Candidates for Center Grove school board were asked where they stand on school safety, extracurricular activities, curriculum and college readiness at a forum two weeks before Election Day.
Three incumbents, Scott Alexander, Adam Norman and Jack Russell, and two challengers, Joe Hubbard and Hunter Haskell, are battling for three spots. If elected, the candidates will serve four years on the board.
From the outset, Haskell, whose brother is currently a Center Grove student , established himself as a “young firebrand,” and grew emotional asking the audience if they’ve ever been homeless before delving into his own time of struggle with homelessness after failing out of the University of Virginia.
“You don’t know true loneliness until someone doesn’t register you as a human,” Haskell said. “There’s a sickness at Center Grove. It’s covered in corporate goals and academic achievement and gilded goals. None of that matters…Your kid probably has had a suicidal thought. The school board can talk about goals and long-term strategy but I guarantee far too many kids who wake up as Center Grove students feel homeless, feel ignored.”
Haskell continued on the theme of Center Grove needing to do more to help the individual student who he feels may be forgotten in a district that has more than 8,000 students enrolled.
Hubbard, the other challenger, has two daughters in the district and discussed the importance of knowing that each student learns differently and that attending a four-year university isn’t the only option.
“I loved shop class, working in wood shop,” Hubbard said. “We want to make sure we’re helping kids, keeping them engaged. For those who don’t test well, going to the innovation center, a robotics class, we have a lot of good things in place…(but) we’re only as good as the worst kid who graduates. (We shouldn’t just be) teaching to tests.”
The three incumbents discussed areas of possible improvements but also heavily touted what has been done in the district during their tenures. On the topic of school security, Russell, a 1974 graduate of Center Grove High School, discussed the “buddy benches” found in the playgrounds at the district’s elementary schools.
“Every time I hear something in the news I cringe thinking it could be our school,” Russell said. “We’re working on introducing several programs…I learned just what trauma can be. It could be physical things, mental things. We have some simple things, buddy benches at the elementary schools. The kids are trained to talk to that person if someone doesn’t have someone to play with.”
Norman, who was appointed to the board in 2013 and elected in 2014, said physical security and the health and mental well-being of students are top priorities for the district.
“I have come to believe in the last few years that mental health is an aspect key to what needs to be looked at,” Norman said. “We can do better on that, we need to be better on that…It’s important to give an environment that kids have the mental health (resources) to deal with situations.”
Alexander said his goal is to get more people involved and interested in having an active role in the district.
“I’d love to see this room full of people tonight,” Alexander said. “Hopefully a lot of people watch this online. There’s not a lot of people at the school board meetings. It could be people are happy with the way things are going, but I get stopped at the grocery store, restaurants, we bring those issues back, and as the board, we have an open dialogue. Trying to figure out how to communicate in today’s world is a challenge.”
