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The eleven candidates for the Fieldcrest Board of Education participated in <i>The Meet the Candidates Night</i> Tuesday night at the Fieldcrest cafeteria in Minonk. The event was sponsored by the Fieldcrest Education Association and was designed to allow interested residents of the district the opportunity to become better-informed voters in the Fieldcrest School Board election.

The forum consisted of each candidate responding to the same 4 questions prepared prior to the meeting. After a short intermission, the candidates then responded to submitted questions from the audience. All of the candidates indicated support for the consolidation of the middle schools at Toluca and Wenona. In addition, all of the candidates felt there was the need for another referendum. However, most candidates qualified this by saying that the board must first show intent to cut costs before a referendum can be considered. All candidates felt that small class sizes are important for the lower grades but are less important in the upper grades.

The following is a summary of the responses from each candidate to the various questions.

Scott Hillenburg - "We must combine the resources of each community, including the city governments, to come up with a plan to regain financial solvency. The community needs to work together to make this happen. I support attendance centers.   Full attendance centers are the most efficient but we must let the public decide how much they are willing to invest in attendance centers in terms of increased bussing. I feel that the school's financial security is the most critical issue. The school is a business and we must run it like a business.   We need to bring back the extracurricular programs that were cut. People will not pay more taxes if they feel they are getting less for their education. I am responsible for handling several million dollars worth of cars at Jim McComb Chevrolet and am used to working with budgets and planning."

Darren Hester - "We have to cut costs before we have a tax referendum. I think that a total attendance center for grades k-12 is the best solution to save money in our schools. We need to get the school out of the red so that we can afford to hire good teachers. I take care of 900 computers at Mitubishi and can work with plans and budgets. Coming from another town, I do not have relatives or friends that I have to please when making decisions on the school. My decisions will be based on what is best for the children."

Tammi Coons - "We need to spend our dollars more efficiently. We need to take a positive attitude towards attendance centers. We do need to reconfigure our school classes. I think the Citizens Action Committee was a good thing to help raise money for extracurriculars. However, we should not bring back the extracurriculars that do not educate our children. Schools are for educating children. I am looking for stronger leadership in our schools. I am treasurer of many social organizations and have experience in dealing with budgets.

Gary Wolf - "We need to tell the people what they will be getting if we have another referendum. Our sports cost are too high compared to other schools our size. The school board should retake control of the sports program from the CAC. We need to consolidate the junior highs quickly. We also need to take a longer look at the future and see if a K-12 attendance center or a consolidation with other schools would be advisible. A dual school district like Metamora's in which the grade school and the high school are separate districts is another option to consider. Each community can then decide if they prefer to pay for their own grade district or have it combined with another community. Communications must improve within the schools themselves and with the taxpayers. We need to plan for the future now. We need to be careful not to rely too much on sales tax to increase revenue for our schools as it will encourage people to go out of state to buy their products. I own my own business in addition to working for Mitubishi. "

Tim McNamara - "We need to contact our state representatives on improving state financing of education. We also should push for a sales tax from the new raceway north of Minonk to help fund education. I would like to see the school educate special education students instead of paying to have them educated elsewhere. The school board lost a lot of respect when it failed to pass the attendance center proposal. We need to regain the support and the respect of the community.   I want to see a K-4 in each community and the consolidation of grades 5-6 in Toluca and 7-8 in Wenona. The school's financial health is the number one priority. We don't want the state to come in here and tell us how to run our schools. I have been on the board for 8 years and have looked at a lot of budgets and helped negotiate the last teachers contract. We have to be fair to both the taxpayer and the teachers when negotiating the teachers contract."

Jeff Gehringer - "Their is lack of leadership on the present school board. We can't afford two junior high schools. We need to come together as one community and regain the confidence of the electorate. We need to keep a K-4 in each community. Look what happend to Dana and Rutland when they lost their schools. I don't care where the middle schools or the high school are located as long as grades are not split apart. We should already have had attendance centers in place. I am not worried about the curriculum. We need a long range plan. The activity fees should be dropped. The CAC should be dropped as they are not authorized to collect fees for the schools. That is the school board's responsibility. The board is using the CAC as a scapegoat. I am a teacher in Bloomington and have a Bachelor's and Master's degree from ISU and have experience in hiring and firing and have been involved in contract negotiations."

Heidi Cook - "We need to find out where savings can be realized and have a detailed monitoring of spending. We will need to pass a referendum and salaries will need to increase for the teachers. I support attendance centers and think that the kids are ready for it. My main goal is to make the school district financially sound. We need to improve test scores at the school. We need to educate the public about the school's operations and how the school functions."

Eric Schultz - "The district needs to work together with the city to develop a long range plan. We need to combine the junior high schools now to promote unity and uniformity in the school. We need to have a common curriculum in the schools and also need to improve the test scores. We need to exert discipline within the schools. I have developed budgets for my church and raised money for the church building fund. In addition, I have prepared budgets for the Recreation Board for the City of Minonk."

Patrick McGuane - "We need to develop a long range plan to see where we are going. We can't keep on cutting and we can't keep reacting only to short term problems.   We need to get the communities to work together. I believe attendance centers will provide a better education and also have social benefits by uniting classmates sooner in school. We need to control the class sizes with attendance centers by adjusting the number of sections in each class based on class size. We need to adequately prepare our children for the tough job market of today. We need to eliminate additional fees for extracurriculars.
I am a member of the management team at State Farm and have been developing budgets for organizations far larger than Fieldcrest. I see a parallel between what I do at work and what needs to be done here at Fieldcrest."

Linda Regnier - "Short term plans need to be emphasized and spending needs to be aligned with these plans. My top priority is the quality of education. We need to contact our legislators to help improve educational funding. Attendance centers will help standardize curriculums and will unite students and the community. I don't know if consolidating K-4 is financially advisable. We need to improve the quality of our education and try to create a financially strong district. We need to fairly compensate our teachers in order to sustain the quality of education. I work at State Farm and manage service providers and am required to work with budgets."

Tom Barth - "We need to get a handle on expenses. We need to pursue grants to fund education and talk to our legislators. Sales tax will be better source of revenue for education than property tax because it will be paid by everyone and does not discriminate against property owners. I have always favored attendance centers and think it will save us money. We need to get the trust of the communities back behind the school board and bring back the programs that were cut. We need to unite the communities again. The adults are the problem - not the children. The school board should meet with the various city governments each year to see how things can be improved. I am a production analyst at SMF and have to develop plans for turning out a product.

School board candidates meet the public