PEA RIDGE — Why are you running for School Board?

Cato: Other than a concern for the welfare and education of my own four children and the welfare and education of all children in the Pea Ridge School District, I am running for three primary reasons. First, I want to help build an improved relationship between the public, the school board and the administration. Second, I want to work with the administration to ensure that they are adequately prepared to face the challenges of providing equal opportunity to all students so that all students have access to those classes and activities that further their educational development and prepare them with appropriate life skills. Third, I want to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used in the best possible manner.

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Keller: My candidacy for the open board position happened quite by accident. I had been looking for an opportunity to get more involved in the community since being displaced from Wal-Mart, and in talking it over with my husband, determined that taking an active role on the board would allow me that opportunity. The education of our children is vital to the ongoing success of our community, as our children will someday be the leaders that we look to ourselves, and my desire to see my own children be successful weighs heavily on all of the decisions that I make.

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What do you see as the strong points of your school system? What are the weak points? What changes would you like to see made?

Cato: The first strong point is that our benchmark test scores compete with the biggest school districts in the state. The second strong point is that the school is in good financial standing. The third strong point is that the school facilities are, for the most part, relatively new.

The first area of needed improvement is to create a culture of ethical and transparent communication in the school system. The second area of improvement is to face the challenges of providing equal opportunity to all students in an adequate manner.

First, whenever there is a school board meeting, there should be plenty of advance public notice, utilizing the existing parental electronic notification system. Second, any school board meeting, outside of an emergency, should be held during times that can maximize the public’s opportunity to attend. Third, there should be some means for public comment, whether that is during school board meetings or at some form of town hallmeetings.

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Keller: As a family, we chose Pea Ridge to raise and educate our children because of the size and closeness of the community. Our children can go to school here in an environment where the teachers and administrators know them by name, providing them with personalized attention and learning opportunities, more than in some of the larger districts where students are simply a body filling a seat unless they are standout students or troubled kids who garner attention in a negative manner. I know that my girls are in a district where they are safe and able to learn without many of the distractions of larger districts, like gangs and drugs. As for weak points, just as the size of our district is a positive attribute, I think Pea Ridge is at times challenged to meet some ofthe same elective options as the larger districts because of it. While we are able to offer many options to our students, transfer students are sometimes left with partial credits or incomplete classes due to electives not being available here. I’d like for us to look for ways to meet some of these challenges through distance learning, or other options not currently being offered.

More questions and answers will be published in the Sept. 8 edition of The Times

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PROFILES

ANN CATO, 42

◊ Associate general counsel for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. with support to Sam’s Club Merchandise

◊ Four children in Pea Ridge School District

◊Attended at least five school board meetings in the past year

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DOROTHY FAYE KELLER, 46

◊Selfemployed, small business owner - Your Girl Friday, NWA

◊Two children in Pea RidgeSchool District

◊Attended one school board meeting in the past year

Community, Pages 6 on 09/01/2010