Voters To Decide On School Board Candidates

(Le Mars) — Voters will decide who they would like to see on the Le Mars Community Board of Education tomorrow, election day. It is the first time the school board candidates are on the same ballot as are the municipal election candidates. There is one contested race as voters will decide among three candidates seeking two positions at the At-Large positions.
Angela Catton is seeking re-election, and the other two candidates include Kyle Plathe and Nick Jalas. Jane Arnold is running unopposed for District 2. Arnold, was appointed to serve on the school board after Chris Collins had retired from the school board in mid-term.

Jane Arnold

Makenzie Lang is seeking election to the Le Mars Community Board of Education for District 5, which mainly consist
of the rural regions of the Le Mars Community School District. District 5 was represented by Fred Zenk, but he decided to no longer seek another term on the local school board. Lang is running unopposed. She says she was influenced to run for the school board after having a discussion with her
grandfather, former school board director, Larry Petersen.

Makenzie Lang

Lang has been a member of the District Leadership Instructional Impact Team, and believes being elected to the school board is the next step. She tells of the issues most important to her as a candidate for school board director.

Lang is presently working at Well’s Enterprises in the marketing department, and has held that position for the last 14 years. She believes her experience in the corporate business world will be beneficial on the school board.

Angela Catton is seeking re-election for an At-Large school board position.  She says she wants to remain involved with the school district and assisting with the decision making process for the school district.

Angela Catton

Catton says understanding all of the different funding formulas for the school district is a huge learning curve, plus, after serving for one term, she has a better understanding of the role and responsibility of a school board member.

Catton says the responsibility of the local school board is to write and enforce policy. STEM, which stands for Science…Technology…Engineering and Mathematics are becoming an important part of daily education. Catton
is a strong advocate for the fine arts as part of a student’s education, and she says the emphasis should now be on what she refers to as STEAM.

The school board member clarifies her support for the fine arts education at Le Mars Community.

Another of the three candidates seeking an At-Large position
with the Le Mars Community Board of Education is Kyle Plathe.
Plathe says his interest to becoming a director with the school board is he wants to get involved.

Kyle Plathe

Plathe says it is time for the school district to start thinking about constructing a new elementary school since Franklin and Clark are both aging, and will soon be obsolete in terms of providing Le Mars Community elementary students with a good educational environment.

The school board candidate was a member of the Iowa National Guard and has served in Afghanistan. He is currently employed with CF Industries. Plathe says he is pleased to see the school district expand its facilities with the new stadium, and recently the completion of the new competition gym and classrooms.

Nick Jalas, the third candidate for an At-Large school board director did not respond to our request for an interview.