Lincoln School Board Candidate Q&A

The Lincoln School Board has two seats open for election this spring, and four candidates have thrown their hats into the ring. To provide voters with additonal insight into the candidates, the BVD asked each of them a series of four basic questions

Ballots went out in the mail last week, giving voters the option to return them by mail or drop them off at the at the Lincoln School Monday through Thursday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or on Election Day May 4, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Billy Cyr

Billy Cyr grew up in Lincoln and went to the Lincoln School for 13 years, starting with kindergarten. He has a family with five kids and would like to see them get a good education. He grew up on the ranch he runs and serves as a volunteer firefighter.

Why are you running for the school board?

Mostly because I have kids in school, and kids coming into school. I think it's important to be part of that and to have good people on the school board to make the right decisions for the children. I think it's very important and I would just like to make sure that always happens and the kids are looked out for first.

Are there any particular challenges you see facing Lincoln Public Schools?

Well, I don't really know many challenges that are there right now but I don't anticipate it to be something that's easy or going to be a cakewalk. I assume there's going to be some pretty heavy decision-making and some thought process dealing, but I'm semi-new to it so I don't really know what the challenges would be just yet.

As a board member, how would you work to address those challenges?

I'll address whatever challenges I did come across with a lot of research and fact-checking and try to always make the decision based on the best interest of the children in the school.

My dad was part of the school board and he learned from a lot of good people on how to make good decisions for the school board. I know those people and hopefully can learn from them and other school board members on how to make the best decisions for the children. What we're ultimately there for is making sure that the children of the school are taken care of.

Given the changes the school saw last year due to COVID, do you have any thoughts on how to improve communication with the community?

I don't know if I have any ideas, but I know as a parent it was a huge struggle and I think there should have been something to help parents communicate with teachers and the school easier. That was one of our biggest challenges with our two kids who were in school, being able to communicate with the teachers, and I know with the students it was hard for them.

So I don't know, without knowing all the facts of both sides, but I feel like there could have possibly been something that needed to happen to make that easier, and maybe even more transparent, for the school board (saying) 'this is what we're doing and why we're doing it.'

Are there any concerns that you feel the board could address about the upcoming school year considering the impact COVID-19 had on the last school year?

As a parent I noticed that while the kids were at home in school, they missed out on a lot of education and social development because of everything being shut down and most kids were just locked up in a house. We were somewhat fortunate to have a ranch so we are able to get out a little bit more, but as a kid you need a lot of social interaction, which is very important for development. The quality of education the kids got during that was, I feel, very sub-par for what they deserve to have.

So, this group of kids who missed out on that are going to be...maybe a half year, to a year behind on some of their education. That is going to have to be fixed or caught up on, to get them ready for where they should be when they actually graduate.

The elementary kids probably won't be hurt as much as Junior High kids, and high school kids should be able to adapt fairly well to it. But that's going to be a big challenge I do believe the school is going to run into. All schools across the nation are going to find that these kids have missed out on a big portion of their education.

Derek Hanauska

Derek Hanauska has background in ag business and he is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys hunting, fishing and camping. His wife, Lanna Zobel, is the nurse practitioner at Parker Medical Center. They've lived in a lot of different states and he said this is the state they want to call home from now on. Hanauska served on the farm bureau in Illinois and currently serves as a volunteer firefighter in Lincoln.

Why are you running for the school board?

Really, I'm new to the community. My wife and I moved here about two years ago. I thought it would be important to be part of the community and I thought that would be getting involved with the school board and the local government.

Are there any particular challenges you see facing Lincoln Public Schools?

Gosh, you caught me off-guard with that one. I guess certainly it would be trying to maintain some normalcy with everything that's going on in the world today, as far as politics, pandemic, a lot of the other outside forces that are out there. Just trying to maintain and make sure that the kids are getting a good education and being treated fairly and everything like that.

As a board member, how would you work to address those challenges?

I think the most important thing is open communication, try to understand both sides, you know. Listen to the issues that are out there and try to make the best educated decision for the students, for the community, and for the school.

Given the changes the school saw last year due to COVID, do you have any thoughts on how to improve communication with the community?

I think it's important to have students involved with community projects. I think trying to have a good following of the school, whether it be through sports, through the board members and attendance to the meetings. I think that's really important. But I think it's just making sure that people know what's going on at the school, give the parents good options, if there are big issues that come up, being able to get parent's feedback is going to be really important to help the school system make decisions that are going to help make the school successful for the community.

Are there any concerns that you feel the board could address about the upcoming school year considering the impact COVID-19 had on the last school year?

I think the most important thing is going to be for the school trying to identify any students that have fallen behind, in learning or grades. I think that's going to be very critical, and then it's going to be a challenge for the school and the school board to figure out how to close that gap to get the students up to speed. I think that's one of the bigger issues that's going to be out there. I think that's going to be the biggest challenge, and I think certainly there are going to be some adaptations to some of the things we've learned in the past year, as far as the pandemic, and how we can implement any of those changes moving forward, to make sure that we have a safe and healthy school for the future.

Ken Lumpkin

Ken Lumpkin has lived in Lincoln for 22 years. He's served on the school board and as the board chair in the past. Lumpkin has also served as a coach for several sports here.

Why are you running for the school board?

I actually want to get active again in the community and I've always loved doing things at the school and with the kids. From the get-go since I got here I've done a lot of stuff with my kids, and also with other kids. So this is a lot of fun to see them grow and do stuff and also to make sure the education that they're getting will provide them a good stepping stone to theit life after high school, whatever that may be.

Are there any particular challenges you see facing Lincoln Public Schools?

The decline in enrollment I think probably is the greatest challenge. A lot of that dictates your funding. With that mind you always want the best teachers you could get, the best administration you can get and also provide service to the kids and opportunities to the kids that hopefully will be comparable to the larger schools.

As a board member, how would you work to address those challenges?

Of course the funding is going to be the funding, and you're pretty much limited in that respect, with what we can work with. In the past we've always been conservative with mill levies, and not really wanting to pass mill levies unless it's actually required to go forward, but just be frugal, which I've seen the school do. They've been really frugal with a budget and how it applies and how it makes the money go the furthest it can go. My sense would be to continue in that, and to see if we can find other methods and ways to bring out additional funding. Of course in the past we've always received various grants and various opportunities in that respect, and I know they continually work on that.

Given the changes the school saw last year due to COVID, do you have any thoughts on how to improve communication with the community?

Just in the last meeting I did see the administration has used surveys out to the parents and see how they want to deal with the COVID issue and how they're handling it. Of course it's hard to have a gathering to address an issue because of the COVID, so it's a catch-22 there. I was glad to see the other day that they were taking surveys of the parents to see what their opinions were. I would just continue that or have the COVID restrictions lifted to have more of a community forum.

Are there any concerns that you feel the board could address about the upcoming school year considering the impact COVID-19 had on the last school year?

The upcoming school year, I'm hoping we can get back to classes without having to deal with the masking issue. That way the kids are not distracted by that, plus of course in school learning which is a great, great plus. I'm glad to see they are looking at summer school opportunities for kids, and at other opportunities that may get them in to make up for some of the areas that may have not been addressed like it would have been with COVID. I'm glad they're offering options for kids to come in and try to catch up on anything they may be lacking because of not having in-class instruction.

Sarah Tams

Sarah Tams moved to Lincoln when she was twelve. She moved to Missoula and went to the University of Montana for a year then got married and had children. She worked at Safeway for eight years ,becoming an assistant manager before moving on to help manage restaurant. She and her husband Chase moved their family back to Lincoln to give their kids the personalized education Lincoln School offers. She has been on the Lincoln School Board for two years.

Why are you running for the school board?

I am running to make sure the school stays a great place for our kids. I went to school here and had a great experience and I want to make sure that my kids and everybody else's kids in town have that same experience, and learn the things they need to learn and be successful later in life.

Are there any particular challenges you see facing Lincoln Public Schools?

That is a good question. Making sure our kids are at the same level as kids in bigger towns, I think is always a challenge for us. Being able to finally expose them to things that are offered in bigger schools that we don't necessarily have a lot of access to. Meaning different types of electives, trying to get them to experience things even though we live in such a small town. I think those are always big issues for a school this size.

As a board member, how would you work to address those challenges?

Just keep finding different ways to get them active. I think having Missoula Children's Theatre come to the school is great. We don't have any type of drama class, so letting the kids explore that is always fun. Bringing in presentations or different things for them to learn about other subjects.

I know they have access to some online things they can do...so if they wanted to do some foreign language or whatever they have access to that. And just keep finding different things we could bring to town, or send them to, to be able to do those things. I know Laura is doing the business group which great, we don't have any business classes here really. So that's fantastic for kids that are more business minded.

Given the changes the school saw last year due to COVID, do you have any thoughts on how to improve communication with the community?

I think this year we have done a lot better. We have the Facebook page, we email parents, we put out surveys to parents to get their opinions. We are always looking for parents' opinions. It's great to know what they are thinking so we can try to take their perspective into account also. We did a lot better I think, in getting the word out.

I personally am always open to suggestions if people think there is a better way to communicate. I think with this technology that we have available at our fingertips, gone are the days of flyers in backpacks that parents don't ever see. Especially with Infinite Campus, they put everything on there also. It's a great resource not just for communication, but to keep on your kids' grades. I'm on there all the time and can see what assignments they are missing, and I get all the notices from school. It just pops up right on my phone and its great.

But I think we did a lot better during the COVID days. Everybody always has room to improve, but I would love any suggestions somebody had.

Are there any concerns that you feel the board could address about the upcoming school year considering the impact COVID-19 had on the last school year?

At every meeting we are talking about what's going on, like with the mask mandate. We are waiting for our county to lift that so we can lift it at the school. We sent out a survey to parents asking them how comfortable they are with the mask mandate being lifted and we take that into consideration.

I think we learned a lot from doing the online school. There are some great resources out there for teachers to use for online schooling and even just in the classroom with smart boards. There are some great things. I think that's the silver lining in all of this. And going into next year, we just will have several plans and whatever the situation happens to be at the start of school we'll just work with it to be as easy and seamless on the kids as possible.