Impressive candidates in Pinckneyville race
In addition to state funding and test scores there are a number of smaller issues facing the Pinckneyville school districts. As a result, quite a few candidates threw their hats into the ring for the April 9 School Board elections, at least in Districts 50 and 101.
There is only one candidate on the ballot in the 204 School District. Voters are asked to select four members of the Board of Education there.
In Tamaroa, five members should be elected to the Board of Education at Tamaroa Grade School. However, there are no candidates.
One candidate for Dist. 101 School Board, Mike Kovic, has served on the Route 13/127 expansion committee and the Planning Commission for the City of Pinckneyville. He is looking at education as a community issue. He said Mayor (August) Kellerman wants to bring more jobs to Pinckneyville. One of the ways to accomplish that is to make Pinckneyville a desirable location. With low test scores, Pinckneyville will continue to lose out to Nashville, Sparta and Du Quoin, when people relocate to this area.
Kovic, an engineer at Nascote, said the Board of Education in Pinckneyville needs to look at a successful school district such as Carterville, which has attracted a number of faculty and staff from SIU. He said we should find out what they're doing and implement it here.
"Why can't we do that, too?" Kovic asked. He also said the high school needs to prepare students to compete successfully on multiple levels, whether they choose to go straight to work, the military, trade school or college.
Test scores are good in District 50, but funding is an issue for the Grade School and Junior High, just as it is for every school in the state of Illinois.
Three incumbents and two newcomers are running for four spots on the Pinckneyville District 50 Board of Education. The incumbents are Marilyn Millikin, Scott Carney and Keith Hagene. The newcomers are Kyle Pursell and Austin Marlow.
Hagene who is also the Superintendent of Pinckneyville Community High School said he is running again to provide some continuity between the two school districts. Prior to becoming Superintendent, Hagene was Principal at PCHS for three years. He spent three years at Trico then 17 years at Nashville High School as Industrial Arts teacher.
Kyle Pursell, a native of Pinckneyville, works at the SI Trader in West Frankfort. He is the nephew of Band Director Stephen Cannedy and has volunteered for about 15 years with the Pinckneyville bands. Pursell and his wife have one child who is 18 months old.
Austin Marlow, also a native of Pinckneyville, is a sales rep for Coca Cola in Du Quoin. His oldest child starts school this year.
"It's a great way to get involved, to be a part of child's education," Marlow said. "Education should be towards the top of the list of priorities."
Finances are an issue in Pinckneyville Community High School District 101. The school board just announced at the March board meeting that the Art Program is suspended for the coming year due to the anticipated loss of state revenue.
The board has also stated that the district is in 'academic crisis' and has taken steps to remedy that.
Three incumbents and eight newcomers, some of whom have served on this or the District 50 Board of Education in the past, are competing for four spots.
The incumbents are Brian Kellerman, Dwight Bigham and Michelle Breslin. New candidates are Ray Winter, Paul Kuberski Jr., James W. Campbell, Gregory D. Thompson, Gloria R. Jones, Michael Kovic, Deon Johnton and Lisa Stanton.
Kellerman is a familiar figure in the local school districts. He has coached the PJHS basketball team for the past 20 years. Before that he coached at 204 for nine years and St. Bruno for seven years. He has been the head custodian at Dist. 204 since December of 1998. "I love it," he said of his job.
Kellerman is in his third term on the District 50 Board of Education and is running for his second term in District 101.
Bigham said he is running for a second term because he wants to see what the board has started continue, particularly in regard to test scores.
"It's a process," he said. "We're in academic crisis. We're trying to identify areas where we're lacking and make changes. It takes seven or eight years to see the results."
One candidate, Deon Johnston, said he is running solely to support the administration and the changes they have implemented. Johnston has previously served on the Dist. 50 board for 12 years and on the Dist. 101 board for four years.
"I don't have an agenda other than supporting the administration," Johnston said. "I don't believe in micro-managing. They're doing a great job."
Ray Winter, a local farmer, served on the Dist. 101 Board from 2005 to 2009 and served three years on the Education Foundation Board. He chose to run again because he felt the board hasn't been proactive enough lately.
"It seems like they're always running around putting out fires," Winter said.
He has three children who were educated in Pinckneyville. All have gone on to graduate from college. His two daughters both have Master's degrees. One is a school counselor in the Belleville area. She serves students in seventh through twelfth grades.
Winter said they talk about education and how things could be improved in Pinckneyville. He would like to see the districts address bullying.
He also favors academics over athletics.
"I've probably been to as any games as anyone in town. I played sports and I like sports," Winter said. "But, I remember one meeting when I was on the board and we approved spending $30,000 for a new football field and $3,000 for new books for the library. That's what's wrong with this district. We've lost focus."
PCHS expects to lose an additional $300,000 in general state aid in the coming year and cuts will have to be made.
Many of the candidates are worried about where those cuts will fall and have said finances are their greatest concern for the district.
"I don't have an axe to grind or an agenda," said Greg Thompson, an employee of Vogler Ford in Carbondale for the past 18 years. "To be honest, I'm just concerned about all the funding cuts. I want the best possible education for our children."
Paul Kuberski Jr., a farmer, said he has no specific agenda and chose to run because "someone had to do it (serve on the Board of Education) for me when I was in school. I'm willing to do what needs to be done to understand the issues."
He stressed that making decisions based on bits and pieces of information is not the same as having access to all the information as a board member.
Gloria R. Jones, an RN with SIH, said she is running to "endure a quality education for children in Pinckneyville." State funding is her main concern, as well.
Greg Bigham is running unopposed to fill the remainder of a two-year term to which he was appointed when Don Craig died.