The Morrison District 6 School Board election is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 2019, and there are eight candidates to fill three seats. Township 22N, Range 5E will only have one delegate (Jim Ridley), and Township 21N Range 4E only has one delegate (Gus Linke.) Township 21N Range 5E has five delegates seeking the seat currently held by candidate Brandon Shelton.
Aside from your child’s teacher, Principal, and District Superintendent, School Board members have the greatest influence on your child’s education. They decide how to spend a District’s public school funds and set its governing policies.
A School Board has a symbolic role as well. The behavior a Board demonstrates at public meetings, how well they work as a team. The relationships that members have with your District’s teachers, administrators, and families add up to the climate of a community’s public education. Healthy or dysfunctional, inspired or narrow-minded, School Boards can make or break the quality of your local school system.
Whether you are satisfied with your School Board or not, your vote in the next School Board election can be instrumental in helping shape the upcoming Board, so that it answers the needs of its parents, students, and staff.
“The most important responsibility of School Boards is to work with their communities to improve student achievement in their local public schools. Your School Board is responsible for…[NSBA (National School Board Assn.)]:
- employing the Superintendent
- developing and adopting policies, curriculum, and the budget
- overseeing facilities issues
- adopting Collective Bargaining agreements.”
Candidates were offered the following questions. It is hoped their responses will aid in determining a voter’s decision and improve voter turnout. Responses are in alphabetical order of candidates’ last names.
Q: What motivates you to become a Board member?
Ashley Belha: As a mother who will have two children growing up and attending school in the Morrison Community School District, I find it important to be involved in whatever way I can, to ensure that our community’s children have a safe place to learn and are afforded the best education possible. I’ve been involved with the Morrison Elementary PTO over the past two school years, so I’m looking forward to expanding my contribution into the School Board as well.
Jim DuBois: 1- The kids and taxpayers of the Morrison Community. 2- The assets that Morrison School District has are great. Most of them are under-used or are not being used efficiently. I want to help the School District use our facilities more efficiently than they are today. Because the community cannot afford to build new facilities, we need to improve our existing facilities and make them more available to our community members (taxpayers.) 3- Frustration with the substance abuse problem in our District. The program in place today is punitive and not a deterrent. We need to be more proactive, not reactive. This is a small, family-oriented community. We need to have a better system involving family and school.
Lauri Helms: I have two boys in the school system right now. I want to be able to help provide them, and all current and future students, with the best learning opportunity in the safest environment possible.
Gus Linke: I have grown up in this community, had parents that were teachers in the Morrison School District, and still have a son going to school here.
Sidonna Mahaffey: I decided to run for the School Board to give back to the community. I have four children in the Morrison Schools and want to use my voice in a positive way.
Jim Ridley: I wanted to be involved in the schools when I first ran for this office 12 years ago. I thought my prior work and personal experiences would allow me to have the most positive impact in the community. I still feel like I have something to contribute.
Brandon Shelton: My motives are the same as they have been over my last ten years as a Board member. I want to serve my community and to ensure that my children and the future children of Morrison get a first rate education. Our family moved to the area 15 years ago when our family was just starting. We looked at many communities in the area when my work brought me here, and we landed on Morrison primarily because of the quality of the school system here in Morrison. As new people come to our area, I want the Morrison Schools still to be that motivating factor that cause people to choose our community. Today with my daughter in High School, my son in Junior High, and my wife working as an aide in the District, my ties to our schools are stronger than ever. My commitment to the success of the District is also very personal.
Terri L. Wilkens: I had been an educator in post-secondary education, and quality education is essential for students to obtain success in higher education. Students deserve opportunities for excellence, and public education provides that foundation. I have always participated on my community School Boards, as I believe it is an honor and a responsibility to serve.
Q: What are two or three strengths of which our District can be proud?
Ashley Belha: We can be extremely proud of our faculty, staff, and administrators. Not only do they dedicate themselves to our students, but they are also more than willing to volunteer their personal time to provide for our schools. Additionally, the strides that the District has taken to update technology and become more digitally literate is commendable. Technology in education is growing (and necessary) to meet the needs of our students. We’ve done well updating servers and resources, to provide diverse learning resources for all types of students.
Jim DuBois: 1- Community dedication. The commuity (taxpayers) outside the four walls of the District are very proud of the School District. They are generally ready to help the District if asked. 2- The Booster Program is a tremendous asset [of which] the people of Morrison are, and should be, very proud. They are so dedicated to the school, kids, and community. They ask for nothing in return, except for more people to join the program.
Lauri Helms: Morrison has always prided [itself] on ensuring our children receive a quality education. In order to keep up with the changing world, our District has worked hard to update the curriculum that is offered to our students. These include the addition of the Alternative Learning program, renewal of the AG program, and the introduction of Freshman Academy.
Gus Linke: Our District has done a good job of managing its finances over the years. We have great teachers that care about our kids.
Sidonna Mahaffey: The largest asset to the schools in my opinion is the community. I also believe that Morrison has a great number of incredible teachers and support staff.
Jim Ridley: 1- The most important strength of our District has to be the administrators, teachers, and the aides who work with the children every day. Without the commitment of these people, the school system would not function. There is no question in my mind that we have people who are very dedicated to the children and to Morrison schools. 2- Another strength has been the support from the community. People that come to our community consistently remark on this fact.
Brandon Shelton: The Morrison schools have many more than two or three strengths as a source of pride. If I had to narrow it to just a few, the first ones that come to mind are our staff and our community. We have an incredibly devoted staff. The work life of a teacher continues to grow more challenging year after year. Our District and our State have experienced a great deal of change in the last few decades. We have greater economic and developmental needs among our students, while our State struggles to properly manage its resources. Because of this, our staff is constantly challenged to do more with less and, somehow, always manage to rise to the task. While many of them could find greater pay and less hours in other larger Districts, they choose to stay here and make a difference in our community. Our community never ceases to amaze me in their commitment to our schools. I think of organizations like our Athletics Boosters, the Band Booster, our local arts community, and the Morrison Schools Foundation who have always been there to support our schools in many ways. As money grows tighter year after year these organizations have made it possible for our schools to continue to provide programs that otherwise would be out of reach. Recently, our local farming community has brought great assistance in helping the Morrison Schools bring back the FFA program very successfully.
Terri L. Wilkens: Leadership: the District’s leaders (which include the Board members) provide a vision of inclusion, which is instrumental in a collaborative approach to education. Fiscal responsibility: [being] accountable to all involved in the educational system.
Q: What are two or three needs that must be priorities for our District to address?
Ashley Belha: Safety is always going to be a looming issue, and the Board has already made strides in this area with the discussion of a School Resource Officer. I’d like to see some additional measures taken for student safety, the main focus being the mental and emotional health of our students. As a District, we should be proactive in the overall health of our students and work to be proactive in supporting their needs. Another priority needs to be continued growth in our curriculum. Teachers should feel empowered to suggest and implement curriculum that grows to meet the needs of their students and enhances their overall learning experiences.
Jim DuBois: 1- We must put educaton first. We must be willing to learn new ways to educate our kids. Technology changes occur every day. We need to stay current with technology and build relationships with students through social media, to stay connected and incorporate this within our education system. Looking outside our District to see what other progressive School Districts are doing would be beneficial. I realize we have State standards but getting results can be achieved by different applications. 2- We must improve the Morrison pride inside the four walls of our District. This must start at the top. We need to get our School District employees proud of Morrison, proud of the red and white, proud to be a Mustang, and to be vocal about it. We can’t exppect our kids to be proud of their school if our own employees don’t show it. 3- We must build relationships withour community and all the pax-paying entities.in our community. The taxpayers deserve an “all together” commuity message. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Let’s work together with the money. We must make our community great again. Believe me, other people are jealous of what we have in Morrison. Together we need to let others know how proud we are of what we have. We need to start this by having representation at all open meetings by all tax entities; schedue community meetings so everyone can attend; put together a community meeting one or two times a year to discuss issues. Stop the US vs THEM mentality. I know that the taxpayers of Morrison want this.
Lauri Helms: 1- I feel we need to address the challenges of retaining our teachers, understand why they are looking to change Districts and what we can do to keep them here. 2- I feel we need to work with the City to discuss what we can do together to entice potential families to choose Morrison as a location [in which] to live and raise their families. 3- Support our faculty and students in a manner that is going to hold people accountable and help prepare students for their futures.
Gus Linke: 1- The impact of the new minimum wage law will be something the School District has to plan for. 2- We need to be able to attract and retain new teachers and teachers that don’t have a lot of years of service.
Sidonna Mahaffey: 1- I believe student safety is the highest priority, and thus far the District has handled this appropriately. However, in an ever changing world, I believe that the schools must “keep up” with technology and a presence of authority. 2- I also believe that availability of extra curricular activities needs to be widespread, to make available to all students venues to pursue scholarships and college admissions.
Jim Ridley: 1- The first priority always has to be the children. Providing them with a safe, nurturing learning environment always needs to be foremost in our minds as Board members. This includes buildings, grounds, learning materials, etc. All of our decisions ultimately flow from that central idea. 2- Another priority for Board members is to be careful stewards of the public funds we receive, to ensure we have efficiently used these tax dollars.
Brandon Shelton: Like the number of things that there are to be proud of there are far more than two or three issues that we have to be concerned about and prepare to address. I believe these are our top three pressing issues. One, the changing curriculum demands, second is our aging infrastructure, and the third but heaviest in our mind is the overwhelming issue funding. The first issue revolves around why many of us got into serving on the School Board. We want to see an ever improving and challenging curriculum for our students. The difficulty as a Board member is to try and understand what new Government mandates require and balance that with financial resources, community demands, and staff participation. As a Board member our main responsibility is to provide leadership in terms of setting policy. So we are very reliant on our internal resources. We can’t just stop there though. I have spent a great deal of my free time learning more about new Common Core curriculums and listening to teachers’ concerns about the challenges they are facing, bringing these new standards to the classroom. We then have the responsibility to mold our policies and funding around what we believe will serve the students best. Here in Morrison, we unfortunately do not have the tax base that many suburban and consolidated school Districts are able to access. We want to continue to offer local community-based schools and not move to consolidation like many rural Districts in our State have had to do. A pillar of that commitment is to manage the schools that serve our District. Having many buildings in the District that date 30 to 60 years old, we are constantly faced with the best way to keep our schools physically and mechanically up to date. As many of you know, we have had some fairly extensive projects going on in our schools. We most recently have had to update locker rooms, bathroom facilities, and HVAC systems that date back to the 1950’s in the high school. These are not inexpensive updates, and we have to find creative and cost-sensitive ways to pay for these needed changes. The recent addition of the 1% sales tax has helped a great deal in the District’s ability to fund these projects, while the Board has worked to reduce the impact on local property taxes. As our school buildings continue to age, this will need to be a continued focus of the School Board. Finally, the biggest issue that is facing us is funding. We are fortunate that our District has been very responsible over the years, and we are not dealing with a crisis as are many Districts in our area. That being said, for the last few years we have had to regularly dip into reserves to bridge the State’s shortfall in funding. We have had to take on new financial responsibilities in terms of teacher retirement and a mountain of unfunded mandates from Springfield. We are also constantly threatened with the potentiality of less funding from the State. Most recently we are having to come to terms with the new State minimum wage. Without additional resources from the State, meeting these new requirements could be potentially crippling. We are also looking at a mandated minimum teacher’s salary, potentially coming in the near future, that will pile on more costs that the District will have to find a way to manage. All of these issues will need to be at the top of the next Board’s priority list.
Terri L. Wilkens: 1- Declining enrollment; bring in more partners; community; develop a plan. 2- Facilities study; address safety concerns; develop five-year plan. 3- Review partnership with higher education; look at dual credit courses for high school students.
Q: What specific strengths would you bring to the boardroom?
Ashley Belha: Personally, I value hard work and honesty, which are two strengths that I could bring to the Board. I am also naturally investigative and like to take time to ask questions and really understand a situation before making a decision.
Jim DuBois: 1- Teamwork, dedication, and a work ethic. I have managed work teams, coached youth teams, and been on professional boards all my adult life. My main motivation is teamwork succeeds. We can work hard and play hard, but ultimately when we work together, we have success. 2- The reason we moved to Morrison was so that we could get involved with the community. We realized that this community has some great pride. But I believe that the School District has created a lot of division within the community. I feel that if we get more community involvement in all our school decisions and activities, we can reinvigorate the Morrison Pride.
Lauri Helms: I’m not afraid to challenge ideas of others. Everyone’s ideas and thoughts deserve to be heard and respected.
Gus Linke: I’ve been on the Board the past two years, so I have some experience. My background is Accounting.
Sidonna Mahaffey: 1- I believe that I am a good listener, as well as very open to others’ opinions. 2- I also believe it is critical to be able to “think outside the box” to have the most positive outcomes.
Jim Ridley: As a Morrison graduate I have a life-long affinity for this community. My career in the financial industry allowed me to to be involved in many of the decisions regarding the financial decisions regarding the District over the last 12 years. In addition, through my involvement with coaching, working with the IT Department, and volunteering to help at the schools have allowed me to be more understanding of our needs and challenges.
Brandon Shelton: My first strength to bring back to the Board is my experience over the last ten years as a Board member. I have a strong understanding of the challenges we face and have been part of the team that has kept our District as an area leader, in terms of education and financial health. It takes a long time to learn the fundamentals of governance on a School Board and how to become an effective part of making that work. I am able to start work [on] day one of a new term and not lose any ground. The current Board has worked very well together. Bringing together consensus among the Board is critical. In my ten years of service, only on very few occasions we have not reached a consensus in terms of voting on all the issues we have faced. I believe that one of my strengths is in helping our team build that consensus. In terms of education my degree is in History [with a] minor in Political Science. My education trained me how to dig into information and analyze it thoroughly. Being on the School Board requires a lot of research and analyzing many different points of view. I have proven this skill in both my work life and as a Board member. For my day job I am the Director of Sales for a municipal equipment company. In my career I have become very knowledgeable of the inner workings of local Government. I have worked with many communities throughout the Country. [I am] able to bring a perspective from beyond the City limits of our town. In my career I also am very well versed in budgeting and finance. These are critical aspects to governing a School District. I have also built my career on being an effective communicator. This skill is critical in being a member of the Board, as we must all be excellent listeners and ask meaningful questions, in order to gather all the information needed to make effective decisions.
Terri L. Wilkens: I possess over 13 years of service on two different School Boards who work collaboratively with all stake holders. I am fiscally conservative. I will encourage opportunities to partner with higher education to improve offerings of dual credit courses, update curriculum, and strengthen policies to meet the needs of all our students.
Q: In your view, what has the District done well over the last five years?
Ashley Belha: Bringing back the FFA program in 2017 was a great decision for our students. This program provides yet another opportunity for students to engage in leadership roles and prepare for their future. Also, as this winter was an especially tough one, I think the District was smart in being proactive with so many late starts, early dismissals, and full-day cancellations to keep our children safe. While this tacked on some additional days to the end of the school year, keeping children safe from harm should always be the first priority in such situations.
Jim DuBois: 1- Implementing the individual technology program. Now we need to continue using technology to stay in touch with our kids and community. 2- Updating our facilities. The recent high school school project was way overdue. The facilities need a long-term plan to keep them in good operating condition.
Lauri Helms: 1- The improvements to the High School have been needed for quite some time. It’s nice to see that these things are being worked on and completed. 2- The use of the chrome books for the students is excellent. They are able to be interactive with their teachers and have access to everything they need in one place.
Gus Linke: As I mentioned earlier, the District has done a good job managing its finances. We just made a lot of improvements to the high school.
Sidonna Mahaffey: I think that it was a great decision to have two separate Principals at the grade schools, rather than having one person split between the two.
Jim Ridley: 1- Most importantly, I feel the District has continued to produce students that have been prepared for their next challenge, after they leave our school system. 2- I believe we have been careful with the public funds. We have needed to upgrade our facilities for some time, but we had to wait until we were in a better financial position. We didn’t want the District to be in a situation where any unexpected emergency would find the District with limited or poor financial options. Our recent construction at the high school was primarily to upgrade the HVAC system, electrical system, bathrooms, and locker rooms, which were predominately from 1952. 3- Also, I believe the Board has maintained a positive relationship with the administration, teachers, and other employees, in addition to the community. Student achievement has continued to be very competitive [in the] area and Statewide. This is primarily due to or excellent teachers, aides, and administrators. The Board has approved the upgrade of our technology available to students and teachers. This not only includes instructional technology but also security measures. Security measures are important for our students and personnel, to protect them from outside threats and also to monitor things like bullying and other internal issues. We have also upgraded other learning materials including textbooks and curriculum choices.
Brandon Shelton: I think that the Board has been able to accomplish a great deal in the last five years. We have successfully negotiated two teacher contracts, with the most recent one adding incentive for new teachers to look at Morrison. We have been able to fund and accomplish some massive infrastructure upgrades without negatively affecting our financial position. We have lowered the cost of our students to participate in extracurricular activities. We have maintained a healthy financial balance during some very tough economic times with the State of Illinois. We have made the shift into Common Core curriculum. We have added an administrator at the elementary school level, in order to address some of the changing demands among those grade levels.
Terri L. Wilkens: The District has done a fine job in attracting excellent staff to educate our students and has operated within the budget constraints.
Q: What has the District done poorly that you would change?
Ashley Belha: I can’t say that there are any missteps that the District has made that pushed me to run for a seat on the School Board. If I win a seat in the April 2 election, my goal is to get to work with the rest of the Board to continue the good work they’re already doing. By listening to the community’s needs and coordinating with other Board members, I believe we can continue the good work of which our District has historically been proud.
Jim DuBois: 1- The District has not responded quickly enough on issues. We need to do research, make a decision, act on the decision, evaluate our decision and hold people responsible for implementing the decision accountable. 2- Relying on the “that’s how we have always done it” mentality. Yes, we don’t want to forget the past, but technology is here to stay. Kids deserve to be educated with up-to-date technology and ideas. 3- We are losing teachers to other Districts. We need to know why. I don’t feel that is all money-related. I firmly believe that the District does not value employees. With the shortages of teachers, we need to value the employees we have and work as a team to improve everyone’s atmosphere. Teaching is a vocation. It cannot be an eight hour a day job. To make this happen in Morrison, we must work together. We need to get our staff to believe in the vocation. We need to get our administration to better respect all our staff, top-to-bottom. We need to work to improve our staff. Start listening to them and coaching them.
Lauri Helms: The length of time that it takes for decisions to be made and then implemented needs to be addressed. Once the decision is made, the plans should be put into motion to avoid delays and changes to the plans.
Gus Linke: Our extracurricular activity fees were too high. We adjusted them lower, and we need to see what impact that had. We have lost some younger teachers, so we need to make sure our starting wages and wages for the newer teachers are competitive
Sidonna Mahaffey: In my experience, I believe the District has done poorly with communication in some areas, as well as accountability of the procedures and policies that are already in place for students.
Jim Ridley: 1- I’m not sure I would use the word poorly. However, I do think that there are times that I believe the decisions made have been either misunderstood or at least unknown by the public. We attempt to disseminate information through various media outlets and invite the public to attend the meetings. We scheduled Public Meetings and Forums to discuss important issues affecting the community. I would say we could try and to do more to keep the public informed. 2- We must constantly search for ways to challenge and engage our students to learn. As a Board, this includes assessing requests from our staff for materials, programs, and training which will make them more effective. I feel that the Board has taken student safety very seriously, including the approval of the School Resource Officer. However, that commitment to safety must continue, including constant vigilance for incidences of bullying and other behaviors that are disruptive to learning and harmful to our students. This is a priority in our agendas, but we can never relax our approach to this issue and must constantly reinforce to our students that these behaviors will not be tolerated. 3- Finally, I would say that it has been an honor to be a member of the Board and to serve the community.
Brandon Shelton: I really struggle to say what we as a Board have done poorly. I am sure that many people can look at any given issue and find something about it to be displeased about. As I mentioned, one great challenge of any governing body is to make the best decisions through consensus. We all have differing opinions, but the goal is to make the best decisions possible at a given time, with the information available, that does the most good for the greatest number. If I had to pick one thing we struggle with it is schedules and communication. We all have lives and jobs outside of the School Board, so communicating between us can be challenging. That sometimes can cause the Board to be a bit slow to react at times. This is something I will do my best to improve upon in my next term, if the voters will have me back.
Terri L. Wilkens: I do not have a hidden agenda and do not believe the District has done anything poorly. The District does their best given what they know and finances. Can we always do better? Yes! There are a few areas that need improvement, such as the following: increase graduation rate; lower absenteeism; increase dual credit/AP offerings; hire/recruit experienced coaches.