SJSD incumbent school board candidates

Polls to decide the future st.

Joseph school board.

To help you decide which candidate fits your values and vision -- kq2's madeline mcclain presents the three candidates looking to hold onto their board seats -- and why they think you should vote for them.

<<with a week to go until election day...three school board members looking to hold on to their seats.lute atieh, larry koch and richard gehring.

Most pressing issues.for larry koch it's leveling the academic playing field for all students.larry koch, school board incumbent: we do not have equal opportunities for half of our high school students.

Half of our students do not have all of the academic opportunities as the other half have, merely because of the size of the school."the same for richard gehring -- richard gehring, school board incumbent: i have two kids at benton and it's not a secret that the kids at benton and lafayette sometimes they don't have the class offerings, that the kids at central get."for lute atieh it's the lack of in-class resources.lute atieh, school board incumbent: we need more counselors, we need more social workers, we need more behavioral interventionists and we need training for those people because you can't teach kids something if they are not ready to learn because they have more pressing issues to deal with and that's into the classroom.each believes that saying "yes" to the upcoming school bond issue is the way to fix those issues.larry koch, school board incumbent: "we are taking money away from academics to fund operating these underutilized buildings.

It's really wasting the taxpayers' money."

Lute atieh, school board incumbent: we need to reorganize our district to free up money and put it where it counts, put it in the classroom, put it with the teachers and put it with the people that deal with these issues."richard gehring, school board incumbent: the harsh reality is that there is not the same number of kids in our district that there were you know 10, 15 years ago and we are just at a point now where it makes no financial sense to try to operate three high schools when they are all going to be underutilized.

What about these school board members' track records -- do the candidates believe will help voters trust they are making good decisions?larry koch, school board incumbent: when we asked for a levy increase in 2019, we said it was going to go to three things: teachers' salaries, building maintenance, and security and those promises have been kept.lute atieh, school board incumbent: the moment we learn anything it's released and that is causing in some cases causing some negative feedback of, 'they don't even have the plan together.

Well because we only found out a week ago that american family was willing to sell and so we announce and we'll put the plan together as we go.

That's what i would call painfully transparent."

Richard gehring, school board incumbent: my kids are going to be some that would be going to the central campus, if this passes.

Just to let people know that this isn't something that was done by politics or shady practices.

I myself just try to be as open as i can with my intentions of why i want to be on the board and what i want to accomplish.

Reporting, madeline mcclain kq2 news.

For more information on these three candidates -- head over to our website.

As for the five challengers.... we'll have more profiles on kq2 news this week -- giving you a peek at the candidates hoping to get a school board seat for the very first time.

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