Dear Editor,
I am a person who doesn’t usually talk politics but I am heading out of my comfort zone because this school board election is too important. As a resident of Mahomet for the past 17 years, I have experienced Mahomet-Seymour schools as an employee, a parent and a volunteer. I worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist at Middletown Early Childhood Center (yes, at the old building). I now have three boys who have attended Mahomet-Seymour schools for the last nine years. I have volunteered in the schools in my boys’ classrooms, in the Lincoln Trail library, and I deliver the Give Me 5 food bags to the social workers to be distributed. All this said, it should come as no surprise that I am interested in the upcoming school board election.
Over the last two years, there has been a narrative that our district is broken. As a district that has been rated in the top two districts downstate in recent years, I am perplexed by this notion. We are strong academically which contributes to our high school being ranked in the Top 50 in the state by U.S. News & World Report. Our school district has provided in-person and remote options for students during a global pandemic. The school board decided to take it slow with a hybrid model during the fall semester and our schools have offered four days during the spring semester. This is impressive when many districts have had all remote learning until recently. Junior High and High school students are enjoying sports again. I don’t have high school students yet but I have enjoyed seeing pictures and hearing about Color Guard, the Speech team, the Math team, band and the Madrigals. Who doesn’t smile seeing students do what they love? Personally, I see all of these successes and wonder how anybody can describe our school district as broken.
That being said, I realize that all school districts have areas of improvement. Mahomet-Seymour schools are no different. The question becomes, who do you think are the right individuals to move our school district in the right direction? For me, it is Max McComb, Justin Lamb and Sunny McMurry. Max has proven that he cares about our students, staff and schools. He listens, discusses and votes in a way that has kept our schools premier. Justin is a hard-working business owner who will bring a perspective that represents many families in our community. Many students in our district are college-bound but Justin recognizes that college is not for all students. I look forward to hearing his perspective as our high school continues to work on providing more technical and vocational opportunities for upper class students. Sunny has more experience in education than anybody I know. She works in the Champaign schools and is always the first to come up with ideas that will benefit low socio-economic families. She cares about every single student. In this school board election, I will be voting for Max, Justin and Sunny because I trust them to make decisions that are best for our students, staff, schools and community. As I said in the beginning, this election is important so please do your research on each candidate. The most important message I have is that our children deserve the best so please get out and vote on or before April 6th.
Jill Kellner
