Social, financial topics lead candidate discussion

This is the first in a two-part series on the candidate forum. An article on the city council section will be in Friday’s paper.

Special education and district finances were at the center of the Creston school board candidate forum. Held Thursday, Oct. 16 at Southwestern Community College, audience members packed into the classroom to decide who to vote for.

On Nov. 4, Creston voters can cast their ballots to fill three open school board seats, though there are five candidates running. Incumbents Amanda Mohr and Galen Zumbach are running alongside new candidates MaKenzi Vonk, Susan Weight and Kathy Thorne Ralston.

Sponsored by the Creston News Advertiser, and Creston Chamber of Commerce and KSIB Radio, candidates explained their background and answered questions focused on school issues, the budget and special education.

Mental health of students and staff came up as a top issue in the district, with candidates hoping for a way to provide more support.

“One thing that I’ve realized that I feel like is the most important issue facing our district is our students’ mental health, our teachers’ mental health and our administration’s mental health,” Mohr said. Mohr is the chief nursing officer at Greater Regional Health and is finishing up her first term on the school board. “We’ve had a lot of discussions about types of counseling, how to get things in the doors, how to make sure students are safe, what opportunities we provide them to make sure they’re safe, how we make sure teachers are safe. Having lots of conversations about what are other opportunities we can do to meet the needs of the students and different types of classrooms are important.”

Weight, a lifelong teacher, agreed with Mohr, stating the school needed to continue to provide various mental health and counseling services to support everyone in the schools. She also wanted the school to focus on transparency with the community.

“Those people who are older, as I am, and on fixed income need to know exactly where we are going,” Weight said. “As I look and have talked to some of our legislators on what’s happening and how deeply in debt we might be getting with vouchers and things, I want to know and I want everyone else to know how that’s going to affect us each year as we get less money and how we are going to function and keep the support of our teachers and kids.”

Thorne Ralston also focused heavily on transparency, saying there needed to be more communication between staff, administration and the public.

“If there is one thing I have heard over the last two to four years, it’s the inability to feel like there [are] smooth communication structures and that parents have an avenue for speaking to school board members. That is one thing, I feel like it’s a strength I can bring into this,” Thorne Ralston said. She also requested the district break down financial and budgetary information into more easily digestible terms for the public.

Vonk encouraged transparency and accountability as well, inviting teachers to welcome her and other board members into their classrooms.

“Real leadership starts with showing up and listening,” Vonk said. “I promise to always lead with heart and to keep the well-being and safety of our students at the center of every decision, but I also believe accountability matters from students, staff and parents, because when everyone is held accountable, teachers can focus on teaching and kids can focus on learning.”

After 14 years on the school board, Zumbach showed his strength when discussing the district budget.

“Sound fiscal management provides the district with a strong foundation. Mindful of our taxpayers, we have lowered the tax levy from the 14-year average of $15.71 in $1,000 assessed value to $11.768 this year. This reduces the tax burden on our community residents,” Zumbach said. “If you look at our track record as a board the last 14 years, I’m extremely pleased to see how we have navigated these waters.”

Mohr said that while the district budget can be difficult to get a hold on, she’s excited about progress she’s seen in the last four years.

“As I’ve progressed through the process, I sort of realized the school board and school system needs to be pretty ingenious in trying to pull in some extra money, and one of the things that did come up the last couple of years was the solar field,” Mohr said. “There was a lot of talk about the solar field and how that works, but that action brought in over $80,000 a year alone. You don’t think that’s a whole lot, but that’s a person.”

Weight suggested prioritizing the necessities over other budgetary items.

“When my grandchildren were in Creston schools, and that was in 2023 when they graduated, they had so many more opportunities than maybe others will get, but we have to look at some of the things we can get by without,” Weight said. “We can’t get by without our students having every service they need, especially in a time when we’re living in right now where we might need to make sure they have special counseling, things that will support them in their learning and styles and making sure we always have them first.”

After state performance profiles showed a below-average rating for the district in special education services, various ideas on improvements were suggested during the forum.

Vonk said that as the mother of a child with an Individualized Education Program, she’d love to see more money going into the program. Thorne Ralston has also had extensive experience with the district’s special education services and said more consistency was needed for some students.

“The teachers are passionate, but I do know that they don’t feel supported. Secondary level special education nationwide is suffering, so it’s not just in Creston,” Thorne Ralston said. “Our experience in Creston with the secondary level is, every single year we had a new teacher for our son. Every single year. There was no systematic curriculum he used coming up from elementary through middle school through high school, so those are the places we need to start. We need to invest in teachers and even incentivize special education teachers.”

Properly-certified special education staff has been difficult to find over the last few years, Zumbach said. However, he said the future looks good.

“This current year, we are fully licensed with 13 fully-certified teachers and 90 paras. That’s 103 teachers out of 205 that represent 41% of our staff,” Zumbach said. “We’re working hard to meet the needs of some very important people in our school district with special needs and I feel good about where we’re headed with this program.”

To find the proper polling place, visit apps.sos.iowa.gov/elections/voterreg/pollingplace/search.aspx.

A recorded version of the forum can be found at www.citylinktv.com/channel/creston-ksib-radio/.