by Mary Rupert
Candidates for the Piper School Board cited school finance and growth as issues this year.
The candidates spoke about the April 7 general election issues at a candidate forum Monday, March 30, at Piper High School. Students on the debate team asked questions at the forum.
Five board members will be elected, including one two-year unexpired term of Morris Letcher, and four others. Tom Beebe, Lisa Sullivan, and Neal Palmer are three incumbents running for re-election.
Beebe said the top issue now is the space issue. A mail-in bond election has been set for June on building a new high school in Piper to accommodate the district’s growth.
Beebe has served on the school board for eight years. He has been with Empire Retirement for 18 years in the retirement planning industry. He also is a member of the Piper Optimist Club, and Kaw Valley Youth Football board of directors.
Beebe said the district has an annual 4 to 5 percent growth in enrollment during the past five to 10 years Since he has been on the board, one bond issue has been passed that expanded the high school and added an elementary schools.
“We’re running out of space again,” he said. “I think we’ve come up with a viable plan that is a long-term solution, that would take us out to 2025-2030.”
The building of the elementary school several years ago was a short-term solution after another bond issue had been defeated, he said.
The other pressing issue for the Piper schools is school finance, he said. Piper has recently lost $340,000 out of its budget in June, and with the block grant proposals, the district is at the same funding levels for the next two years. “Managing through that will be a pressing issue for us,” he said.
Ashley Biondi agreed that space was an important issue, and she hoped the plan in place would help solve this issue.
Biondi grew up in the Piper district and is a Piper High School graduate. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in education, in curriculum and instruction. She taught six years in the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools and is currently spending more time with her family.
The school finance situation could mean cuts in the future with the loss of $340,000.
“We need to be more informed about looking at the budget and where we are spending our money,” Biondi said. “We need to look at all areas, we can’t just pinpoint one area.”
Board members need to ask questions to make sure that the money is spent in the most efficient way, she said.
Biondi also said she is concerned about teacher professional development time. She believes it is important to set aside time for professional development.
“The curriculum and instruction that goes to our students is vital,” she said. “It’s important because that is where everything begins, in the classroom.”
Steve Buff, a candidate for the unexpired term, said the budget cuts would be extremely hard to overcome, although there is a plan in place.
He has lived in Piper about 22 years, is on the board of the Piper Optimists and is a leader in the Village Community Church.
As far as growth issues are concerned, he said the elementary school is at 100 percent capacity, and the district needs to figure out how to build something with the plan it already has in place.
Desiree Fergus, also a candidate for the unexpired term, agreed that the main issues were overcrowding and budget cuts.
She is a lifelong resident of Wyandotte County, has worked for the Board of Public Utilities for 11 years and is a field service representative in the electric operations division. She has an associate’s degree from KCKCC in 2013, and is a member of Village Community Church and the NAACP. She is the union steward for Local 53, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“I’m not going to tell you that I’m going to fix everything,” she said. “I’m not going to make any promises I can’t keep. What I can tell you is that I believe with my desire to commit to working as a team with the other board members, and being able to bring new and fresh ideas, that I will be able to provide new and fresh solutions to the district’s problems.”
Neal Palmer, an incumbent, said one of the main concerns is how to maintain the same standard of excellence the district now has on a decreasing budget.
Palmer was originally appointed in 2002 to the Piper board and has been elected since then. He has worked for 30 years as a construction engineer at J.E. Dunn Construction Co., where he has served as senior vice president. He received his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University.
He is a member of the Optimist Club, Workforce Partnership Board, and is on the board for the Mo-Kan Teamsters Pension Board.
“We have an apathy problem in the district,” Palmer said. “Until the district stands up and galvanizes itself … the board’s going to do what the board can do with the money that gets transferred to us. We need to march down the highway to Topeka and make sure that our legislators and our governor understand that public education is the number one thing that drives economic growth in this state.”
The Piper district also needs to work with the UG and neighboring schools districts to figure out what it can do to transfer some of the tax load off the rooftops and onto businesses that have received deferments, reassessments and other breaks, Palmer added.
He said the bond issue is a good value, he’s confident if the bond issue goes through, the district will have a solution to the growth issues it faces, and if it doesn’t, the board will have to rethink what it is doing.
Lisa Sullivan, an incumbent, said in her past eight years, the board has continually been looking at what to do the next time Topeka takes the money away from the district. Through planning, the Piper district has received recognition as one of the most efficient districts in Kansas, she said. The district has worked on cutting areas that do not touch the classrooms, she said. The quality of the students’ education is important, she said.
Sullivan said she has been involved in PTA as president, in the Booster Club, and chaired the Auction Committee this past year.
Sullivan said she doesn’t want to see trailers, and she believes the building plan is a good one, which may get the district well into the year 2025 before it has to add more space.
Jeb Vader, also a candidate, agreed budget cuts were problems, and said important issues would be to be an advocate for the community, be extremely transparent about making cuts and explain why they are making the cuts.
Vader, a lifelong Wyandotte County resident, is a Piper High School graduate. He is a property claims supervisor with Farmers Insurance.
He said the board members had looked at all the different options concerning growth, but sometimes the community does not see that. With transparency, the board will build trust with the community.
Cory Appl said adequate space for the children was important. He said he came from a teaching background with portable classrooms, which was not good for learning, and a lot of students were late to class.
Appl has lived in the district 19 years, and has been a home health administrator for 17 years. He said he has experience putting together budgets, and has worked with goals and objectives. He has been an assistant basketball coach and his wife has been an on-call school nurse for the district.
He said the board had done a good job of putting together a bond issue. One of his issues is the property tax.
“We don’t have many businesses here to offset that, so asking patrons to pay an extra $50 or $60 a month or whatever it is could be a hard sell,” Appl said. “If we don’t have a good educational system here in Piper, that’s what attracts people here.”
A lot of people move to Piper because of the schools, he said. “We need to make sure we can adequately take care of our kids, which are the most important aspect of the school setting,” he said, “and make sure it’s affordable, which I believe the board has done an excellent job of putting together something that’s affordable for the whole district and for all buildings.”
“What a great representation of our community with these individuals,” Piper Superintendent Tim Conrad said at the forum, “that raised their hand and committed to being nominated and serving on the school board during probably the most difficult times in education in the last 20 to 30 years, not only in what we face, but what we’re about to face, on into the next several years. A strong district is built with a strong board of education.”
All photos by Mary Rupert.
To see the candidate forum video, which contains more questions and answers, visit this website: http://www.piperschools.com/
For more information on the Piper candidates, visit these questionnaires or submitted information that have been received:
https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-questionnaire-tom-beebe/
https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-questionnaire-lisa-sullivan/
https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-questionnaire-ashley-biondi/
https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-questionnaire-desiree-fergus/
https://wyandotteonline.com/biondi-running-for-piper-school-board/
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7. For more information about voting on April 7 and polling places, visit www.wycovotes.org
or https://wyandotteonline.com/walk-in-advance-voting-begins-today-march-28/
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