The two people vying for the District 3 seat on the Greenwood school board have deep passions for the district.
Chris Zaborowsky is a Greenwood Community High School alum, has two children who attend or have attended Greenwood Community School Corp. and his wife works as the treasurer at Westwood Elementary. He has held the seat since being elected in 2020.
Sheila Martin was a longtime employee of the district, having worked at Isom Elementary for 10 years and Greenwood Middle School for six years before leaving the district to work at Indiana University Health. She and her children are all GCHS alumni.
Zaborowsky is seeking reelection to continue to bring improvements to the district, including technology and programs, along with new ideas to help it grow. If re-elected, this would be his second, and last, term on the school board, he said.
Martin is running to bring her experience as a staff member to the board. The board does a “lot of great things” for staff, students and the community, and she wants to be part of it while also bringing a different perspective, she said.
To help voters make their decision in this race, the Daily Journal asked the candidates their takes on issues affecting Greenwood schools and the education field ahead of the Nov. 5 election and early voting.
Budget priorities
When it comes to making Greenwood’s budget, Martin says one of the things she would prioritize would be substitute teachers. Although she hasn’t been at the district for several years, when she was, there were times when she had to fill in for a teacher last minute when substitutes weren’t available.
She hopes to be able to get together with other board members to brainstorm solutions, she said. Martin doesn’t want to have teachers to worry about if their class is being taken care of if they have to be absent unexpectedly, she said.
“Could we pay more? Probably. Would that solve the problem? I don’t know,” Martin said.
She also added that parents and school security would be priorities as well.
For Greenwood’s budget, Zaborowsky says the priorities have been maintaining sound finances, staying within the budget and maintaining a strong rainy day fund as a safety net. Maintaining a low tax rate is important, as is continuing to have high teacher pay, he said.
Greenwood has gone from one of the lowest-paid schools for teachers in the county to one with the highest starting pay and maximum pay, Zaborowsky said.
“It’s not that becoming the No. 1 or the top paid is the top priority, but being able to do so and still maintain our financial responsibilities and conservativeness that we keep within our school board has been extremely joyful and something that we take a lot of pride in, something we want to maintain,” he said.
Balancing growth
Greenwood schools’ enrollment has been steady, having an average of 3,989 since 2020, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education. Although the numbers overall downward trending based on historical data, Greenwood also accepts a large number of transfer students from outside the district — more than 700 — which helps to keep enrollment steady, district officials have said.
But there are some developments within their boundaries that could bring hundreds of new homes — and students — in the future.
Martin thinks Greenwood has a good student-to-teacher ratio and has done a good job at maintaining it. Fortunately, Greenwood’s boundaries are set in a way they don’t have to expect a lot of expansion, she said.
This being said, if the district did see a large influx of students, Martin believes “it’s doable” for Greenwood to accommodate the growth, she said.
Historically, there has been a cyclical up and down with enrollment, a pattern Zaborowsky expects to continue as new families move into the district and families with former students retire and move out, he said.
Greenwood is in the unique position of being able to take advantage of what nearby school districts have to offer without having to build it themselves. They also are smaller than neighboring districts, which allows them to have a one-to-one approach for teachers and students, he said.
Zaborowsky hopes Greenwood continues to see large numbers of transfer students. It makes the district “maintain a higher level of expectation in order to maintain that desire and that need for other families to send their kids to our schools,” he said.
Paying for new projects
Spending taxpayer money on new projects can be a “touchy” situation at times, Martin said. While she wouldn’t want taxes to go up exponentially for a project, she is OK with a small increase to ensure students are getting a good education and are well accommodated, she said.
“I just don’t want them to be excessive,” she said.
If a new building were to be needed again, Martin would look at the pros and cons associated with it — including whether an expansion of an existing building would be better. Ultimately, sometimes a new building really is needed, and unfortunately, it comes from taxpayers, she said.
She would also look at whether some parts of the project are necessities or just wants, and whether there could be things added to make the school day run better, she said.
If Greenwood were to be in a position where they would need to build a new building, Zaborowsky would consider the building size, safety and the teacher-to-student ratio. The ratio is particularly critical, as it is what makes the connections between students and teachers what it is, he said.
“This is very, very dependent on how we can maintain safety, maintain the teacher-to-child ratios, and all do it within financial constraints of what we have. I feel very confident that we can find solutions as we need them,” Zaborowsky said.
Improving teacher retention
Teacher retention has been an issue across the state, education experts and lawmakers have said, with numerous reports coming out about how the state is losing teachers.
From 2021 to 2022, teacher retention in Indiana dropped by 7%, leaving Indiana with a 77.2% retention rate. The 2023-23 period was better, as the rate increased 3.8% to 80.1%, according to an education data dashboard by the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, citing IDOE data.
When Martin was at Greenwood, she saw several teachers leave, but it was mostly because of how far they had to drive to the district. If officials could find a way to get them to move into the community, it would be a great start with retention, she said.
Martin was also happy to learn that Greenwood’s teachers were the highest paid in the county, something she would want to keep up to help attract and retain teachers, she said.
While on the school board, Zaborowsky says one of the things he’s been part of is establishing a better understanding of the “Woodmen Way,” a community-based idea of how the whole school district is a community that works within the large community of Greenwood and that they all are working towards the same goal. Building that mindset helps with teacher retention by encouraging professional development and creating mentoring programs, he said.
Teachers have “more and more constraints every single day,” and board members need to look at what they can do to improve their day, make them feel like they are part of students’ lives and doing something for their future, Zaborowsky said.
College, career readiness preparations
As state lawmakers look to continue to implement more work-based learning opportunities in schools as an alternative to college, local school districts have been subject to numerous changes.
In Martin’s view, these efforts start early and require giving students a road map. She highlighted Greenwood’s dual credit programs and partnership with Central Nine Career Center as examples of great programs that help with this. Students need options, she said.
“Show the different road maps starting early in like elementary school,” Martin said. “Make it a good feeder program, and then on to middle school and then high school. Then, they can maybe get their hands on and try a lot of different things.”
Greenwood is already ahead in some regards with career readiness preparations, with GHS having pathways to get students ready for wherever they want to go after they graduate — college, the military, or trade school. They’ve also worked closely with C9, inviting students to take part in trade-based programs there, and established a memorandum of understanding with Indy South Greenwood Airport for flying and aviation certificates, Zaborowsky said.
“We want to continue to promote our relationship with Central Nine, and we want to use that as a guide for children who don’t see college as their future, or don’t see college as a future yet,” he said.
Zabrowosky wants to encourage this in all students, and he, like other board members, wants to encourage students to be better than they were before, he said.
Balancing parental opinion
Both Martin and Zabrowosky said they would be open and transparent with parents as school board members.
Martin has been both a Greenwood staffer and a parent. A lot of times parents just want to be heard, and that’s something she is all for, she said.
Not every student is the same, and parents know their children more than anyone. She would welcome their feedback and if concerns do arise, she would pass them on to other board members and take a deeper look at the issues, she said.
“I just want parents in the community to know that anytime you have a concern, feel free to come to me. If I don’t specifically have an answer, I’ll find one,” she said.
Zaborowsky says all board members should be open to new ideas, as there is always an opportunity to improve things. When parents come with ideas, board members should balance them with the validity of the idea and where the parents are coming from, as well as what teachers and the administration think, he said.
“I am not against any type of reform or changes that might be suggested to us,” Zaborowsky said. “They would be truly vetted out, and we would do full research, but we would do that as openly as possible between both the community, the teachers, the parents, and the school administration.”
Schools are for the community, and the best decisions should be made for those in the community, not based on a national or regional platform. There shouldn’t be an agenda for school board members, Zaborowsky said.
Closing thoughts
The Greenwood schools community has often been referred to as tight-knit, or as a family, by school staffers and families over the years.
Martin has met her closest friends while either attending or working for Greenwood and seen students become well-rounded great adults, she said. Greenwood is a great place for people to come, work and stay, Martin said.
“I want these kids as soon as they get out of college … I want them to want to work there, pursue their career there because so many teachers, wherever they start, that’s usually where they end up … and Greenwood is a great place to do that,” she said.
For Zaborowsky, Greenwood means community, teamwork, openness and transparency. It is also staffers treating students like their own and treating teachers and staff equally, he said.
“We’re all working on this together — from the custodial staff to the superintendent, the cafeteria worker to the bus drivers to the teachers, to the coaches to the lay coaches — everybody has an impact on these students,” Zaborowsky said. “Greenwood embraces that as a whole in order to grow each child and turn them into wonderful adults that can move on to the community, and, hopefully, give back to the community.”
ABOUT THE JOB
What: Greenwood Community School Board, District 3
Term: 4 years
Pay: $2,000 a year, plus a per diem
Duties: Reviews superintendent, approves school district budget, reviews and approves new school/district policies
Represents: Area of west of U.S. 31. All people who live within the school district can vote in this race, not just those who live within District 3.
THE MARTIN FILE
Name: Sheila Martin
Age: 58
Family: Husband, James; two children
Occupation: Revenue Cycle & Scheduling (RCS) Associate, Indiana University Health
Educational background: Greenwood Community High School, 1985; Purdue University
Past offices held: First-time candidate
Memberships: None provided
THE ZABOROWSKY FILE
Name: Christopher “Chris” Zaborowsky
Age: 48
Family: Wife, Megan; two children
Occupation: National Sales Manager for motors and generators, ABB Inc.
Educational background: Greenwood Community High School, 1994; IUPUI,2019
Past offices held: Incumbent since January 2020
Memberships: Greenwood Redevelopment Commission (school board representative); Alden Place Homeowners Association; Our Lady of the Greenwood Church
