Sean C. Morgan
The District 55 School Board has two new members following the May 15 election, while three incumbents return.
Chanz Keeney defeated incumbent David Kem, 839 to 511, for the Holley seat. Kem had been appointed to the position to fill a vacancy left when Don Hopkins resigned. Kem has been appointed to the board three times but lost two elections, serving about four years.
John Fassler ran unopposed for Foster, a position vacated by Scott Proctor this spring. He received 1,063 votes. Ryan Aiello ran a write-in campaign for the seat. The election had 79 total write-ins for the position.
Incumbent Board Chairman Mike Reynolds defeated Jason Van Eck 802-550 for the Sweet Home seat.
Leena Neuschwander ran unopposed for the Cascadia seat. David VanDerlip was unopposed for the Crawfordsville seat.
“It’s exciting,” Reynolds said. “I’m thrilled that the voters want me back.”
He said he looks forward to working with the new board members.
As the four-year veteran of the board begins a new term, he hopes to begin implementing board member Ken Roberts’ research into student learning and teaching techniques from the past two years.
A priority for him will be “this whole business with the skills center,” he said.
Roberts has been running a survey and visiting other school districts to learn more about Sweet Home students and discover new ways to reach and teach children who have different learning styles, Reynolds said. It could help the district better “serve all types of learners.”
“The visual and auditory learners, I think most of them do well in school,” Reynolds said, but perhaps not so much for the “hands-on” learners.
“I can imagine that will be one of the things that will take up a lot of our time,” Reynolds said.
“I don’t know what else I could have done to convince people to vote for me,” Kem said. “I guess I could have done a little more campaigning.”
He said he did not get his name in the voter pamphlet, like the other incumbents.
“What’s going on right now, I wish I could’ve stayed four more years,” Kem said. “What Roberts is working, I think that’s a go-getter.”
He hopes his successor will help in that process, he said. It’s something that could help keep children in school and graduating.
“Kids need to go to school,” he said. “They need to go to college.”
Kem plans to stay involved in the district, he said.
“If it comes open, I’ll run again,” he quipped. “I’ll be back. You haven’t seen the last of me.
“I love Sweet Home. I’d do anything for it.”
“I was really excited,” Keeney said of his first election. “I didn’t know how it’d turn out.”
Keeney’s priorities as he joins the board are “definitely getting the community more involved as far as the decisions that are being made by the board members, being more in touch with the Holley people,” he said. He wants to know if the people like the early release days at the elementary schools and what they think about not having physical education and music.
The early release days were set up to provide teacher prep time for elementary teachers. The Budget Committee-approved 2007-08 budget includes a proposal to end early release days and provide prep time by hiring two teachers to run a district-wide elementary PE program.
Keeney said he supports the proposal, although he is concerned that new board members join the board too late to have any input on the upcoming budget.
He is interested in Roberts’ work, but he also questions whether the district needs “a lot of extra stuff,” he said. Right now, class sizes are too large, and one teacher cannot do everything that should be done.
“Do we need to spend more on all this new stuff or do we just need more teachers or aides,” he asked. He cited the example of his daughter’s math class, where several children may put their hands up, but the teacher cannot get to them.
Holley School has five aides, he said, but 80 percent of their time is tied up with special-needs students, leaving only 20 percent for regular classrooms.
Volunteer parents, including him and his wife, can help, he said, but the minute the children are given a test, seven hands go into the air, he said. “The teacher tries to get around to them all, and it’s impossible.”
“What I’m asking myself is if the School District is going to find money to do these other things first instead of hiring an aide,” he said.
Keeney thanked “all the people that voted for me,” he said. He encourages people to talk to him or give him a call and let him know what they think.
“I’m happy that the election turned out the way it did,” Fassler said.
After the election, he spoke with Aiello, he said, and “we’re going to try to get together next week to talk about what his main priorities would be to where I would be trying to work with those and work with others.
“I want to make sure that we do get our schools set up and be able to provide quality education to where all children will be evenly and fairly educated and get our tax dollars spent wisely within that realm.”
Just stepping in now, he anticipates a learning curve, but he is talking with other board members.
He caught the end of Roberts’ presentation on learning styles recently, and he is planning to meet with Roberts to go over it one-on-one.
“It was probably one of the better ideas,” Fassler said. “I know Ken. His biggest interest is educating our children, and doing that well.”
Fassler encourages members of the public to give him a call and let him know what’s on their minds, he said. “I just hope to be able to do the best I’m able to do.”
The board appointed Fassler to fill the Foster vacancy at its regular meeting earlier this month. He and Keeney, along with incumbents, will officially begin serving their new elected terms on July 1.