Wawasee School Board Candidates Respond To Plethora Of Questions
October 28, 2022 at 2:22 a.m.
Wawasee School Board Candidates Respond To Plethora Of Questions
By David [email protected]
The questions, asked by moderator and eighth-grade social studies teacher Trent Beer, ranged from questions on the budget to opportunities and challenges the Wawasee School District faces. Answers were limited to 2 minutes per candidate.
The candidate forum attracted an audience of over 50 people and was hosted by Wawasee Community Educators Association and the school corporation.
Each candidate received 3 minutes at the beginning of the forum to introduce themselves and given an opening statement.
Heather Coy, District 1 candidate, said she spent the last 15 years in early childhood education. During that time, she held seats as an educator, executive director and later as board president at “that facility,” and served on a nonprofit board of directors utilizing her grant-writing skills. Currently, she works in the mortgage industry.
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Det. Sgt. Neil Likens, also a District 1 candidate, said he was born and raised in the Wawasee community. A graduate of Wawasee High School, Likens said he is married and has three children who attend Wawasee schools. He serves on the Lakeland Youth Center Board.
Steven Baut, District 3 candidate, lives in Milford and has been married to this wife for about 20 years. He, too, has three children, with two of them already having graduated from WHS. Explaining what he does, Baut said, “I take a company from here to here, that’s probably the best way to say it.” He said he knows how to grow a business.
The other District 3 candidate, Brian Weideman, said he and his family moved into the community about 19 years ago and they live between Milford and Syracuse. After high school, he attended IU Bloomington but decided college wasn’t for him yet. After his first year, Weideman decided to join the U.S. Army. He finished his eight-year commitment with the Indiana National Guard, during which time he had decided to go back to school and graduated from IPFW, earning a bachelor’s degree in business management. Over the last 20 years, he worked in the agricultural industry.
The first question Beer posed the candidates was: What do you see as the opportunities and the challenges in our school district?
Coy said it’s getting parents involved in the school corporation. Likens said an opportunity was that Wawasee is a small community which allows everyone to work together, while the challenges coming are the ones that are coming to all schools across the country. Baut said the biggest challenge is to “galvanize our community for trust, that is the most important factor.” Weideman said one of the challenges “is definitely the students we’ve got to be worried about.” He said with Covid the past two years, the students have to be caught up on their education.
Asked from whom they would seek out advice for input when weighing on key decisions, Likens’ first response was other school board members. Baut agreed other school board members was a starting point, but then there was the superintendent, faculty and the community. Weideman listed other school board members, Superintendent Dr. Steven Troyer and community members.
Coy said, “I think, individually, it starts with ourselves. If it’s a topic that is high-profile, then we need to educate ourselves first on it.” After that, she said, it was the board. “As a board, we all have different viewpoints. Everybody sees the world differently. We need to be able to have that conversation collectively and then present our idea to the superintendent.” From there, it’s the community.
Each candidate was asked if they had any specific changes they wanted to make in district policies, programs or curriculum, and, if so, what are they and why?
Baut said some of the pillars he stands on are safety and security. He said Wawasee has done a good job of keeping students and staff safe, but he referenced the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this year as a reason he would like to have a school resource officer in every Wawasee school, not one shared SRO, though he wasn’t sure about how that would be funded.
Likens, whose background is in safety, piggybacked on what Baut said. “I don’t see that Wawasee has a school safety issue,” he said, but that doesn’t mean something couldn’t happen here and that needs to be looked at.
Weideman said one thing he’d like to see is curriculum, while Coy said local curriculum needed to be brought back to the schools as not every student learns the same way.
Assuming none of the candidates have been a K-12 teacher in a public school, Beer asked the candidates what their other qualifications were that made them suited to be a part of the school board.
Likens said he’s a parent of three Wawasee students and he went to Wawasee. “I’m invested in this community. My wife and I own a small business in this community. I’ve given a lot of public service ... the majority of my adult life in this community,” he said, noting that as a KCSO detective sergeant, his background is in dealing with people and problems.
Baut said he professionally understands budgets and financing. Weideman said he had two kids that went through Wawasee schools, he volunteers in the community and was an involved parent. Coy pointed out that while she never taught K-12, she has been an early childhood educator and is a mother.
Question 11 asked the candidates what their process was to determine if the district’s budget presented to them was a good budget for the school system.
Baut praised interim Chief Financial Officer Dr. Brandon Penrod for his job on the budget. Weideman said with any budget, it should be as balanced as it can be. Coy also praised Penrod and said he was “incredible at what he does.” Likens said he was fiscally conservative business owner who doesn’t like to spend money unless he has to.
Another question asked to the candidates was what are top two things the school district has done well over the last five years and what are the top two things it has done poorly that they would want to changed.
Weideman said the new superintendent, Troyer, is doing a “very good job” with staffing the schools and the other good thing was having the guidelines in place for school safety. He didn’t have anything for what Wawasee was doing poorly.
Coy said how Wawasee handled the pandemic over the last two years was great. The referendum in 2020 was handled poorly, she stated.
Likens said hiring Troyer was a good thing, as well as hiring the SROs and the programs they bring in. An issue he said he saw was enrollment. Likens said as a school board member, he would like to figure out why Wawasee is dropping in student enrollment and help come up with a solution.
Baut responded that Coy took his answers - how the Covid pandemic was handled by Wawasee was great and the referendum was “an absolute mess.”
The last of the 16 questions asked to the school board candidates was: What makes you the best candidate for school board member?
Weideman said his previous experience, his kids and his involvement with them at the schools and he enjoys working with numbers. Coy listed her background with early childhood education, extensive nonprofit business management and she looks at budgets “every single day” in her current career. Likens stated he is a parent of three Wawasee students, he’s a business owner in the community and he’s given a lot of his adult life to public service.
Baut said, “Anybody on this forum is a great fit for our school board. These seats are not easy. I’m sure the existing school board members would share that with you. To be the best, I feel it’s subjective because I could give you my great resume, I could tell you all kinds of things I’ve done, boards I’ve served, decisions I’ve made, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t make me better than any of the individuals up here. ... Wawasee wins either way.”
The questions, asked by moderator and eighth-grade social studies teacher Trent Beer, ranged from questions on the budget to opportunities and challenges the Wawasee School District faces. Answers were limited to 2 minutes per candidate.
The candidate forum attracted an audience of over 50 people and was hosted by Wawasee Community Educators Association and the school corporation.
Each candidate received 3 minutes at the beginning of the forum to introduce themselves and given an opening statement.
Heather Coy, District 1 candidate, said she spent the last 15 years in early childhood education. During that time, she held seats as an educator, executive director and later as board president at “that facility,” and served on a nonprofit board of directors utilizing her grant-writing skills. Currently, she works in the mortgage industry.
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Det. Sgt. Neil Likens, also a District 1 candidate, said he was born and raised in the Wawasee community. A graduate of Wawasee High School, Likens said he is married and has three children who attend Wawasee schools. He serves on the Lakeland Youth Center Board.
Steven Baut, District 3 candidate, lives in Milford and has been married to this wife for about 20 years. He, too, has three children, with two of them already having graduated from WHS. Explaining what he does, Baut said, “I take a company from here to here, that’s probably the best way to say it.” He said he knows how to grow a business.
The other District 3 candidate, Brian Weideman, said he and his family moved into the community about 19 years ago and they live between Milford and Syracuse. After high school, he attended IU Bloomington but decided college wasn’t for him yet. After his first year, Weideman decided to join the U.S. Army. He finished his eight-year commitment with the Indiana National Guard, during which time he had decided to go back to school and graduated from IPFW, earning a bachelor’s degree in business management. Over the last 20 years, he worked in the agricultural industry.
The first question Beer posed the candidates was: What do you see as the opportunities and the challenges in our school district?
Coy said it’s getting parents involved in the school corporation. Likens said an opportunity was that Wawasee is a small community which allows everyone to work together, while the challenges coming are the ones that are coming to all schools across the country. Baut said the biggest challenge is to “galvanize our community for trust, that is the most important factor.” Weideman said one of the challenges “is definitely the students we’ve got to be worried about.” He said with Covid the past two years, the students have to be caught up on their education.
Asked from whom they would seek out advice for input when weighing on key decisions, Likens’ first response was other school board members. Baut agreed other school board members was a starting point, but then there was the superintendent, faculty and the community. Weideman listed other school board members, Superintendent Dr. Steven Troyer and community members.
Coy said, “I think, individually, it starts with ourselves. If it’s a topic that is high-profile, then we need to educate ourselves first on it.” After that, she said, it was the board. “As a board, we all have different viewpoints. Everybody sees the world differently. We need to be able to have that conversation collectively and then present our idea to the superintendent.” From there, it’s the community.
Each candidate was asked if they had any specific changes they wanted to make in district policies, programs or curriculum, and, if so, what are they and why?
Baut said some of the pillars he stands on are safety and security. He said Wawasee has done a good job of keeping students and staff safe, but he referenced the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this year as a reason he would like to have a school resource officer in every Wawasee school, not one shared SRO, though he wasn’t sure about how that would be funded.
Likens, whose background is in safety, piggybacked on what Baut said. “I don’t see that Wawasee has a school safety issue,” he said, but that doesn’t mean something couldn’t happen here and that needs to be looked at.
Weideman said one thing he’d like to see is curriculum, while Coy said local curriculum needed to be brought back to the schools as not every student learns the same way.
Assuming none of the candidates have been a K-12 teacher in a public school, Beer asked the candidates what their other qualifications were that made them suited to be a part of the school board.
Likens said he’s a parent of three Wawasee students and he went to Wawasee. “I’m invested in this community. My wife and I own a small business in this community. I’ve given a lot of public service ... the majority of my adult life in this community,” he said, noting that as a KCSO detective sergeant, his background is in dealing with people and problems.
Baut said he professionally understands budgets and financing. Weideman said he had two kids that went through Wawasee schools, he volunteers in the community and was an involved parent. Coy pointed out that while she never taught K-12, she has been an early childhood educator and is a mother.
Question 11 asked the candidates what their process was to determine if the district’s budget presented to them was a good budget for the school system.
Baut praised interim Chief Financial Officer Dr. Brandon Penrod for his job on the budget. Weideman said with any budget, it should be as balanced as it can be. Coy also praised Penrod and said he was “incredible at what he does.” Likens said he was fiscally conservative business owner who doesn’t like to spend money unless he has to.
Another question asked to the candidates was what are top two things the school district has done well over the last five years and what are the top two things it has done poorly that they would want to changed.
Weideman said the new superintendent, Troyer, is doing a “very good job” with staffing the schools and the other good thing was having the guidelines in place for school safety. He didn’t have anything for what Wawasee was doing poorly.
Coy said how Wawasee handled the pandemic over the last two years was great. The referendum in 2020 was handled poorly, she stated.
Likens said hiring Troyer was a good thing, as well as hiring the SROs and the programs they bring in. An issue he said he saw was enrollment. Likens said as a school board member, he would like to figure out why Wawasee is dropping in student enrollment and help come up with a solution.
Baut responded that Coy took his answers - how the Covid pandemic was handled by Wawasee was great and the referendum was “an absolute mess.”
The last of the 16 questions asked to the school board candidates was: What makes you the best candidate for school board member?
Weideman said his previous experience, his kids and his involvement with them at the schools and he enjoys working with numbers. Coy listed her background with early childhood education, extensive nonprofit business management and she looks at budgets “every single day” in her current career. Likens stated he is a parent of three Wawasee students, he’s a business owner in the community and he’s given a lot of his adult life to public service.
Baut said, “Anybody on this forum is a great fit for our school board. These seats are not easy. I’m sure the existing school board members would share that with you. To be the best, I feel it’s subjective because I could give you my great resume, I could tell you all kinds of things I’ve done, boards I’ve served, decisions I’ve made, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t make me better than any of the individuals up here. ... Wawasee wins either way.”
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