Four vie for one Pleasant Township school board seat; one drops out

<p>The candidates for the Pleasant Township seat on the Clark-Pleasant school board are focused on safety and security, planning for growth and the future of standards-based grading.</p><p>Five candidates are seeking the seat, but one of them, Amanda Trimble, said she is not actively seeking the post. Her name will still appear on the ballot.</p><p>School board members are responsible for setting the school district’s annual budget, approving teacher contracts, hiring and reviewing the superintendent, setting policies and procedures, as well as making decisions regarding construction projects and any redistricting that may be necessary.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>They are paid an annual salary — typically about $2,000 per year — and attend monthly board meetings.</p><p><p><strong>Should district add a</strong></p><p><strong>police department?</strong></p><p>Voters are being asked to vote yes to a referendum question that would increase property taxes to raise money for the school district to improve safety and security by adding full-time school resource officers, licensed therapists or crisis counselors who can diagnose and treat children with mental health disorders, and a new and improved security monitoring system.</p><p>Incumbent Jerry Adkins supported giving residents the opportunity to vote on it, he said.</p><p>“I felt like if I didn’t give the town of Whiteland a chance to vote on that I was making the decision for them,” he said.</p><p>Of the three changes the school district would make if the referendum is approved, a more advanced active monitoring system is most important to him, and it’s something he would push for regardless of whether the referendum is approved, he said.</p><p>Judy Olds, the executive director of Youth Connections, supports the referendum. Safety and security inside the schools is her No. 1 priority, she said.</p><p>“Nobody wants to have their taxes raised, period. However, as growth comes along and as more and more homes are being built and more and more kids are being born, something does have to be done to make sure all of those kids are safe,” Olds said.</p><p>As the leader of a youth-oriented non-profit organization, she sees the problems children and teens in the community face every day — from the opioid epidemic to a growing human trafficking problem, she said.</p><p>“We need to make these kids aware of these things,” Olds said.</p><p>If approved, most of the referendum money should go towards a mental health program, she said.</p><p>Terri Lynn Roberts-Leonard, who serves as director of diversity and inclusion at Franklin College, supports the referendum because she’s had foster children in the schools at every level. She knows firsthand there is a need for more security, especially at the high school where students move between buildings, she said.</p><p>But she too said mental health is the most important piece of the puzzle.</p><p>“A lot of people are concentrating more on the security aspect, and I think that people are kind of sleeping on the fact that the mental health aspect is so big. It ties into the other issues,” she said.</p><p>“A lot of times the kids who exhibit those extreme bullying behaviors have mental health issues. School shooters usually have a history of mental problems.”</p><p>However, she would like to see more details about the plan before the school district moves forward with spending the money. There’s no reason to rush it, she said.</p><p>Beth Poe, an Eli Lilly employee and long-time Whiteland resident, agrees with parts of the referendum such as technical upgrades and infrastructure improvements, she said.</p><p>“The part of the plan that has been presented that troubles me is the publicly funded, private police force. After speaking with law enforcement at several levels, I do not believe it is the responsible course of action for any public school,” Poe said.</p><p>But if she wins the seat, it would be her responsibility as a school board member to uphold whatever decision the voters make about the referendum, she said.</p><p><p><strong>Grading system still under question</strong></p><p>The school district has implemented standards-based grading, which is a measure of primary skills students need to master on a 0 to 4 scale rather than the typical 0 to 100 grading scale. One candidate opposed to the switch said this made her run for school board.</p><p>Standards-based grading has no place at the middle and high school levels, Poe said.</p><p>“This methodology should never have been implemented in secondary schools. In fact, parents were told for several years that it would never be. There is evidence to prove that Standards-Based Grading does not work at the secondary level,” she said.</p><p>“Although my friends who teach elementary age students find a lot of value in the methodology, the vast majority of secondary teachers I speak with are vehemently opposed. The system simply does not translate to secondary schools and the implementation at CPCSC has been a disaster.”</p><p>Poe’s son transferred to Greenwood Community schools, which still operates on a traditional grading scale, because of the switch, she said.</p><p>Adkins said it was the right decision to make at the time. But if it doesn’t work out the way school officials had hoped, he is OK with discontinuing it.</p><p>He wants to give it more time and see some detailed results before making any decisions regarding it, he said.</p><p>“It’s only as good as its implementation,” he said.</p><p>“Communication is the key issue here. We need to do a better job of helping people understand that we’ve always had standards and then help them see the benefits of this. There’s a lot of false information that’s out there.”</p><p>As soon as Olds announced she was running for school board, she got a letter from a parent explaining to her the problems with standards-based grading, she said.</p><p>“Personally, I’m old school. I think that the switch in the grading system was not thought out completely. This parent, their child had reached the top of the class and there wasn’t anywhere else for her to go. I think that we need to go back to the ABC’s. That’s the cornerstone of American education, and I think that we need to look at more AP classes, more variety and more diversity,” Olds said.</p><p>Roberts-Leonard said the new grading system hasn’t been in place long enough to make a sound decision about whether it’s working. But she does believe information explaining the new system has been sparse, she said.</p><p>“If you ask three people about it, you get three different answers about how the program works. So that’s problematic no matter what the system is,” she said.</p><p><p><strong>Planning for growth</strong></p><p>Clark-Pleasant is one of the fastest growing districts in the county and state. They welcomed about 100 new students this year, a trend they expect will continue as more and more houses are built in the area.</p><p>A new elementary school is in the works and is expected to open in the fall of 2020.</p><p>The district has space at the middle and high school levels to add more students, he said.</p><p>Building a new elementary school is the only thing the school district needs to do right now to address the growth, Adkins said.</p><p>Olds doesn’t know whether the new school is needed because she doesn’t have any children in the district and doesn’t know all of the details in terms of enrollment. But any new schools should be paid for out of the current budget, she said.</p><p>Roberts-Leonard said she isn’t sure a new school is necessary at this time. Enrollment can change quickly, she said.</p><p>“We need to keep an eye on it and go by the sheer numbers and need,” she said.</p><p>Poe supports a new elementary school because it is being paid for out of the current budget.</p><p>“A fiscally responsible board should be able to build long-term project plans to ensure that new buildings or infrastructure changes to do not tap into community resources,” she said.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Olds file" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Judy Olds</p><p>Residence: Greenwood</p><p>Family: Husband, Larry; one adult child; three grandchildren</p><p>Occupation: Executive director of Youth Connections</p><p>Educational background: Northwest High School graduate; degree in human services from Indiana Wesleyan University</p><p>Past political experience: None</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Roberts-Leonard file" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Terri Lynn Roberts-Leonard</p><p>Residence: Greenwood</p><p>Family: Husband, Eddie; had foster children who attended Clark-Pleasant schools</p><p>Occupation: Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Franklin College</p><p>Educational background: Degrees in organizational communications, sports administration and school counseling</p><p>Past political experience: None</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Poe file" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Beth Poe</p><p>Residence: Whiteland</p><p>Family: Husband; 15-year-old twins</p><p>Occupation: Associate consultant representative for quality assurance at Eli Lilly</p><p>Educational background: Delta High School (Muncie) graduate; degree in arts administration from Butler University</p><p>Past political experience: None</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Adkins file" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Jerry Adkins</p><p>Residence: Whiteland</p><p>Family: Wife, Kelly; two adult children</p><p>Occupation: Vice president of sales and marketing at Poster Display Company</p><p>Educational background: Indianapolis Baptist High School graduate; degree in accounting from Liberty University</p><p>Past political experience: Current Clark-Pleasant school board member; former Indianapolis Baptist High School school board member</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At a glance" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><strong>Coming</strong></p><p>Learn where the three candidates for two Clark Township seats on the school board stand on the issues.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At issue" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Clark-Pleasant school board</p><p>Term: 4 years</p><p>Pay: $2,000</p><p>Duties: Review superintendent, approve school district budget, review and approve new school policy</p><p>Represents: All of Clark-Pleasant school district</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]