lot more room to do so, that's what I want for our kids is transformational education."
Gebhardt
"I would like to make sure that if I get elected, that I'm I'm able to do the things that I can do to impact our community in a positive manner. I think the educational system is the heart of the community. And I think that's one of the reasons that drives me to run to do this venture. I want to go and utilize all my skill sets from my leadership in the Navy to my time as a student out here as well as all my previous time going to the school system here using things like Project XL and various other programs that were going on.
"I've seen other places around the nation and other places around the world. And while we're very sheltered here in Salina, there are a lot of other places that are a lot more rife with problems."
Gardner
"I hope that you will reelect me. It's an honor to do that. But I think one of the biggest things about me is who I am is exactly who you've met. But when I sit on this board, it's not about me. It's not about my beliefs. It's about what's best for our kids and what is best for our community. So, there have been a lot of things that I voted for that me personally, Scott would not have done. But because of what's necessary to move forward in the community. I'm either behind it or maybe against it. I have to do what's best for the community."
Bandre
" I spent most of my life involved in education. But despite that, I have learned a tremendous amount over the last four years, and part of the reason I'm running again is to try and keep on using some of that knowledge to help benefit our students and our families. Again, you're not always going to agree with me. I'm not always going to agree with you, but I'm going to respect your opinion."
"I can assure you that even during the height of COVID-19, we had so much controversy about masking. If people disagreed with me, no doubt about it. But I respect your opinion. I wrote back to every single person who wrote to me, and I'm going to keep on doing that. So I feel like similar to what Scott said, I put my heart and soul into this the last four years. I've read a tremendous amount of material, trying to help figure out what's best for our students, and our teachers to make sure that Salina Schools are the best place to learn."