School board candidates talk issues at Breakfast and Ballots
The Cassville R-IV School Board candidates who attended Breakfast and Ballots are pictured above. From left to right: Dr. Lisa Roark, Mark Kelley, Michael Hagins, Steven Henbest, Carolyn Bowen and Wade Hermansen.
March 28, 2018
Charlea Estes-Jones
The Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce held their pre-election breakfast and ballot issues event on Tuesday, March 27. This year’s event was host to six of the seven Cassville School Board candidates with an invitation extended to all seven. A light breakfast was provided, and chamber members were on site to listen to board candidates’ responses to questions asked by moderator attorney Blake Fields.
This year’s event included candidates Wade Hermansen, Steven Hensley, Michael Hagins and Dr. Lisa Roark facing incumbent Carolyn Bowen. Other challenger Devin Barber was not in attendance.
The morning’s question and answer featured questions provided by the chamber members. However, candidates were not privy to the questions prior to the event. Questions ranged from objectives to school safety to bullying and how to improve the school.
The first question posed to candidates was their belief of the role of a school board. Up first to answer, Roark said, “I think the primary role of a member of the board is to be the leader of the team. So, you have a team that is made of teachers and faculty and our children and parents. I think the board’s role is to lead that and enforce communication and make sure we’re doing the best job possible to educate our children, keep our faculty happy, keep our teachers happy and our community happy.”
Other candidates echoed Roark’s comments. Hagins commented that the board should be the voice of the community. Henbest commented about the school board’s responsibility is to listen to all of those with interest in the school district. He said, “We need to listen to our teachers, we need to listen to our parents. Those of us with kids need to listen to our children and make decisions according to what we’ve heard and make the best decision that we can.”
Kelley added, “I also think when it comes to making decisions and implementing them that it’s our job to communicate the decision that was made and why it was made.”
Offering a different focus, Bowen commented that the school board should listen and be a voice, but there were other responsibilities, as well. She said, “The main objective of the board is to set policy and enforce that policy and to govern and to make sure that school is financially stable.”
Bowen also touched on the need to stay current with curriculum.
Hermansen finished the first question’s answers with a different perspective, “Leadership and evaluation. Things that entailed in leadership is just like what Carolyn said, communication with your teachers, the troops on the ground who are there to get it done. Evaluation is knowing where you’re at and knowing where you’re going: the things and conditions you need to make to get it there.”
The second question posed to candidates was pertaining to Cassville’s low ranking when compared to other schools statewide. Fields asked, “Right now Cassville is not ranked very high in terms of state’s standards for schools of our size. I’m curious what improvements do you feel you can make in order to make our school district a leader in the state?”
Hermansen began answers with a push to improve critical thinking in Cassville students through reinforcing basics. He said that the school’s recent strategic planning meetings are a step in the right direction and shared his experiences being in that conversation regarding curriculum at Cassville. “I was there with other parents that had high school students, and all we talked about is what we wish our kids had learned back in primary school and elementary school. That made me realize that the skillset we want our kids to have to move forward happened eight or nine years ago on how they started out. We need to get back to basics,” Hermansen said.
Bowen’s response focused on the school’s present success, saying that while there is always room for improvement, Cassville is competitive. She said, “For the size of school we have, we’re doing a very good job.”
Henbest, Hagins and Kelley all echoed Hermansen’s comments about the strategic planning meetings, agreeing they were a step in the right direction.
Henbest said, “We need to have individualized learning and push our kids, not just stick them in a class, have them learn the topic and get out. If the kid is advanced in an area, push them even harder. The whole blanket concept of learning is the same for everybody needs to go away. We need to have more specific one-on-one student time.”
Hagins and Kelley also mentioned individualized learning for students.
Kelley also shared his desire to see kids participate in more extracurriculars in the school to get them learning outside of the classroom. He said, “Will education be the top priority? Absolutely. But I think we need to get these students engaged in learning skills that they can’t learn in the classroom through activities, clubs and sports. I think the classroom will follow.”
Roark said, “ I feel like we need to raise the bar. So, right now I feel like we have to teach down to the child who needs the most help, and I completely understand that, but all of the rest of the kids are being missed. The kids on the upper level are working independently, which is great, but no one is pushing them along. The difficulty here is that a teacher can only do so much. Tell me how a teacher can take 25 first graders, all on different levels...and how they are going to help every single child in that classroom that day. So that’s where the problem lies.”
Roark’s solution centered around more parent and community involvement in the classroom, helping teachers and working with students.
The next question asked candidates how they felt about school safety. All candidates agreed that Cassville has made strides in safety of students and staff, but that there is more room for improvement. Four candidates were vocally in favor of arming teachers as long as appropriate training was available, albeit with reservations. Bowen and Hermansen both were hesitant to support arming teachers.
Bowen said, “As far as guns with teachers, I would want that to be the very last resort. My preference would be that if we get to that point, we would maybe have people patrolling the halls that might be able to make it more secure, but if it comes to that, we’ll have to consider it. But my preference would be to make those kids safe and feel secure without knowing that someone is carrying a gun in the classroom.”
Hermansen agreed and shared, “I’m more of a deterrence person. If we have a resource officer on that campus or in that building that has a firearm, post it on a sign. Let that intruder know.”
He continued, “But a firearm for a teacher? You’d have an awfully high hurdle for me to allow that.”
Henbest elaborated on his position, saying, “They need to be tested and put through a program that tests their mental stability. They could start pulling the trigger willy nilly and do more harm than good. I am technically for that, but I believe there needs to be a lot of pressure on that individual and a really tight selection process for that.”
Hagins said, “That definitely wouldn’t be my first option. I actually spoke to one teacher the other day who wanted to carry but worried about other teachers who wanted to carry. So you have to get into the whole gob of issues once you talk about teachers having firearms. I think there are some other options that should be implemented in place of that.”
Fields then asked candidates what their two goals are if they are elected.
Hermansen said his two goals are to have more parental voices on the school board and also prepare students for what lies ahead after graduation. He said, “I do not want students leaving that school not prepared to their best of their ability.”
Bowen’s main goal is to continue to improve the school through curriculum and technology. She also commented on her support of extracurriculars.
Henbest said he wants to make sure he listens to everyone at the school and in the community as well as making sure Cassville is advancing through technology. He said, “I’d like to see us in competition with Monett and stay on the edge like they do.”
Hagins shared a single goal. He stated, “I have one goal: if elected, at the end of three years, I look back and see these kids achieve and know that I made the best and right decision for them and the teachers, to give the teachers what they need and tools they need to teach these children so they can achieve.”
Kelley wants to focus on communication and technology. He said he feels technology is so important in helping kids achieve outside of school that it should be paramount. He said, “I want to make sure we are preparing kids who are going to college, but also preparing kids who are not going on that path. We need to keep a competitive course on that way as well so they can get into the workforce.”
Roark said, “My first goal is to shake up the status quo. I feel like we’ve been just kind of coasting along. Things are good. Cassville is good. It’s not great, but it’s not bad. I think we can do better than that.”
She also said she would like to see a more Montessori-style classroom at the school. “I want every child to have one thing at school that they look forward to every single day. My thought on this, a Montessori style classroom in which every child learns in a different way, could give them that thing to look forward to. It may be playing with playdough; it may be painting; it may be sitting in a corner reading, but I would like to see one thing that every child loves about school.”
The next question was how the potential board members planned to separate their feelings of helping their own student succeed or act on the opinions of family members and the needs of the students of the school as a whole.
None of the candidates felt it would be an issue for them to make decisions based on the bigger picture of overall students success.
Roark shared she expects to help her children meet goals at home. She said, “We need to remember that every child is going to learn in a different manner.”
Kelley added he supported the idea of individualized education to make sure all students’ needs were met.
Hagins shared that he chooses not to coach his own kids’ sports teams because he wants them to learn on their own and dealing with others. He said, “I want them to talk to someone else and someone else on the board or at the school and they can come to me so I know what’s going on. If any of my family members have a problem, I would send them to the superintendent, to a principal, to another board member to take care of the problem.”
Henbest admitted that it was a difficult question. He said, “It’s kind of a difficult question, but also kind of simple. You have to be open minded and listen. It’s not necessarily always the board member’s job to listen to all the community members. They have teachers, they have administrators to consult first. If they don’t feel they are getting the results they expect. I would hope they would be comfortable to approach me.”
Bowen felt that she had a different perspective because she was an employee at the school. She said when her kids were in school, they knew that at the school, she was an employee first, not their mom. She said, “ I am mom only if there is an emergency even if you forget your lunch money, that’s your problem, not mom’s.”
She added, “You’re not supposed to have any preconceived ideas of what you want for your child. When you’re there, you’re responsible for 118 kids or however many kids we have enrolled in school. We’re responsible for all of those. Your decisions affect every single child and every single staff person: teachers and anybody employed by the school. Those decisions have to be made for every single person, not your individual wants.”
Finally, Hermansen shared a different perspective that because he is a parent, he is better able to see the bigger picture with students’ needs. He said, “It’s our children that give us our sight, that give us our perspective. It’s the stories that they bring home, it’s the teachers we talk to when we’re speaking about our children. That’s the uniqueness of being a parent on the school board. That perspective is priceless because when you speak to that teacher, when you start hearing those stories, that’s when you start to see that picture. Now if you’re worried about that parent using their position to advance their students, then I guess vote on the character of the person.”
He finished, “I’ve heard this argument many times before, but the perspective of a parent greatly outweighs the advancement of one student.”
The final question Fields posed to the candidates was about how the school can better combat social media bullying. All candidates answered with some reliance on parents needing to be more involved to combat the issue of social media and bullying.
Hermansen opened answers saying that position the school should take is to make sure kids have trusted adults they can be honest with at school. He shared that he was bullied and had an adult help him. “That student has to have a trusted adult in that school. I’m not talking about a teacher or an administrator. For me, it was a custodian,” Hermansen said.
Bowen said, “I think our school handles it the best they can. I do know that when it happens, it is reported to the administration and they follow it beyond that point. I think that social media is a downfall in many ways for students. I think part of it is community getting involved in any way they can, but it comes down to parents.”
Henbest said, “Bullying has been around since the dawn of time. You can’t stop it, and you’re not going to stop it. Social media just gives them another platform to do it a little more efficiently and effectively.”
He continued, “I think the school has to educate students. I think our churches should get involved with these students who are being bullied just to feel accepted and welcomed. These kids get torn down and have nowhere to go.”
Kelley said, “It’s somehow been made the responsibility of the school to cure bullying somehow. They are limited in what they can do. They have continued to increase disciplinary action for kids who are bullying, which I think is fantastic, but it’s limited to a certain point that it’s all they can do. At some point, the expectation has to be put back on parents.”
Finally, Roark answered with a different focus on how to solve the issue. “Take their phones away. Let’s give them eight hours a day at school where they can learn and not have to worry about who has what to say in social media. I don’t let my employees sit on their phones when they are supposed to be working. Our kids should not have a phone in classroom. I know this is going to make people mad. I’ve already heard it. It’ll make the teenagers mad. It’ll make the middle schoolers mad. It’ll make the parents mad because they want open access to their kids. I don’t care. They have too much on their shoulders as it is. Let’s take away that distraction. They don’t need the extra stress and pressure while they are in school. I would wholeheartedly love to see a school with no cell phones and kids that actually look up and don’t walk into the lockers and interact with each other. “
Two three-year positions on the Cassville R-IV School Board will be decided during the April 3 General Municipal Election.
Charlea Estes-Jones
The Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce held their pre-election breakfast and ballot issues event on Tuesday, March 27. This year’s event was host to six of the seven Cassville School Board candidates with an invitation extended to all seven. A light breakfast was provided, and chamber members were on site to listen to board candidates’ responses to questions asked by moderator attorney Blake Fields.
This year’s event included candidates Wade Hermansen, Steven Hensley, Michael Hagins and Dr. Lisa Roark facing incumbent Carolyn Bowen. Other challenger Devin Barber was not in attendance.
The morning’s question and answer featured questions provided by the chamber members. However, candidates were not privy to the questions prior to the event. Questions ranged from objectives to school safety to bullying and how to improve the school.
The first question posed to candidates was their belief of the role of a school board. Up first to answer, Roark said, “I think the primary role of a member of the board is to be the leader of the team. So, you have a team that is made of teachers and faculty and our children and parents. I think the board’s role is to lead that and enforce communication and make sure we’re doing the best job possible to educate our children, keep our faculty happy, keep our teachers happy and our community happy.”
Other candidates echoed Roark’s comments. Hagins commented that the board should be the voice of the community. Henbest commented about the school board’s responsibility is to listen to all of those with interest in the school district. He said, “We need to listen to our teachers, we need to listen to our parents. Those of us with kids need to listen to our children and make decisions according to what we’ve heard and make the best decision that we can.”
Kelley added, “I also think when it comes to making decisions and implementing them that it’s our job to communicate the decision that was made and why it was made.”
Offering a different focus, Bowen commented that the school board should listen and be a voice, but there were other responsibilities, as well. She said, “The main objective of the board is to set policy and enforce that policy and to govern and to make sure that school is financially stable.”
Bowen also touched on the need to stay current with curriculum.
Hermansen finished the first question’s answers with a different perspective, “Leadership and evaluation. Things that entailed in leadership is just like what Carolyn said, communication with your teachers, the troops on the ground who are there to get it done. Evaluation is knowing where you’re at and knowing where you’re going: the things and conditions you need to make to get it there.”
The second question posed to candidates was pertaining to Cassville’s low ranking when compared to other schools statewide. Fields asked, “Right now Cassville is not ranked very high in terms of state’s standards for schools of our size. I’m curious what improvements do you feel you can make in order to make our school district a leader in the state?”
Hermansen began answers with a push to improve critical thinking in Cassville students through reinforcing basics. He said that the school’s recent strategic planning meetings are a step in the right direction and shared his experiences being in that conversation regarding curriculum at Cassville. “I was there with other parents that had high school students, and all we talked about is what we wish our kids had learned back in primary school and elementary school. That made me realize that the skillset we want our kids to have to move forward happened eight or nine years ago on how they started out. We need to get back to basics,” Hermansen said.
Bowen’s response focused on the school’s present success, saying that while there is always room for improvement, Cassville is competitive. She said, “For the size of school we have, we’re doing a very good job.”
Henbest, Hagins and Kelley all echoed Hermansen’s comments about the strategic planning meetings, agreeing they were a step in the right direction.
Henbest said, “We need to have individualized learning and push our kids, not just stick them in a class, have them learn the topic and get out. If the kid is advanced in an area, push them even harder. The whole blanket concept of learning is the same for everybody needs to go away. We need to have more specific one-on-one student time.”
Hagins and Kelley also mentioned individualized learning for students.
Kelley also shared his desire to see kids participate in more extracurriculars in the school to get them learning outside of the classroom. He said, “Will education be the top priority? Absolutely. But I think we need to get these students engaged in learning skills that they can’t learn in the classroom through activities, clubs and sports. I think the classroom will follow.”
Roark said, “ I feel like we need to raise the bar. So, right now I feel like we have to teach down to the child who needs the most help, and I completely understand that, but all of the rest of the kids are being missed. The kids on the upper level are working independently, which is great, but no one is pushing them along. The difficulty here is that a teacher can only do so much. Tell me how a teacher can take 25 first graders, all on different levels...and how they are going to help every single child in that classroom that day. So that’s where the problem lies.”
Roark’s solution centered around more parent and community involvement in the classroom, helping teachers and working with students.
The next question asked candidates how they felt about school safety. All candidates agreed that Cassville has made strides in safety of students and staff, but that there is more room for improvement. Four candidates were vocally in favor of arming teachers as long as appropriate training was available, albeit with reservations. Bowen and Hermansen both were hesitant to support arming teachers.
Bowen said, “As far as guns with teachers, I would want that to be the very last resort. My preference would be that if we get to that point, we would maybe have people patrolling the halls that might be able to make it more secure, but if it comes to that, we’ll have to consider it. But my preference would be to make those kids safe and feel secure without knowing that someone is carrying a gun in the classroom.”
Hermansen agreed and shared, “I’m more of a deterrence person. If we have a resource officer on that campus or in that building that has a firearm, post it on a sign. Let that intruder know.”
He continued, “But a firearm for a teacher? You’d have an awfully high hurdle for me to allow that.”
Henbest elaborated on his position, saying, “They need to be tested and put through a program that tests their mental stability. They could start pulling the trigger willy nilly and do more harm than good. I am technically for that, but I believe there needs to be a lot of pressure on that individual and a really tight selection process for that.”
Hagins said, “That definitely wouldn’t be my first option. I actually spoke to one teacher the other day who wanted to carry but worried about other teachers who wanted to carry. So you have to get into the whole gob of issues once you talk about teachers having firearms. I think there are some other options that should be implemented in place of that.”
Fields then asked candidates what their two goals are if they are elected.
Hermansen said his two goals are to have more parental voices on the school board and also prepare students for what lies ahead after graduation. He said, “I do not want students leaving that school not prepared to their best of their ability.”
Bowen’s main goal is to continue to improve the school through curriculum and technology. She also commented on her support of extracurriculars.
Henbest said he wants to make sure he listens to everyone at the school and in the community as well as making sure Cassville is advancing through technology. He said, “I’d like to see us in competition with Monett and stay on the edge like they do.”
Hagins shared a single goal. He stated, “I have one goal: if elected, at the end of three years, I look back and see these kids achieve and know that I made the best and right decision for them and the teachers, to give the teachers what they need and tools they need to teach these children so they can achieve.”
Kelley wants to focus on communication and technology. He said he feels technology is so important in helping kids achieve outside of school that it should be paramount. He said, “I want to make sure we are preparing kids who are going to college, but also preparing kids who are not going on that path. We need to keep a competitive course on that way as well so they can get into the workforce.”
Roark said, “My first goal is to shake up the status quo. I feel like we’ve been just kind of coasting along. Things are good. Cassville is good. It’s not great, but it’s not bad. I think we can do better than that.”
She also said she would like to see a more Montessori-style classroom at the school. “I want every child to have one thing at school that they look forward to every single day. My thought on this, a Montessori style classroom in which every child learns in a different way, could give them that thing to look forward to. It may be playing with playdough; it may be painting; it may be sitting in a corner reading, but I would like to see one thing that every child loves about school.”
The next question was how the potential board members planned to separate their feelings of helping their own student succeed or act on the opinions of family members and the needs of the students of the school as a whole.
None of the candidates felt it would be an issue for them to make decisions based on the bigger picture of overall students success.
Roark shared she expects to help her children meet goals at home. She said, “We need to remember that every child is going to learn in a different manner.”
Kelley added he supported the idea of individualized education to make sure all students’ needs were met.
Hagins shared that he chooses not to coach his own kids’ sports teams because he wants them to learn on their own and dealing with others. He said, “I want them to talk to someone else and someone else on the board or at the school and they can come to me so I know what’s going on. If any of my family members have a problem, I would send them to the superintendent, to a principal, to another board member to take care of the problem.”
Henbest admitted that it was a difficult question. He said, “It’s kind of a difficult question, but also kind of simple. You have to be open minded and listen. It’s not necessarily always the board member’s job to listen to all the community members. They have teachers, they have administrators to consult first. If they don’t feel they are getting the results they expect. I would hope they would be comfortable to approach me.”
Bowen felt that she had a different perspective because she was an employee at the school. She said when her kids were in school, they knew that at the school, she was an employee first, not their mom. She said, “ I am mom only if there is an emergency even if you forget your lunch money, that’s your problem, not mom’s.”
She added, “You’re not supposed to have any preconceived ideas of what you want for your child. When you’re there, you’re responsible for 118 kids or however many kids we have enrolled in school. We’re responsible for all of those. Your decisions affect every single child and every single staff person: teachers and anybody employed by the school. Those decisions have to be made for every single person, not your individual wants.”
Finally, Hermansen shared a different perspective that because he is a parent, he is better able to see the bigger picture with students’ needs. He said, “It’s our children that give us our sight, that give us our perspective. It’s the stories that they bring home, it’s the teachers we talk to when we’re speaking about our children. That’s the uniqueness of being a parent on the school board. That perspective is priceless because when you speak to that teacher, when you start hearing those stories, that’s when you start to see that picture. Now if you’re worried about that parent using their position to advance their students, then I guess vote on the character of the person.”
He finished, “I’ve heard this argument many times before, but the perspective of a parent greatly outweighs the advancement of one student.”
The final question Fields posed to the candidates was about how the school can better combat social media bullying. All candidates answered with some reliance on parents needing to be more involved to combat the issue of social media and bullying.
Hermansen opened answers saying that position the school should take is to make sure kids have trusted adults they can be honest with at school. He shared that he was bullied and had an adult help him. “That student has to have a trusted adult in that school. I’m not talking about a teacher or an administrator. For me, it was a custodian,” Hermansen said.
Bowen said, “I think our school handles it the best they can. I do know that when it happens, it is reported to the administration and they follow it beyond that point. I think that social media is a downfall in many ways for students. I think part of it is community getting involved in any way they can, but it comes down to parents.”
Henbest said, “Bullying has been around since the dawn of time. You can’t stop it, and you’re not going to stop it. Social media just gives them another platform to do it a little more efficiently and effectively.”
He continued, “I think the school has to educate students. I think our churches should get involved with these students who are being bullied just to feel accepted and welcomed. These kids get torn down and have nowhere to go.”
Kelley said, “It’s somehow been made the responsibility of the school to cure bullying somehow. They are limited in what they can do. They have continued to increase disciplinary action for kids who are bullying, which I think is fantastic, but it’s limited to a certain point that it’s all they can do. At some point, the expectation has to be put back on parents.”
Finally, Roark answered with a different focus on how to solve the issue. “Take their phones away. Let’s give them eight hours a day at school where they can learn and not have to worry about who has what to say in social media. I don’t let my employees sit on their phones when they are supposed to be working. Our kids should not have a phone in classroom. I know this is going to make people mad. I’ve already heard it. It’ll make the teenagers mad. It’ll make the middle schoolers mad. It’ll make the parents mad because they want open access to their kids. I don’t care. They have too much on their shoulders as it is. Let’s take away that distraction. They don’t need the extra stress and pressure while they are in school. I would wholeheartedly love to see a school with no cell phones and kids that actually look up and don’t walk into the lockers and interact with each other. “
Two three-year positions on the Cassville R-IV School Board will be decided during the April 3 General Municipal Election.