Post date: Mar 22, 2017 3:11:56 PM
School Board Candidates
Claire Benevento-12 With school board elections set to occur on April 4th, the Kirksville High School journalism staff interviewed all six candidates to find out about their experience, goals, motivations for running, and strengths. The full interviews can be found on the YouTube channel KHSPawPrint. Some of the main points are outlined here.
Matt Copeland
Matt Copeland has had experience with the school district in multiple capacities. He has three children who attend or have attended Kirksville schools, his wife currently works for the district, he taught here previously, and he was a member of the Kirksville school board while he taught in Brashear schools.
Copeland realizes that the budget will have to be a priority, and he wants to make sure the board remains student-centered while dealing with cuts. “I will make decisions with the students in mind first, period,” Copeland said. However, he also wants to make sure that teacher salaries are still increased every year in order to keep teachers motivated.
Copeland is running for school board because he wants to serve and be able to make changes in the system. His feels that his previous experience on the school board will help him achieve that because he now can see issues as an administrator as well as a teacher and parent.
Nan Davis
Nan Davis has already served one term on the school board. She has also served on other boards, including at the state level. “I served on the Department of Education and Secondary Education, on the disability board there,” Davis said.
Davis has several goals for this term, including promoting student achievement through balanced literacy programs, educating students and teachers in the positive use of technology, increasing attendance, and appointing a high school student to the school board. “I think student input is crucial because you know what needs to be happening in the high school,” Davis said.
Davis wants to be part of the school board because she has four children and thinks parent involvement is extremely important. Davis feels that having four children who have been or are in school here helps her to be a better school board member, especially because her children represent a broad spectrum of student needs.
Tarasa Gardner
Tarasa Gardner’s experience with education comes from her job as a professor of English at MACC. “Education has always been something that I’ve been really passionate about and that I knew was really important. I’ve always really appreciated the strong education that I received,” Gardner explained.
Gardner has a few goals for her time on the school board. She wants to find a way to absorb cuts to the transportation budget with minimal negative effects and would like to see more safety drills and planning in preparation for emergencies or issues with security.
Gardner believes that one of her strengths is creative problem-solving skills, and she thinks that her perspective as a professor at MACC is not necessarily represented in the current school board. Also, she remains aware of the impact decisions will make in the future. “My children are fairly young...so my investment is long-term,” Gardner said.
Kathy Hoppe
Kathy Hoppe has worked for more than twenty years in the behavioral health field, a career that has led her to work with students at Kirksville schools and schools in surrounding areas. “I also have assisted with participating some in a team from our school to reduce drop-outs,” Hoppe said.
Hoppe does not have a very large agenda, but she would like to continue working to reduce the number of students who drop out of school. She wants to help students who are not thriving in our school environment. She believes that thriving starts with attendance and also includes reaching academic goals, and she thinks learning social skills is another important aspect.
Hoppe is running because she wants to use her experience and knowledge to help the district. Not only does she have four children in the school system, but she has also worked with many other young people as a result of her career.
Jeremy Houser
Jeremy Houser is a professor at A. T. Still University, teaching mostly anatomy and neuroscience. His experience with education is mainly on the college level, but he does have two children in the school district.
Many of Houser’s goals are related to the curriculum. He wants to make it more efficient by combining different subjects in one class—for example, making science classes writing-enhanced. He also thinks foreign language instruction should begin sooner. “Places that are successful with foreign language, they do it at the primary and elementary school levels...By the time [students] get to junior high and senior high, they are very proficient in being bilingual,” Houser explained.
Houser wants to be part of the school board so he can bring creative problem-solving skills to the district. Houser has a lot of ideas for his time on the school board, many of which go beyond traditional thinking about education.
Adam Moore
Adam Moore is a native of Kirksville who graduated from KHS in 1998. Though he does not work in the education field, he has served on several health and community-related boards. “I deal with federal, state, and local budgets every day, and health care I think is very similar to education where you never have a stable budget,” Moore said.
Moore does not have an extensive agenda, but he would like to see more communication and transparency, and he wants to make sure that all the opportunities and extracurricular activities offered to students in the district continue to be available.
Moore is running because he wants to give back to the district and community that provided him with a quality education and is now providing an education for his children. He knows that the district may have to deal with budget cuts, and because he feels that budgeting is one of his strengths, he wants to help the district by offering his experience.