In his life, Randy Polston has been a student, teacher and principal for Warsaw Community Schools. Now he wants to be on its school board. Polston is running for the District 4 seat against incumbent Christie Gale. In an interview Thursday, Polston said he completed his 34-year career with WCS a year ago. During that time, he was a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher in nine years of teaching, as well as an elementary coach. He then served as an elementary principal for 25 years. After a month of retirement, he joined Grace College as the director of applied learning. As to what makes him the most qualified person for the school board seat, Polston said, “Well, 34 years of experience. I’m a homegrown kid. I grew up here in the Winona Lake area. I was actually a Jefferson Elementary student until sixth-grade year and then we moved out to Chapman Lake so I was a Leesburg Blazer a year. I graduated from Warsaw High and went off and got my degrees and returned back home to raise my family in Warsaw.” His teaching career started at McKinley Elementary for a year, then eight years at Lincoln Elementary before becoming principal at Claypool. He then was named principal at Harrison when it opened in 1991 “It’s a history of service. I’ve been with Warsaw Schools my entire career. My goal and vision has been to give back to these students, to offer them the very best education we can at Warsaw Community Schools,” Polston said. He said serving on the school board also was another way he could give back to the kids and the Warsaw community. During the presidential debate Wednesday night, President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney discussed the role of the government in education. “I really feel that the federal government needs to leave this up to the states,” Polston said. “And the states need to give some direction but also give that power back to the local school corporations themselves. In the 34 years I was with Warsaw, I’ve seen a lot of changes. Changes handed down by the federal government, and a lot of changes handed down by the state level as well. People are frustrated. Teachers are frustrated, parents are frustrated. Education has changed. I’m not saying it’s changed completely for the negative. There’s got to be accountability in our classrooms. Across the board there’s got to be accountability, but the changes that have been taken place so drastic, so quick, teachers that I have talked to, their heads are spinning right now trying to keep up.” Math and science education also were discussed during the presidential debates, with Obama suggesting 100,000 teachers needed to be hired to teach math and science. As to where WCS stands regarding math and science education, Polston said WCS “has always been a very pro-active school corporation. They’re taking a look at these issues throughout my years, and even the year I’ve been out at this point. I’ve kept in touch with the teachers and principals. And being pro-active, they’re taking a look at these issues and taking a look at what can we do during the school day. The school day itself is limited. ... And taking a look at what the tests are asking us to make sure the students are mastering. We have to answer that question where else can we get these important parts of the curriculum into the school day.” As far as career and vocational education, Polston said right now WCS is doing what it needs to be doing. "Is there room for change? There’s always room for change, we can always take a look at it. But it comes down to is, where can we fit it into the school day? Those are the challenging questions,” Polston stressed. “I’m very pleased with what we’re doing at this point, but it’s another part of the discussion that we need to continue to move forward as these other issues come up.” This year, Kovert Hawkins Architectural Firm was hired to do a facilities assessment on every building, land and other properties owned by WCS. As part of its assessment, it came up with a “vision” of what WCS could and should do over the next 10 to 20 years. If WCS chose to do everything Kovert Hawkins suggested, the cost would be an estimated $110.5 million. “I’ve gone through that report a couple different times. One of my platforms is that I’m going to be a fiscal watchdog on our school corporation,” Polston said. “I’ve used the word ‘pro-active’ already. It’s so important when we are making these decisions. “Immediately after I attended the board meeting, when they made the presentation, then I went through the report the next day ... one of the things that came to my mind was, I want to say 1985, 1986, it was my first year down at Claypool Elementary School as principal. That year, every one of our elementary buildings was at 150 percent capacity. The buildings were so crowded, we were getting creative where we could put children for their educational day. We never want to go back to that point,” Polston continued. “In order to stay up with changes, yes, there are going to have to be some dollars spent. I’m not so sure that much at this point, but in taking a look at these studies that come across the table here and one of the things that I picked out time and time again as I read through the mission statement of these studies was the fact that here are the facts and figures for discussion.” Polston concluded the interview by saying he was excited for the opportunity. “I had a lot of discussions with teachers and administrators after I made the decision to throw my name in the hat,” Polston said. “I’m excited for the opportunity. If I’m elected, I want our parents, not only in District 4 but across the school corporation, to know I’m going to be there for them. I have had a history of service and I’ve got a vision for the future and I want to continue to giving back to the kids and the families in our school corporation.” The complete video of this interview with Polston is available for free at the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com in the video section.
