District 833 School Board candidates: funding is biggest challenge

• School Board candidates

District 833 School Board candidates (from left) incumbents Leslee Boyd, Jim Gelbmann and Ron Kath, and challengers Steve Lagoon, Joe Ryan, Lezlie Shriver and Katie Schwartz during an election forum Tuesday at St. Paul Park City Hall. Bulletin photo by Judy Spooner

Talk about it

Seven candidates running for three seats on the District 833 School Board agree school financing is the biggest challenge now and in the future for the school district.

However, the candidates, participating in a Tuesday forum, had differing views about local versus state control over school curriculum and funding.

Candidate Steve Lagoon, of Cottage Grove, who called himself a “common sense conservative,” said he wants local control over curriculums and funding with no control by the state or federal governments.

“The state provides 80 percent of education funding,” said Jim Gelbmann, one of three incumbents on the Nov. 8 ballot and who is seeking a fifth four-year term. The state should set curriculum standards with districts implementing them, he said.

State funding has “strings,” Lagoon said.

Incumbent Ron Kath, seeking his third term, said he is not interested in having the state controlling local curriculums. Kath agreed, however, with incumbents Leslee Boyd and Gelbmann that the state sets curriculum standards and districts decide how to implement them.

Fellow candidates Joe Ryan, Lezlie Shriver and Katie Schwartz also took part in the forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters’ Woodbury-Cottage Grove chapter.

See the upcoming print edition of the Bulletin for more on the forum.

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