By JESSICA BUHLER Photos by HAINAN XIANG
On Monday, candidates for USD 489 participated in an Open Forum at Beach-Schmidt Auditorium.
Kelly Ancar, Ken Brooks, Craig Pallister, Curt Vajnar, and Meagan Zampieri-Lillpopp spoke to attendees with hopes of earning their votes for one of the three open seats in November. Each candidate made an opening statement.
“I’m still connected with the education systems here because I now have grandchildren attending public schools, private schools and homeschooling,” Ancar said.
“Four years ago, when I was up here, I mentioned one of my goals was to pass [a] bond,” Brooks said. “We passed that bond and built that beautiful new high school. We have lowered our school fees, elementary by over 20%, our middle school and high school by almost 50%.”
“The number one priority of a board member is providing an environment for success for all students,” Pallister said.
“I was 31 years in education here in USD 489,” Vajnar said. “I was then Kansas Teacher of the Year.”
“My son is a recent graduate of Hays High, and I am continuing to seek service on the board because of the immense value that it’s created for our family,” Zampieri-Lillpopp said.
On the topic of the relationship between the Board of Education and the superintendent, all the candidates agreed that the superintendent answers to the Board.
“I think the real question is how can they proceed in making sure that the public knows that the school board recognizes their responsibility to hold the superintendent accountable,” Ancar said. “I think the best way to do that is to have complete transparency when it comes to all processes that are in place.”
On the recent bond that allowed for the renovations for the schools and the building of the new high school, the candidates agreed that the promises were kept, and
“We have a plan in place and the timeline is still on schedule, which means that the budget should fall in as budgets are extremely related to time,” Zampieri-Lillpopp said.
Regarding remaining civil when some past Board meetings have become contentious from differing opinions, the candidates agreed that the focus should be on the students.
“There are seven people on that board, and there are seven different perspectives, with seven different backgrounds, and I would hope that they bring seven different perspectives to each and every item we can discuss,” Vajnar said.
On the role of Civic Education, there was unanimous agreement that it should be expanded and not reduced.
“As everybody is getting information from different sources, students need to be taught what the processes are through the school system,” Pallister said.
“This year we got rid of the cell phones in high school. I’ve heard nothing but good for that. It helped our students engage with one another,” Brooks said.
The USD 489 Election will take place on November 4.