Candidate forum draws crowd to Goshen Library

Oct. 20—GOSHEN — The first of a two-night series of candidate forums for Elkhart County school boards was took place Wednesday night at the Goshen Public Library.

Due to a lack of attendance from many of the Middlebury Community Schools' candidates, the forum was primarily dedicated to Goshen Community Schools candidacy.

"The goal is obviously to make Goshen the school of choice," said Keith Goodman, the first of the 10 board candidates between the two districts to speak.

Four of the five candidates vying for two seats at-large attended the League of Women Voters of Elkhart County's Goshen and Middlebury school board forum, as did all three seeking a District 1 seat and both seeking the sole District 3 seat.

Candidates seeking the two at-large seats are Keith Goodman, Mario Gerber, Linda Hartman, Brian Krider, and Roger Nafziger, who was not in attendance.

District 1 candidates are Ryan Glick, Angie McKee, and Andrea Johnson. Jose Elizalde and Rob Roeder are the District 3 candidates.

Only one candidate from the Middlebury Community Schools Board of Trustee's race attended the race. The last candidate to speak, Donald Anderson, District A incumbent running against Camden Forbes, took his time to speak on what he believes makes a school board valuable.

"Experience does matter," he said. "The community needs experienced and qualified people to serve on the school board... A lot of folks want to be on a board but they really don't know how it works. How governance works, understanding the relationship between the board, administration, teachers, and staff. Understanding what makes for an effective school board, which includes having a clear vision for the district, and communicating board actions to the community.

"Great board members work as a team not against each other, they collaborate with others and are respectful of other board members, superintendent, staff, teachers, and community members. They understand the importance of adopting a fiscally sound district budget and monitoring the financial health of the district, and focus on what is best for students and staff."

In a traditional forum setting, the League of Women Voters would have the emcee, who was Brian Thomas, ask questions of each of the candidates, and offer time for the audience to ask questions. Since there were so many candidates in for this year's election attending, LVW instead allowed candidates to choose what they would speak on.

"We had questions from teachers and questions from parents — some of it was on things that are going on right now like about gender, questions on social media..." said Bev Wiemeri of the League of Women Voters of Elkhart County. "We just gave them all these questions of what's going on and let them pick some. Some of them were brave and brought them up, some didn't."

Candidates were given a list of nearly 15 questions to review to write up their five-minute speech or talking points.

"I notice a lot completely avoided it and some didn't come," Wiemeri said.

While a list of the questions posed to the candidates was not immediately available during the forum, Wiemeri addressed a few that were asked, including teacher pay, test scores, bullying, what should a school board look like, budget, book banning and critical race theory.

This year's school board election is a significant one for many of the contenders, as well as many of their supporters. In developing the questions for the night, the League of Women Voters was prudent to ensure that many social questions were easily able to be addressed.

"School boards are most concerned about social issues than education and we shouldn't even be talking about some of this stuff," Wiemeri said. "There's things like sex education and race theory... there's questions that we only asked because that's what people wanted to know about."

"I'm 100% in favor of advocacy-free curriculum," said Brian Krider. "Our classrooms have no place for anyone's personal or political agenda."

Topics that were brought up impressed heavily on accountability, budgets, and test scores, although many other ideas were expressed.

"The main reason I continue to want to be on the board is to help be a voice for students and teachers," said incumbent Mario Garber. He wasn't alone in his sentiment as many candidates spoke on the topic.

"Some of the best times of my life have been experiences of the fantastic sports and music programs at Goshen High School," said Linda Hartman. "Goshen schools' are known to be some of the best in the state. We have a lot to celebrate, and we also have a lot of work to do."

Several board members echoed her sentiment, that the district needs to get back to the basics of education first, but they have different ways of going about it.

"We need to make sure our teachers have the necessary tools and support to teach our students," said Angie McKee. "Teacher retention is a huge concern throughout the state of Indiana...In business, most people do not leave a job because of the pay. They leave it because of management or administration."

Transparency of the board was also a focal point of concern for several candidates.

"We, as parents, have a primary interest in the education of our children," said Ryan Glick. "That means the school board must be open and honest about everything that's being taught. They need to be open to parents when they have questions and be willing to give information out without needing Freedom of Information. Our children belong to us, not to the state."

It's known among voters this year that the candidate's platforms differ strongly in many aspects, and despite that, many spoke on transparency, accountability, grades, and budget.

"I never intended to run for any public office," said Andrea Johnson, "but my reasons for running for school board are pretty simple. I believe our public schools are foundational as are our teachers who take care of our children."

It was a sentiment echoed within the comments of all school board candidates, many of whom were also first-time candidates never intending to run for public office either.

"As my youngest now has left, I decided maybe I should attend a couple of board meetings," Rob Roeder explained. "I was really surprised at the consistent decline in academic scores... I couldn't understand why that had happened for so many years, and I don't see any sign of it turning up any time soon... this academic stuff is why we send kids to school, and to fail for so many years?"

Candidates spoke from a script, and also from the heart, expressing the concerns they had that led them to run for school board in the first place.

"I've very concerned that when people say 'don't bring an agenda to the school,' this is exactly what is happening," said Jose Elizalde. "Public schools are being attacked and they push a specific agenda that is not conducive to the future of a diverse community."

The Goshen candidates also honored long-time Parkside Elementary School teacher John Moyer, who passed away Tuesday morning after serving for over 30 years as a teacher.

A deeper look into the meeting will be available in the Friday edition of the Goshen News. To view the full forum and stay up-to-date on future debates, visit the League of Women Voters of Elkhart County's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LWVEC.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.