A "Meet the Candidates Night" was held Tuesday night at the Fieldcrest High School gymnasium in Minonk before a sparse crowd. Each candidate gave an introductory speech after which each candidate was asked to respond to questions, some of which were supplied from the crowd in attendance. Below is a summary of the responses from each candidate.
Jordan Meyer said she graduated from Fieldcrest High School and received a degree in Pharmacy from Drake University in Iowa. She returned to Minonk after her schooling and decided she wanted to give back to the school and the community. She wants the school to grow its curriculum and thinks trade classes are important. She wants to improve the lines of communication and get more people involved in the school's issues. She said teachers are more important than buildings in educating our students and wants to utilize the building space the school already has.
Heather McKay said education is the most important thing in our community and wants to give back and serve. She wants to do what is best for the community and be fiscally responsible with the school district. She wants to develop a 5 to 10 year plan for the school and wants to improve the public's image of the school board. She thinks the attendance centers was a great improvement to the school district. She indicated she wants to keep the 4 buildings but wants to learn what other options are available saying there are tough decisions to be made.
Joe Stasell said his goal on the school board is to keep the population in the area growing and to help the school solve its building problems by developing a 3-5 year plan on upgrading the buildings. He wants to get the students excited about their education and wants to improve the trades curriculum for students who won't be attending college. He said the school district has not done a good job on building maintenance and wants to keep the school's existing buildings and upgrade and maintain them properly.
Scott Hillenburg said he has 12 years on the school board and decided to run again to use the experience he has gained to help solve the school's problems. He said one of the school's biggest problems is working with the state to get control on the mandates the state keeps issuing. He said during his tenure the school board has done a good job in balancing the budget. He also emphasized the importance of trade classes in the school. He said the building issue is still the biggest problem to be solved. He said he was against the 2 building plan on last November's referendum which was defeated. He said he wanted another election this April for the voters to decide if they wanted to spend money on repairing the current buildings but that didn't happen.
Note: The article has been corrected in paragraph 3 to change the name of Kimberly McKay to Heather McKay. Paragraph 2 was corrected to change University of Iowa to Drake University.