School Board Candidates Discuss Budget, Student Performance

Nine candidates gathered together for the first time to discuss district issues in a community forum hosted by the Mehlville Legislative Network at Mehlville High School Wednesday night. The candidates, vying for three positions on the board, gave two-minute opening and closing statements and then answered questions submitted by the approximately 60 district residents in attendance.

The district’s budget was a common theme in the questions, the first of which asked candidates what they would cut in the operating fund after y came out saying the Mehlville School District had high student achievement for its per-pupil spending.

All of the candidates said they were excited to hear the results and weren't surprised. However, candiate said that the report was 4 years old, and should be reconsidered at present time.

“We need to be forward-thinking. I would not want to make my decision based on a 4 year-old statistics,” he said. “In the future, that bang for the buck was expected to decline.”

The candidates represented a vast array of opinions and methods. All said they would have no problem being the lone dissenter on the board when pursuing their beliefs.

, and said they would still respect and support the decision of the board if the majority vote was against their personal opinion.

Former board member Kathy Weber moderated the forum and asked questions that attendees submitted on index cards. When asked about the community's relationship with the board, the candidates agreed communication could be improved.

was the first to suggest that school board meetings should be alternated among several locations within the district.

“I think that the board can reach out to the community by physically moving the location of the meetings around the district,” he said. “By having the board meetings at different schools within the district on a regular basis, it exposes the board to the opportunity of the folks who live in that area to get to the board meeting."

Candidate seconded Franz.

Stoner and Powers said that the errors with the district’s past community engagement programs had residents coming in to the school district.

“It’s typically in a format that we push out into the community rather than tapping into the formats and organizations that are already in our community,” Powers said.

“I’m talking about civic groups and other opportunities where we go to them and hear what they have to say,” she said, also adding the district needed to pay attention to business owners in the area.

Franchesca Gindler said the district should have a paid employee focusing on community input. However, with current budget constraints, the responsibility falls on the board.

Candidates were split four to five on whether the board should work to increase revenue for the district.

“The board has a responsibility to two groups: the taxpayers, who are the owners of the district, and the students,” Franz said. “Our responsibility is not to improve the bottom line like a corporation would want to do for their shareholders.”

Kluth-Hoppe and Langland said the board should work with legislators to get more state funding and increase grant writing. David Wessel said he would learn how non-profits and private institutions are funded.

Every candidate said they have reviewed at least some of the curriculum in the district. Wessel cited curriculum and student achievement as his motivation for running.

“I didn’t think we were meeting needs of the next generation workforce,” he said.  ”What we need to be doing is setting our children up so that they stand apart from everybody else.”

Powers said she would work toward an alignment of curriculums within the district, saying they vary greatly from school to school.

“I was surprised to see that there are some classes available at Oakville (High School) that are not available at Mehlville (High School), and there are classes that are available at Mehlville that are not available at Oakville,” she said.

Each board member was asked if they would be open to the idea of asking taxpayers to increase revenues if academic performance didn’t meet state mandates. Although several candidates did not see a direct correlation between a tax increase and the failure to reach state norms, both Roland and said they would want to seek the cause of the performance failure before turning to the community.

Franz said he would not support a tax increase, no matter the reason.

For community member Linda Mooy, that was exactly what she wanted to hear.

“I will vote for people who don’t want to raise taxes,” she said, adding that she attended the forum to learn more about the candidates. “Student performance is not based on taxes. If students are not doing well in school, we need to get better teachers or teachers that are doing their jobs.”

The last question of the evening simply asked, “What is the most important issue facing the Mehlville School District?”

All candidates, with the exception of Stoner and Doyel, said the budget was the most important issue.

Stoner said it was leadership, while Doyel said it was a sense of community and teamwork within the district. Kluth-Hoppe also said that keeping the curriculum challenging within the budget was important, and Roland said he wanted to improve the reputation of the district both with its residents and the rest of St. Louis.

Community members attending the forum said it helped them make a more educated decision and get to know the candidates.

“This was my first time, and I didn’t know what to expect,” said Loretta Hughes, who has a child at the John Cary Early Childhood Center. Hughes was looking for candidates with an open mind about district issues. “I heard one candidate say they would not ever support raising taxes in the district,” she said. “How can you say that? That’s not very open-minded.”

Weber closed the forum by thanking the candidates for their respectful attitude and civility.

“I have to tell you, I’m very impressed,” she said. “The thing that always impresses me the most is when you put students first and you all talked about students as being your focus."