Minonk voters need to turn out for April 5th election

While all elections are important, the election on April 5 will be the most important election in Minonk's history. This is not just because we will be electing officials to help Minonk grow at an exciting time in its future, but also because we will be electing school board members who will decide the fate of our schools. The past few years have seen a schism in the Fieldcrest school board with Toluca and Wenona representatives fighting to keep middle schools in both communities while the Minonk representatives have been trying to consolidate the middle school classes so that there is no duplication of classes in Toluca and Wenona.

I was impressed with the candidates at The The Meet the Candidates Night for the school board candidates on Tuesday night. All of the candidates felt that the current school board was remiss in not consolidating grades 5 through 8 at Toluca and Wenona.

Another common theme that all candidates mentioned was the need for the Fieldcrest communities to unite together and do what is best for Fieldcrest and not necessarily what is best for the community. This is a theme that has definitely been ignored with our present school board. Toluca and Wenona's insistence on keeping grades 5 through 8 in both communities has been counter productive in cutting costs and providing uniformity in education.

Therefore, I have hope that the newly elected board will be more prepared to make the necessary decisions to bring Fieldcrest together as a community. I, for one, am willing to wave an olive branch with the City of Wenona in spite of their unfair TIF district and to Toluca in spite of their desire to keep grades 5 through 8 in their community. We do need to come together as a community in order to save our schools.

Having said all that, I also feel that the citizens of Minonk must step up to the plate and vote in as many Minonk candidates as possible since Minonk may end up with only two board members if enough Minonk votes are not cast.

If there were only 4 candidates running from Minonk, then Minonk would stand a good chance of getting 3 candidates elected to the school board. However, there are 8 candidates running from Minonk which will split the vote among the candidates. The only way to overcome this statistical probability is to increase the number of Minonk votes.

I am not asking Minonk voters to vote just so Minonk can hog the school board. Rather, since the Minonk area has the greater population, it should be more heavily represented on the school board to adequately represent the Fieldcrest community.

I encourage everyone to read the candidates interview with the Woodford Journal in the paper's March 29th edition to become aquainted with their views. You also can read the interviews on this website by clicking here.

I urge Minonk residents to vote for 4 people from the Minonk area. They are Gary Wolf, Tim McNamara, Scott Hillenburg, Patrick McGuane, Eric Schultz, Jeff Gehringer, Tom Barth, and Darren Hester. Someone said that we should only vote for one. Wrong! Make sure you vote for 4 out of the above 8 candidates.

In the last election, both Toluca and Wenona out voted Minonk as a percentage of registered voters who voted. If we let that happen again, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Again, I appeal to everyone in Minonk to vote. Tell your neighbors, friends, and relatives to make sure they vote. Canvas your neighborhood this week to make sure that everyone is going to vote. Take the elderly to the polls if necessary. Make sure that Minonk has adequate representation on the Fieldcrest School Board. I say this in the spirit of cooperation with the other communities as I am sure they are trying to get the vote out for their candidates.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, I feel confident that the new faces on the school board will help lead Fieldcrest to a better future.