This Q&A is part of Tiger Times Online’s coverage of the 2025 school board election. The election will take place on April 1. For more information, click here.

The following Q&A has been edited for concision and clarity.

• Why are you running for the District 7 school board, and what’s the most important skill or experience you bring to the role?

My name is Scott, I’m a long time resident of the community. My family, we’ve been a fixture in this community. Why am I running for the school board? Everybody should do their civic duties. Edwardsville was one of those unique places where, there were more people that were willing to embrace difference rather than ostracize it. I’ve always had a love for the community. When I decided I was ready to get married have kids, the only place I would do that was here. I want to give back to a community that helped shape me. When you go into the board, there’s seven people. We’re here to serve the community. Everybody has their unique backgrounds. I want to bring open mindedness, willingness to work with others, firmness, to say no, I think we’re going in the wrong direction, because that’s the hardest step to take, where you lock your heels and say, We need to slow down, look at things, instead of just rubber stamping something.

• Should you be elected, what specific policies would you like to see enacted or changed, and how would those changes specifically benefit students in our high school or in the other schools?

We have good policies. It’s about enforcing the policies, making sure that when a young person comes into the school, the only thing they have to worry about is school. The last of them should be feeling like you’re being singled out. We have policies that cover those things. Bullying is one of the things that I have zero tolerance for. When it goes unchecked, it can ruin the whole pool. So I would just say enforcement of the existing policies, always looking at the policies to see if there’s something we can tighten up on. The policies we have I feel are good. They just need to be enforced.

• Are you in favor of increasing or decreasing school funding? If so, where would you propose those funds come from and where would they be allocated, or where would you cut back?

With the $100 million bond, there’s a lot of projects in there. I would like to see, when you do a project, you have a log of where you’re at, status board. When you get community buy in, is when the community can see exactly where we’re at. You know how much we spend. What would I like to see done whenever we identify asbestos in the school? My father was afflicted by asbestos. If you tell me there’s asbestos, that’s what we need to go for. That was a part of the bond proposal. That should never be pushed back. It’s a health hazard. We have other spinning. The track that’s got to be resurfaced. The gymnasium, that’s got to be work. There’s talk about purchasing the warehouse building. I don’t know if that’s an appropriate thing to do when we have these federal issues. The federal government has closed the door on the Department of Education, so we have to be very thrifty in how we’re going to approach projects and how we’re spending money.

• Who do you believe is the school board’s primary constituent? Is it the students, the parents, the teachers, the staff, the community, or someone else?

It’s a pie of three. If you serve the community and serve the teachers, the students are always going to be served. If we do the right things for the community, make sure that we’re spending money in the proper way. We’re not doing wasteful spending, we’re supporting the curriculum. We do our due diligence on those things, then the teachers can impart that on the kids, and the kids can buy into the process. When we support the teachers, the teachers need to know that we support them, that we are here to make sure that they don’t have to deal with distractions. Teachers have an extremely difficult job, they’re in the front line. Teachers need to know that the policies are there to protect, not just kids, but to protect, you. So when we support the kid, the teachers support the community, the kids are always going to be supportive.

• School boards, in general, have become more contentious and gained more attention in recent years with many larger political movements. Do you think any of the larger things we’ve seen in our country will affect our school board specifically?

Transparency. If everything is above the table. We don’t go into closed rooms, we talk about it openly, then the community is able to see where we’re at, and that’s when you get the buy in. When the community sees, we understand that funding coming from the federal government, things are going to change, and it’s going to affect these programs here, let the community know, and then they can also start making those adjustments. It’s going to take a collective to get through this time. Transparency is a big thing.

• Are you satisfied with the current curriculum offerings in our high school? If not, what changes would you advocate for, and why? Are there specific subjects or skills you feel are lacking?

I know they’re rolling out the new math curriculum. We’ve had an opportunity to have the teachers come up and present that to us. I wish we had an opportunity to sit in the classrooms and see it being implemented. Some of the feedback that I get is very positive, so that’s the kind of stuff that we want to keep, nurturing. That particular style is what I want to see, when you see teachers that are engaged, that are passionate about it, keep feeding. They’re on something. And then usually you’ll start seeing the kids start engaging.

• What specific resources and support systems should our district provide to address student mental health and well-being?

We have counselors, resource officers that are at the facilities. The big thing is, it goes back to our policies, how we implement them, how we enforce them. When a kid knows that they’re coming into an environment that, they can always turn to somebody if there’s a problem, and we will deal with this issue, then you have a safer haven for them to concentrate on school. Health, safety wise, I Think we have, the necessary tools to mitigate any health issue. We can always improve on things, but those improvements come as we see them.

• How would you ensure the school board is transparent and accountable to the community?

We had teachers come and talk to us last year, and a lot of teachers want to see the school board members, in the schools. I understand that there’s reluctance to do something like that. But I think when teachers see us. Come out when they’re requesting for us to come and visit them. It’s a part of that. Hey, I’m supporting your efforts. I want to see what you’re doing. Because you invited me, you’re enthusiastic about what you’re doing. I want to see that, pull in on that energy. And then I can go back to my constituents and say, I talked with teacher, so and so, and that was a fantastic, course, student engagement was great. That’s how you start moving the wheel. Start getting kids engaged, the teachers engaged, community engaged. It’s three slices of a pie.

• How do you plan to help all students become ready for college, careers, or other forms of post-secondary success?

I graduated in 1985 I joined the United States Army, came back. I drove trains, worked at an oil refinery, and retired from that. I accomplished all these things on just a high school education, no college. So that just tells you the foundation of education that we’re putting out there. It is a excellent, excellent school system. Edwardsville is in a good spot. We have the right tools, we have the right people, the teachers, the faculty. School Board members supporting that, you’re going to have the right tools in place to help the kids for their future.

• What are your views on the recent push to change EHS to a 7-period day and changes to the start and end times?

The jury’s still out for me. I am one of those old dinosaurs. What would concern me is when you move to a seven hour period, you’re contracting the class time. When you contract the class time, then you have less time for engagement with the students. You tend to get a watered down product. I 100% trust in the teachers. But in the current configuration, I think that’s the best, because you have adequate time for the teachers to recap on the previous, subject, roll into the current and then engage on whatever’s going to be homework. I’m open to hearing more on how we want to implement this, and what are some of the pros and cons that the teachers feel. It’s interesting that some of the students are pushing back. I like to hear their concerns.

• What are your views on efforts to replace the current bathrooms near the cafeteria with a single gender-neutral bathroom?

My concern has always been the safety of the kids. The original proposal was not the open where you can see in there, it was going to be where you’re going around a corner, and then it’s an enclosed area. I was 100% against that. If we’re going to do something like this, I would like to see, opaque windows on the side, and then you have open and then the hand wash stations in the middle, or a monitor, anybody can walk by and see inside, there’s no congregating the doors. That was one of my earlier concerns. They swung in and they were floor to ceiling. Floor to ceiling, doors, they can conceal things, but they also become a hazard, because if a person becomes incapacitated behind them. We still have some work to do, but I think the proposal was a meeting of the minds, we brought this side together, that side together, and we came out with the best solution where, it’s going to satisfy everybody.

• A lot of districts have faced staff shortages. How do you propose District 7 is able to maintain staff and have high quality teachers?

That’s a hard one. I’ve talked to the teachers. Everybody that’s gone into this profession, they haven’t gone in there to become a millionaire. They’ve gone in there because they have a passion for teaching, for expanding the minds of the kids. It’s a love of the job. When you have a person that is doing something for that you feed that, hunger that they have for teaching. You set the culture to where the teachers feel, supported. You set the culture to where the community also sees that you’re doing the right moves, that are supporting the teachers, supporting the kids, and that’s how you’ll be able to attract those people, because when teachers on the outside see that’s how you’re treating them, then they’ll want to come here.

• Are there any other policies you’d like to discuss?

For me, the big thing is, I want to make sure that any kid going to that school knows that at any time they can reach out to anybody, either teacher, faculty, even a school board member. Just like you reaching out to me, I don’t have a problem with it. You guys should know that this is a community, and we are here to help you guys progress through school, progress through life, that’s our jobs.

• Give me your final pitch for why people should vote for you.

The big thing for me is, I’m not a rubber stamper. Everything that comes across the desk, I’m not just saying yes. I want to scrutinize things. I want to ask the questions, because by asking questions, we get the right answers. I understand that people are concerned. I’m going to be there. I’m going to, push back when pushback needs to happen. I’m going to listen when we need to listen, and when you need that voice to advocate for you, I’ll be that voice, and that means for you students and their parents.