By ABBEY NICKEL
STAFF WRITER
Two Liberty-Benton school board candidates criticized open enrollment, and several discussed the state of the current K-8 building at a candidate forum Thursday night.
In the November election, five candidates are vying for two open positions on the Liberty-Benton school board. The candidates are Mark Badertscher, Steve Benson, Shawn Lyon, Kevin Schoonover and Gene Stump.
Before a large crowd at Liberty-Benton High School, all of the candidates answered six questions that were randomly selected. The questions were submitted by community members, teachers and administrators.
Badertscher said while open enrollment can be a positive thing for the district because it “pays the bills,” he said it also poses a big challenge.
“What does it do to the school climate? As a teacher, I’ve witnessed firsthand what open enrollment can do to a classroom. I’ve worked with a lot of students that were enrolled at Liberty-Benton that probably shouldn’t have came here, but we let them in, and their state money follows them,” Badertscher said. “Hopefully, they’ll be successful here, and most of the kids I’ve been able to work with and make them successful, but you can’t get through to all of them.”
Badertscher is an Ohio State University agriculture and natural resources extension educator in Hardin County. He is Liberty-Benton’s former agriculture teacher, who was fired by the school board in 2013 after one of his students allegedly choked another student.
Badertscher appealed his termination and after a two-year legal battle, settled with the district last month.
Schoonover said open enrollment is creating space issues and overcrowded classrooms in the district’s buildings.
“We are making our own problems through (open enrollment),” Schoonover said.
Schoonover owns and operates Kevin’s Shop, a cabinet and millworking shop. He graduated from Liberty-Benton and was a district employee for 30 years before recently retiring.
The future of the school district’s facilities, specifically the K-8 building, was addressed by all of the candidates.
While none of the candidates said they supported building a new facility, they agreed that something needs to be done to correct the issues with the K-8 building, including overcrowded classrooms.
“Our facilities need to meet the needs of what we need in the future. Currently, they are not meeting the needs,” Lyon said.
Lyon was appointed to the school board in July to fill the unexpired term of Dana Morgan, which expires Dec. 31. He is the vice president of operations at Marathon Pipeline.
Benson said before the district asks voters for money in the future, more planning needs to take place.
“I think it’s the job of the school board and the superintendent and the community to find out what the majority will accept and approve,” Benson said.
Benson owns and operates Putnam Aggregates Co.
Stump said he hopes the community is ready for some future changes as Liberty Township continues to grow.
“Eventually, something is going to need to be done with the population increase,” Stump said.
Stump is the fire chief at Liberty Township Fire Department.
Badertscher said the board needs to wait until a current bond issue is paid off in 2018 before approaching voters.
“Until this current issue is paid for, we can’t approach our voters for additional money. What we need to do right now is repair and fix what we have. We cannot afford to put a lot of investment in structures that are not permanent. We need to fix what we have, make sure it’s safe until we can afford to go in a new direction,” Badertscher said.
Nickel: 419-427-8417
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