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Gilbert Community School District
September 10, 2002
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Election
results:
264
ballots cast out of 3256 registered voters for 8.11% turnout top
two vote getters will become
directors at large of the Gilbert Board of Education
| Christopher Benda |
146 |
| James McKean |
111 |
| Richard L. Herrington |
99 |
| Mary J. Zimmerman |
71 |
| Shele M. Blum |
66 |
| Write-in votes |
4 |
Information
is from the Story County
web site.
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Post Election Commentary
by Helen D. Gunderson, Gazette editor
September 11, 2002
We congratulate Chris Benda and Jim McKean on
being elected to the school board. We thank them and the other
candidates for their willingness to serve the community and
respond in recent weeks to the Gazette questionnaire
and be part of the candidates forum sponsored by the Gilbert
PTO. All of the candidates possessed qualities that would have
been assets to the board and the school district.
Some citizens may be concerned about
director-elect Chris Benda taking a seat on the school board
while he is still serving on the Gilbert City Council (his
term ends on December 31, 2003) and while he is still on the
board of Vision 2000. Vision 2000 was formed in the 1990's to
develop land (given to the schools and town by the Upstill
family) into a park and recreational center. It was the intent
of the organization's founders that Vision 2000 serve at
"an arm's length" from both the school and city.
(click
here to go to the full commentary)
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Information on
the candidates:
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Chris Benda
205 Jensen
Gilbert, Iowa 50105
(515) 233-1057
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Shele Blum
2218 Windfield Drive
(north edge of Ames in Bloomington Heights)
Ames, Iowa 50010 |
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Rich Herrington
210 Rothmoor Drive
Gilbert, Iowa 50105 |
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Jim McKean
(incumbent - has served since 1993)
4008 Mathews Road
(southwest of Gilbert in Squaw Valley)
Ames, Iowa 50014
(515) 232-8493
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Mary Zimmerman
5711 South Swing
(southwest of Gilbert off County Line Road)
Ames, Iowa 50014 |
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Photos from video
footage from candidates forum on September 4, 2002. |
We videotaped the candidates forum that was organized
by the PTO on September 4th. Then we edited the tape a bit and got a
dozen copies made. The program lasts 92 minutes.
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The program was shown on Gilbert's local
access cable channel 14 at 10 am on Saturday and 6 pm on Sunday (September 7-8).
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Three VHS copies are at the Ames Public Library. Ask for them
at the information desk.
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Each of the Gilbert churches has a copy.
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A copy was delivered to the Ames Tribune.
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We have a couple copies here, so e-mail
us if you want to view the program or be the hub for
circulating a copy.
The questions included:
- What is the biggest current or future issue facing the school?
- Would you be in favor of a general obligation bond if the sales
tax doesn't pass?
- What is the extent of programs that schools should offer in area
of vocational, academic, and social?
- What is the most important job of a school board member?
- What is your reaction/perspective on Governor Vilsack's regional
high school proposal?
- Have you given the negative aspects of the sales tax issue some
thought prior to supporting it?
- What should the board be doing to convince/educate its patrons to
vote for the one cent sales tax?
- What kind of leadership will you provide to ensure that the
vastness of our school's culture and its diversity of people are
accepted - so we are ahead of the curve rather than reactionary?
- What is your view of how the board handled last spring's
(harassment) issues - would you keep the policies or try to change
them?
- As a board member, how would you deal with your own emotions and
the emotions of other people, and what would you do to ensure that
people felt heard?
- What's your stand on the Bookmobile and the issue of freedom of
access (to library materials) that came up last spring?
- What is the school's responsibility for the kinds of materials
that students can access through the Internet?
- What steps need to be taken to improve communications between the
school board and community?
- Are you aware of Iowa's open meeting laws? And how will you ensure
that dialog about issues happens at board meetings and avoid the
appearance that a decision was made outside the public arena?
Note: the questions were not taken verbatim from the tape but are a
distillation of the question, keeping the essence but making it short
enough to be printed on the television screen. |
We talked to all the
candidates a week before the forum, and they each agreed to respond
to a questionnaire.
The questionnaires included 10
open-ended questions and were sent by e-mail
along with guidelines during the week of
August 26. All the candidates have returned their questionnaires. Click on their
names for a complete set of answers.
You may
also access all responses to an individual question. Simply go to
the list of questions
and click on the ones you are interested in. We hope to have responses from the other candidates
soon so they can be posted by Labor Day.
If
someone has information about the election or candidates that would
be useful on this page, please let us
know. Thanks.
Ames
Tribune
story about the 2002 school board election with information
about the growth and scope of the Gilbert district.
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