Burlington School Board Debate Offered Up Valuable Experience AS Well As Fresh Perspective

Greater Burlington Partnership Relations Committee hosted the Burlington School Board Debate on Monday to give the public the opportunity to evaluate which candidates best align with their philosophy.

In each round of questions, each of the four candidates had two minutes to respond. As the debate progressed the candidates did echo each other’s responses to the questions, however the question regarding decreased state funding offered a variety of responses. While most of the candidates agreed that more information was needed before deciding on where to make budget cuts due to the decreased state funding, candidate Heather Brueck offered a unique response.

Heather brueck responds, “First I’d say, I would fight that they’re not going to offer any growth. I think we can advocate at the state level. We can attend legislative breakfast, in Des Moines…we have legislatures here once a month; we can encourage out parents and PTO and our board members to get out and say that this isn’t an acceptable thing.”

Current School Board President Marlis Robberts, who was at the debate as a candidate seeking re-election had actual examples to give, on how challenging it is when state funding forces the school district to make decisions on cutting the budget.

Marlis Robberts responds, “As a team on the board, we’ve always looked at, how do we keep the quality of education first and foremost for the students because that’s the most important thing. This year was similar to the nightmare your describing, as the governor did not…give us any direction until after the time for property taxes. So we sat down and we discussed, do we need to dip into cash reserves a little.”

The other candidates in attendance was Bryan Bross who is a local business man and an engineer and Deb Hatteberg who is a retired school teacher, she still volunteers her time at local schools. The fifth candidate, Mike Warner is seeking re-election but was not in attendance at the debate on Monday.