Candidates would avoid micro-managing

9:32 PM Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Southeastern School District has three candidates running for two open positions. There are no incumbents running and any of the three would be new to the board.

The district has a new superintendent — David M. Shea began in August after his predecessor retired in December, 2008, and the district had two interim superintendents until Shea was selected. It is also faced with a decision on whether to build or rebuild school buildings in the district to take advantage of state funding for facility upgrades.

Frances Edwards is a retired bus driver who has lived in the district 65 years. She wants the board and the school administration to work better together.

“The relationship between the board and the superintendent has been awful,” she said. “The superintendent has his job and you don’t do his job unless you ask him to.”

She said she supports building new and thinks it will be the best value for the district’s voters over time.

“Your school is directly connected to the value of your home,” she said. “We need to provide the best facilities we can.”

Tony Entler has worked 22 years for the Air National Guard and is a Staff master sergeant working at Wright-Patterson AFB. He was two children attending the district.

He wants the next board to work with the new superintendent and allow him to do his job. Previous boards, Entler said, caused too much turnover with superintendents.

Darron Routzahn is a plant superintendent for Teikuro and has lived in the area 35 years. Routzahn says the board needs to do better at educating the community about the upcoming decision over whether to rebuild the school buildings or build anew. “I don’t believe they have educated the voters enough on the nuts and bolts of the situation; voters are only seeing sticker shock,” he said.

Routzahn also said some of the reason for high turnover with the district’s superintendents is micro-managing by board members.

“If you’re a board member and get a call from a parent the first question should be ‘have you talked to the teacher?’ ” he said.

All three would be good as board members. The News-Sun specifically endorses Edwards; her experience working for the district appears to be coupled with an ability to think like a taxpayer. She represents the best of both worlds.

Routzahn and Entler are both qualified and voters will be well-served by either. They share a mutual respect for the chain-of-command and they both say they want the superintendent to be able to run the district with oversight from the board, not interference. That’s important and should be embraced by the entire board.

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