Meet The Canidates: Weiser School Board

Residents will vote for candidates seeking seats on the Weiser School District Board of Trustees Nov. 2. Voters are reminded to cast their ballots at their designated polling places.
 The candidates include Marg Chipman and Jim Brush for Weiser School District Zone 2. Melanie Price is running unopposed for Zone 3.
 The candidate who receives the most votes in Zone 2 and Price will be sworn in at the January meeting of the Weiser School Board.
 The school board meets the second Wednesday of the month.
 The Weiser Signal American recently provided the candidates with questions concerning topics including educational priorities, vision for the future, ways to improve public communications and others.

Here are the questions:
 1. What are the educational strengths and weaknesses within the district?
 2. What are some educational priorities you would address during your term?
 3. How would you describe as an effective school board member?
 4. What is your vision for education within the district?
 5. What can be done to improve communication between the school board and the community?

Candidate responses:

Melanie Price
Trustee Zone 3
(Running unopposed)
 1. We have some great teachers and administrators that really care about our kids. We also have a supportive community that wants to be involved in the education of their kids. We need more transparency and accountability in our education system. We also need to listen to community input and support parental rights.
 2. My main priority is the kids and making sure we put them first in every decision. I would like to address the issue of our declining test scores across the state and explore ways we can improve. A key way to do this is to hire and keep good teachers.
 3. An effective school board member is: educated on the issues, can manage a budget, isn’t a green light to everything that comes up, is open minded and doesn’t run from conflict, provides checks and balances within the district, has a willingness to provide awareness to the community about the vision and goals of the district, and remembers that they represent both the community members and the school district.
 4. My vision for education within the district is to continue to find ways to best serve our students and to create an environment that encourages critical thinking, and teaches to the individual needs of the students for them to find success, both in education and in life.  
 5. Right now we have a lot of community interest in what goes on in the school system as a whole.  We can take advantage of this opportunity to have more involvement and input from them. I’d love to create awareness of what the vision and goals of the school board are.

Jim Brush
Trustee Zone 2
 1. Weiser has great teachers, many learning options outside of the essential core classes, and good extracurricular activities. Weiser has good hands-on learning opportunities for those students that may not attend college and good opportunities for those college bound kids to earn college credits while in the Weiser school system.
 2. While we have good elective classes for our students, I think that we could expand upon some of those classes. For example, we have a good agricultural program. I think that it could be better, bigger, and more class opportunities.
 3. An effective school board member is transparent in all aspects of their duties except those that must be talked about in closed sessions due to the nature of private discussion. A good school board member will take the time to learn the policies, laws, and regulations that impact the school district.
 4. Not all our kids will choose to further their educations through college. We need to continue to prepare our kids for their future whether it is furthering their education at college or moving into the work force of society. Vo tech opportunities need to be explored.
5.     I do not have all the answers of how to improve communication, but I think that it starts with getting the parents and our community involved in choosing a curriculum that would benefit our kids and support our community values.

Marg Chipman
Trustee Zone 2
 1. One of the biggest strengths of our Weiser School District is the quality of our staff. The tone of the district is set by the superintendent and is reflected in the professional demeanor and caring attitude of the employees. They have weathered an unprecedented, at least in our lifetimes, year and a half and worked so hard to deliver the best possible education to our students. We asked them to teach both on line and in the classroom, to cover for other absent staff members, to deliver meals to students all around the district, to learn new instructional delivery methods and find new curriculum in response to the need for home-based learning opportunites for students, to adapt and change and dig deep. Like the rest of us, they are tired but they continue to come through in great style. Our schools were in session when a lot of others were not and our kids were in the classroom as much as humanly possible during this pandemic.
 Another strength would be the support we receive from our community as we strive to give our taxpayers the best value for their hard-earned dollars. The Weiser community is involved and committed to our schools – we have been fortunate to have had our voters approve levies and bonds passed, and we sincerely appreciate this support. We have a very low tax levy compared to other schools in our area and those of similar size in the state. It’s not just financial support that is evident. Parents and community members show up all the time, whether to root for an athletic team, to contribute to a math-a-thon, make cookies for parent-teacher conferences, enthusiastically applaud our latest musical production, try their best to help their children with their homework, and in countless other ways. The sign at the entrance to Weiser, “We Love Our Kids,” speaks volumes.
 A weakness of our, and every other, district might be that we may lose many of these dedicated professionals for the very reason we have done as well as we have in the past 18 months – they are overworked and tired. Many of us predict that quite a number of teachers will leave the profession due to fatigue and burnout, and that will be a tragedy. Another weak spot is that we have aging and in some cases, inadequate facilities that do not serve the needs of our students today and in the future.
 2. One of our biggest priorities is to cover the learning loss suffered by so many during this past year. I fear that, despite our best efforts, some students lost ground academically and we must help them regain that ground. Another priority is staff retention – we must work as a state to retain our valued employees and incentivize students to enter the teaching profession. Besides retaining tiring staff, we must also attract members of our community who have a desire to serve the district in various roles (bus drivers, food services, maintenance, and student support, such as paraprofessionals). This is a challenge on a tight budget. Another priority of ours has to be maintaining the full-time kindergarten option for the parents in our district.
 3. An effective school board member is constantly studying and learning, attending professional development opportunities such as in-district trainings, convention workshops, law institutes, and regional and state meetings. It takes a long time to get up to speed on the many intricacies of being an effective board member – after 29 years, I am still learning. Since being retired from ranching, I have had more time to attend legislative sessions, conventions, and seminars and then share what I’ve experienced with my fellow board members. I have also given training workshops at the annual ISBA convention and to the Caldwell board. I was fortunate to be able to serve as president of the Idaho School Boards Association, an organization made up of trustees and board members of Idaho’s 115 school districts and a majority of its public charter schools. The experience of networking and relationship building throughout the state and nation has enabled me to be an informed, educated, and affective board member. It is also critical for a board member to be active in their community and listening to parents about their concerns. When going into a board meeting, it’s not about the member’s values and opinions – it’s about what they are hearing from their community, their education and research into the topics being presented, the feedback from administration – many factors go into the decisions made at the board level. Duties of the board include choosing a superintendent, establishing policy and curriculum, and setting and overseeing the budget – I take these responsibilities very seriously and must always be aware of our legal obligations pertaining to creating policy or responding to circumstances.
 4. The vision of the Weiser School District is to be the “highest achieving rural school district in Idaho.” Each year we compare our district with select schools with a similar demographic to see how we are stacking up. We consistently place in the top tier and continually strive to fulfill this vision. In addition, we strive to see that our students are safe, value life-long learning, and are prepared for life after high school, be it in the workforce, the military, learning a trade, or attending a college or university.
 5. Having a constructive and respectful dialogue between the school board and the community is imperative to an effective school board. Our superintendent writes letters to parents and patrons. These letters appear in our local media and are posted on our website. He conducts polls to determine the opinions of parents, students, and staff. Parent-teacher conferences are held regularly and the board welcomes input by having a regular place on our board agenda for submission of comments. We continuously strive for improvement – especially in working with our community. A strong partnership between the parents and the board is critical to the successful education of Weiser students. We are, indeed, a community organization that reflects Weiser’s uniqueness and values.

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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