Wylie board candidates talk about district growth, board representation
Five candidates are vying for three seats on the Wylie ISD board.
The election is May 6, with early voting beginning April 24.
Current board member Brad Hill is unopposed for Place 4.
Filing for Place 1, to fill an unexpired term for two years, were Jud Beall and Laura Donaway.
With longtime board member Steve Keenum not running for Place 5, the seat was open. Two candidates, Blaise Herberg and Megan Stephenson filed.
The Reporter-News previously talked to Beall.
More:Jud Beall files for Place 1 on Wylie ISD board, say growth is opportunity
Here are interviews with the other three candidates in the two contested races:
Place 1: Laura Donaway
Donaway grew up in Odessa and is an Odessa High grad who first went to Odessa College, then finished at Texas Tech.
Her husband worked for an oil and gas company when they married. When it shut down during the oil bust of the 1980s, they moved in 1987 to Abilene. He got a job here with Merchant's, the motor freight firm.
"We've been in Abilene ever since. It's like home to us," she said. Their parents even joined them here.
Their grown children, son Corey and daughter Kalli, attended Wylie schools from kindergarten through graduation.
On her campaign page, Donaway said she was "the mother every teacher wanted as a volunteer in their classroom."
She also was involved in the PTO, serving as president, and chaired the fall festival.
She was in banking before the move, then stayed at home for 12 years when the children were young. When she returned to work, it was as a teacher's aide at Abilene High. A position opened in the Wylie ISD, and she joined the district as the secretary to the high school counselors.
Her interest in education was piqued and she returned to school to get her teaching certification. She taught second grade at Wylie's Butterfield campus for seven years before moving to Wylie Intermediate to teach fourth-graders for nine years.
She got her Master of Education degree through Sul Ross and became a counselor. She retired as West Intermediate School counselor two years ago.
Donaway currently subs,
"I still enjoy being around the teachers and the kids, so I sub on a fairly frequent basis," she said.
She also serves on the 25-member Wylie ISD Growth and Planning Committee, as does her Place 1 opponent.
Now, she's in an election for first time.
"I thought about it ever since I retired. It was a logical way to give back to the school system that I was part of for so long," she said. "It has been a long, long time since Wylie has an educator on the board. I feel like that's really important because I have worked in the trenches. I know what the students need, I know what the teachers need, I know what the parents need because of working on the other side of that."
She acknowledged that current board member Miller Loudermilk once coached but "if you went around the table and asked, 'Raise your hand if anyone has given the STAAR test?' no one could.
"I think knowing what's currently going on within the school system brings a whole lot of knowledge with it." As a teacher and counselor, she received direct feedback from parents.
"What resources we need to make the students the most successful," Donaway said.
She said it's too early to know what the task force would recommend to the district, but the needs of a growing district must be addressed. She did say it was eye-opening to work with a consultant, who provided the advantages and disadvantages of different courses of action.
"You don't think through all those things, sometimes," she said. The group needs to determine where the district would like to be and how it can get there "in the long haul."
Bottom line, it will take money.
"We have to think like a 5A school district," she said. "It's going to cause us to make some hard decisions."
Editor's note: Miller Loudermilk on Monday confirmed that she has taught and coached at Kilgore, McKinney Boyd and McKinney North high schools. She has given standardized tests, she said, and spent six periods in a class.
Place 5: Blaise Herberg
Herberg and his wife, Jaymie, settled in Abilene after his 21-year active and reserve duty in the Navy. Born in Houston, he wanted to return to Texas and to a city of about 100,000.
They did their research and settled eight years ago in Abilene, where their two children have been attending Wylie schools.
"Abilene seemed like a good fit," he said.
Son Brayden is in seventh grade and daughter McKenna is a freshman, Both are in the band and she is on the cheer team. She also was on the inaugural dive team, drawing on her background in gymnastics.
Herberg is an operations manager for HJC Farms, a family-owned independent contractor for the Texas Department of Transportation.
Jaymie Herberg is a teacher's aide at Wylie West Elementary.
This is his first run for office.
"I do believe all school boards should be comprised of parents that have kids attending school," he said. "Nobody's going to have a higher interest in the success of the school district than parents. I believe that if you want to see things a certain way, the best thing way to make that happen is to get involved."
Herberg is not dissatisfied with previous boards, though he welcomes change in membership.
"Wylie has been successful over the years with what they had in place. But I also do believe in getting fresh ideas in there and looking at new ways of doing things," he said. "I don't have anything specifically that I want changed, at least right away. You hear people talk and say different things but I'm not going to pass judgment or rush to decisions until I get perspectives from all sides."
One point of discussion is the district's continued growth and the idea that two high schools may be best. Wylie now is a Class 5A school.
Herberg said growth will be the biggest issue before the board in next five years.
"I think there is a draw to Abilene, specifically Wylie," he said. "We need to stay ahead of it in terms of resources and make sure we're not creating undue stress on teachers and students."
Herberg said the high school that he attended in Las Vegas, Nevada, had 3,000 students
He did not commit fully to favoring one or two high schools.
"I could see it both ways. It's going to be what's best for the school district," he said. But, "I like the idea of keeping everything centralized and having the high school in one place.
"I would say we need to have more discussion about what's best."
Place 5: Megan Stephenson
Stephenson was raised "on a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere" - actually near Rio Vista, a small town south of Fort Worth. She met a Wylie boy in 2004 - a 1998 WHS graduate - in Abilene and they married. They have lived in the Wylie community since 2010.
The couple has two children in school in the district - their 8-year-old daughter, Bradlee, goes to Wylie East Elementary and their 14-year-old son, Sutton, goes to Wylie East Middle School.
She said they chose to settle in the Wylie district because its reputation. And one other small consideration.
"My husband is a Wylie Bulldog, so we had been indoctrinated early," she said, laughing. He was active in agriculture and athletics in high school.
"He did it all," she said.
Stephenson, a cardiology nurse practitioner with Hendrick Health, said one reason she is running is to increase eastside representation on the school board.
"Being from the east side, we don't have much representation. That's new campuses and new territory over there," she said. "We need a voice from over there to let people know what we're experiencing on that side. Especially as we grow and get bigger.
And she's running "for my kids, honestly," she said.
Their daughter struggled academically when she entered the WISD after kindergarten at St. John's in Abilene.
"Navigating that ... this is a new realm for us because our son has not really had these issues ... figuring out how I can advocate for her with early intervention and get her the help she needs has really opened my eyes. What about the kids who don't have that?" Stephenson said. "People who can fight for them like I fought for her?
"That has weighed on my heart.
Having children in school, she said, is an important qualification for a school board member.
And, she added, having a second woman on the board would be a positive.
Candidates have identified growth as the challenge ahead for the Wylie ISD.
"It's good but obviously, we're going to have growing pains," she said. "I don't know if we're there yet on needing a second high school but I think we're going to need people that have kids in school right now to figure out what we need to do going forward as far as expansion.
"I don't particularly think we need a new high school across town but we definitely have to do things to put kids where they need to go," she said. "There are a lot of scenarios we can discuss."
She said she has two friends currently serving on a growth study task force.
"As we continue to grow, we have to start thinking like a big school and not the old farming community that Wylie had been for a long time," Stephenson said. "Things are changing, and we have to start thinking bigger and out of the box."
Speaking of that, Stephenson is the president of the new Wylie Bulldog Little Dribblers. She said more than 600 youngster participated.
"That has been a huge undertaking but it has been awesome for the community," she said.
"I love the small-town feel and that Wylie has tradition. We're just a proud school district. Those are the things I want to continue and build on. But improve and exceed," she said.
She believes the school board has seen "a sense of community that we haven't had in a while."
Stephenson said she is friends with current board members Hill, Cameron Wiley and Miller Loudermilk.
"I think they have done a good job. It's a good team to join," she said. "I think we would be able to continue to do what we need to do to make the school better."
She paused.
"It's great to be a Wylie Bulldog," she said, laughing. She said she has heard that a lot from her husband.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Wylie board candidates talk district growth, board representation
