Beatrice School Board Candidate Forum Held Tuesday

With a month to go before the primary elections take place in Nebraska, eight of the eleven candidates for the Beatrice School board shared their thoughts and opinions during a candidate forum Tuesday night.

Joseph Brewer has lived in Beatrice since 2011 and is a father of six children and says his role as a school board member is to steer the district in a positive direction…

“My job as a school board member if I was to be elected, I think is to really help steer our school district in a direction I think would be positive towards I guess basic achievements within competencies and then also with respect to growing our vocational and technical programs at the school and job placement”.

Nelson Dungan, who served as an art teacher at Beatrice Public Schools for 33 and a half years, says education is very important to him and says the responsibilities of a school board member is to set policy and oversee the budget…

“I think the board’s job is number is number one is to set policy and budget. That is very important because budgets are extremely tight and as a school board member that is one of the main things we would have to do. The second thing is we are responsible to hire the superintendents and I think we have the opportunity to look for good candidates and hire the best candidate possible when it comes time to elect a new superintendent.”

Sabrina Glynn owns and operates an in-home daycare and says the role of the school board is doing what is best for kids..

“The role of a school board member in my opinion is to do the best for our kids. Every decision should be based on what is best for all of the children in our school district. The job of the school board is to hire the superintendent and the superintendent is to actually keep an overlook for our teachers. Having said that having great teachers is what makes great students and we know that. We have really great teachers right now but the actual job of the school board is to follow the constitutional rights of our students and our individuals and to have the best of interest at heart for our kids”.

Incumbent Doris Martin spent 32 years as a journalism teacher at Beatrice High School agreed with the other candidates that the job of a board member is to do what is best for the students….

“I agree with much of what has been said…obviously hiring the superintendent is important for the school board. I think we did a good job last time. I think what is important is to what is best for all students and sometimes that is more difficult than it may seen.  Sometimes it is a difficult decision to do what may be best for the majority of students but some may be inconvenienced.”

Retired U-N-L professor Charles Riedesel says if elected he looks forward to working with other board members and school staff…

“I feel very fortunate to have worked in a great working environment especially at the University. I saw how the administration respected the teachers. Around here I want to work together with the rest of the board to support the teachers and the staff. To respect them as the professionals they are in helping them to do their job even better.”

Candidate Brandon Vetrovsky is a graduate of Beatrice High School and is the father of two children. Vetrovsky, who works for Norris Public Power, says he is interested in what the future is for the elementary buildings once a new facility is constructed..

“One of my biggest interests right now is I would love to be a part of figuring out what we are going to do with all these elementary schools and land they sit on. I think that is going to be a huge issue right now and I would like to be part of figuring out what we are going to do with that. Beatrice definitely has enough vacant empty buildings and I don’t want anymore in residential areas. So I want to be part of that.”

Crystal Anderson says she wants to help be the voice of parents and district patrons if elected to the board…

“The school board is a representative of the parents and I want to be able to help the parents have a voice. And also just want to make sure the constitution is respected.”

Matt Anderson says he became interested in running for a school board position during the pandemic. He feels the job of a board member is to give the students the best education possible..

“The role of a school board member the way I see it is to help provide the best education for the students in our district with money provided by our taxpayers. That can be a hard thing to balance. Just because we need something, if the public doesn’t provide the funds to get it I don’t believe we should go behind their back. If it is needed we need to make sure as a school board member that it is communicated to the community”.

There are four positions open on the school board. Out of the eleven candidates, eight of those will move on from the primary election to the general election in November where four people will be elected.

The Tuesday night forum was sponsored by the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce.