*The Mahomet Daily reached out to all eight Mahomet-Seymour School Board candidates in early January. At the time of the development of this article, the Mahomet Daily only heard back from five of the eight candidates, the newcomers. We now have some information from Park, and learned that Henrichs will answer questions when he returns to the United States. All candidates will have an opportunity to be featured in the Mahomet Daily. Our intention was to include everyone in this first article.
By Ben Chapman
benbart.chapman@gmail.com
On April 2nd, 2019, Mahomet-Seymour school district voters will select four candidates to fill four seats up for election on the school board.
Eight candidates are campaigning to fill the four seats, two of which are inside Mahomet Township and two of which are outside. The candidates are evenly split with four candidates in the township and four outside the township.
As voters fill out their ballots, they will be able to select two candidates from each section, whether the voters live inside or outside Mahomet Township.
Seeking the in-township seats are newcomers Meghan Hennesy, Colleen Schultz, and Jason Tompkins, as well as incumbent Lance Raver. Outside of the township, the newcomers are Ken Keefe and Julie Cebulski, while the incumbents are Jeremy Henrichs and Jenny Park.
Keefe, a Senior Software Engineer at the University of Illinois, previously ran in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Tompkins, Marketing Manager at Bendsen Signs, previously ran in 2017.
Hennesy, Schultz, Keefe, and Cebulski each acknowledge that they share some similar ideas and believe they would serve well together on the board.
Hennesy, a mom of two boys, says that, though their goals align, they each have a different background.
Hennesy considers this a benefit, as she believes a board is stronger with a diversity of opinion.
“I feel like those three other candidates bring important skill sets to the table,” Hennesy says.
Schultz, a mom of two children, adds that each person among the four is very different and no one speaks for the other. They will not consider each other opponents on the campaign trail.
Transparency, fiscal responsibility, and collaboration promise to be leading issues for these four newcoming candidates in the school board race.
Schultz, Hennesy, Keefe, and Cebulski each say that openness of communication and the sharing of information between the board and the public is vital.
Hennesy says she would like “to focus on improving the overall communication channels between the school board and the rest of the community.”
Cebulski echoes this, emphasizing that she would like “to improve the relationship the board has with our community.”
Keefe asserts that the current board leaves room for improvement on the communication front, saying that they “don’t do a good job of engaging the public and getting feedback about the district.”
As a remedy, Keefe suggests developing further parent advisory committees that would provide insight and and advice to the board on certain issues. As examples, he suggests considering committees on student disciplinary practices or school bus safety and operations.
Keefe also expresses concern regarding the debt and the interest on it, saying that these are “another form of taxes,” from which the public gains no benefit.
Keefe points to the low-visibility of the fiscal problems as another failure of communication from the current board.
“The fiscal state of the district is really alarming, but it’s something [board members] never really talk about or parents don’t really know about,” Keefe says.
According to M-S Chief School Business Official Trent Nuxoll the Mahomet-Seymour School District is $34.7 million in debt. If this debt is to be paid off as scheduled, an additional $8.2 million will be incurred through interest.
The board’s financial state will be an issue that newly elected members will have to tackle.
Cebulski says she is “definitely interested in fiscal responsibility” as part of her platform.
As a way to curb spending, Hennesy proposes caution with taking on new costs. Before accepting an expense, she recommends that the board first asks, “Is this need immediate? And fiscally, does it make sense to do it right now?”
Tompkins says that he believes in fiscal responsibility, too. Part of his campaign will be finding ways to not increase the tax burden on citizens.
Tompkins commends the business office of the school district on its work, saying, “we’ve got a business office that works really hard day in and day out to ensure we are not in financial trouble.”
Collaboration with stakeholders and other board members is another goal of these candidates.
Schultz sees the Mahomet-Seymour School Board as a way to serve her community, saying, “I really wish that we would all be on the same team, that we would all work together and do great things for our kids.”
Cebulski has a background as a Foster Parent Support Specialist where she acts as an advocate for families and a liaison between stakeholders. She points to this as evidence for her experience juggling different interests. She says, “part of my job (as an advocate) is to hear all sides and advocate for the best solution.”
Tompkins says he would see his role as a school board member as an opportunity to be a public servant.
He views the challenge of dealing with conflicting views from the perspective of a public servant, saying “we may not agree on everything, but if you can understand my point of view and how I came to my decision, at the end of the day, that’s all that I can do.”
These five candidates plan to share their messages via social media and door-knocking.
“I’ve gone door to door in the past and I’ll likely do that again,” Tompkins says, adding that he believes in the personal touch of door-knocking.
Schultz says that through her campaign she plans to ask for input from the community, saying, “A school board member is a person who represents a community, and if you don’t know what the community thinks, then you can’t do a very good job of that.”
