BOURBON - Thursday night the Triton Junior-Senior High School auditorium was sparsely sprinkled with local residents, who had the opportunity to meet their school board candidates.
Louise Mason, member of the Marshall County Economic Development committee, facilitated the question-and-answer forum. There are three districts that have positions open on the board.
Theresa Barnhart, Bourbon, running for district 1, Tippecanoe Township, is a first-time candidate. Barnhart has two children, one that is in the corporation, and a preschooler.For district 2, Etna Township, the candidates are Andrew Cook, Deb Shively and Sonja Riffle.
Cook is a first-time candidate. He is in responsible for the waste water and roads in Etna Green, and served on their council. He has four children in the system.
Riffle is a first-time candidate. She has served as a teacher's aid for both the elementary and high schools. She has two grown children and a stepdaughter currently in the corporation.
Shively currently holds the seat. She has five children and has served 15 years as a Triton substitute teacher. '
For district 4, Bourbon, Jerilyn Anders, Bourbon, is the incumbent. Her children have all graduated from Triton Corporation.
Joseph Choquette, Bourbon, has two daughters in the Triton system. Choquette was not present at the forum.
Marcia Keyser, Bourbon, has taught in the corporation for 31 years. She has two children that graduated, and now has grandchildren in the system.
All candidates have the same underlying agenda, and that is to do what is in the best interest of the children.
When asked what are their areas of experience and strengths that they could bring to the board, Riffle stated that she is currently in customer service, and has good negotiating skills. She also prided herself in being able to always find a "happy medium" in difficult situations.
Keyser stood on her experience of, "My life has been the school."
Barnhart has served on several large boards, and is willing to listen.
Anders was adamant in her care of the children.
Cook stated, "I have 12 years on the Etna Green council and can make touch decisions."
Shively said, "I have been employed and in the system for 14 years. I am not afraid to go against the grain and vote was is in the best interest of the children."
When asked what were their top three goals if elected, Keyser said she has no idea, but would like to keep up with Adequate Yearly Progress.
Barnhart's goals were to maintain and increase the graduation rate, improve test scores, and help make the school more prominent.
Anders wants to keep making the buildings efficient, make sure that the children have a good education, and keep Triton's good reputation among other schools.
Cook stated he didn't have any set goals, because he didn't want to overlook what was important and going on within the corporation.
Shively wants to follow through with the projects that she was integral in starting like the building improvement projects, to continue to have Triton be an honorable positive place for kids in the community.
Riffle said that there is a lot of potential in this kind of community for education. She also stated that with President Obama changing the lunch programs, that it would be nice to be able to use some of this agricultural land to start a garden to grow and harvest our own food to feed the children in the community.
Each of the candidates present are eager and willing to serve the community and the ultimately the children. When the question of discipline was presented, some stated that they are strict with policies and rules, and some maintain that discipline need to have all the circumstances including the child's entire situation brought into the picture.
While all the new candidates are welcoming their new potential changes, Shively and Anders tried to drive home the reality that comes from their experience on the board - with change there needs to be money that it is a challenge, but the board is only able to work within its budgetary constraints.
Shively said, "There is not a lot of economic growth in this area right now. It is hard to implement things if there is no money in the budget, and we are cutting positions, we cannot work outside of that framework."
Anders stated, "I would really like to maintain all the programs that we currently have."
