Information Category

Category: Information

League of Women Voters Candidate Guide

The League of Women Voters provides a candidate guide for this race and other elections this year. They ask each candidate some questions and then print their answers verbatim.

Below is the link for the At-Large SBCSC School Board race. There, you can see my response and the responses of others running for the school board at large. Just click on the View Answers button for each candidate, then scroll down to see everyone’s response to each question.

https://www.vote411.org/ballot?lwv-ballot-widget-raceid=68946558

Yard Signs

Hello all. The yard signs are in so if you want one send me your name and address on the volunteer tab or contact me directly at 574-344-9134 or marcusee@electellison.com. Thanks

What Does The School Board Do

The decisions made by the seven members of the SBCSC school board, in conjunction with the superintendent's day-to-day leadership, impact every segment of our students' lives and those of the teachers and other professionals dedicated to nurturing, caring for, and educating our students. Each school board member helps to oversee an organizational annual budget of well over 200 million dollars that employs thousands of educational and support specialists and services over 15,000 students.

According to the Indiana School Boards Association, school boards have four core duties: adopting policies, such as creating the student handbook and integrating state and federal regulations; hiring and evaluating the superintendent; approval of the annual budget and overall fiscal oversight; and setting strategic goals for the district. Boards also vote on personnel recommendations from the superintendent.

School board members should be transparent and deliberative in their decision-making process to execute these duties. Votes should be based on the study of rigorous analytics and data. The board must help the school system use our limited school resources efficiently.

Increasing enrollment and being the leading school system of choice within our community is essential. We also need to raise graduation rates, improve student achievement in the ability to read and do math at grade level, and ensure that all of our students are learning in a safe environment that provides for their mental, emotional, and health needs. Our board needs to ensure that the best governance practices and procedures are in place to help our school system achieve these goals.