By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Alex Herman, a 34-year-old Hays attorney, filed Friday for election to the Hays USD 489 school board.
Herman joins Luke Oborny who has filed for re-election, Tammy Wellbrock and Lori Hertel on the ballot. Four positions are open on the Hays school board. They also include the seats held by Mandy Fox, Greg Schwartz, Paul Adams. None of those three board members had filed for election as of Friday.
The deadline to file for city and school board elections is noon Monday.
“We need people on the school board who have the best interest of the community and children at heart,” Herman stated in a press release, “determined to make sure the children of the district receive the quality of education and advocacy they deserve.”
Herman said in a Hays Post interview he has been interested in public education since he interned at the Kansas Legislature.
“I am a strong believer in public schools and want to make sure we are allowing the children in our community to reach their full potential academically,” he said.
Herman said he wanted to help wherever he can.
“My only agenda is making sure we are doing what is best for the community,” he said, “both from a fiscal standpoint and from the perspective of having an eye on the future and making sure our students are adequately prepared for life after school.”
The Hays school district has had two bond votes fail in three years. Herman said the district needs to do something about its facilities.
“I think the biggest issue we have had with past bonds is that, on the one hand, we have a state law that says we need to take the biggest bite as we can otherwise we have to wait to get everything else done,” he said. “At the same time, you need to make sure the public is comfortable with it. We haven’t put together a proposal yet that the public is entirely comfortable with.”
Herman described himself as fiscally responsible.
“No one wants to raise taxes, but at the same time, we do need to do something,” he said of facilities, “and we need a way to pay for it.”
The school board has also had strained relations recently with the Hays NEA. The BOE reached impasse during negotiations last year.
“The teacher’s union is the mouthpiece for the teachers in the school district,” Herman said. “We need to take them seriously. We need to treat them with respect, just like we would anyone else. We need to listen to their concerns. At the same time, we need to respect that this is the community’s money that we are using, and we need to listen to the members of the community as well.”
The current school board has also had split votes on technology and the district’s one-to-one computer policy for students.
“Technology in schools, like in any other industry, is a continuing arms race. You are never going to be able to make an investment in technology and say this solves our problems forever,” Herman said. “Technology in the school needs to be an ongoing issue at the front of everyone’s mind with a constant eye for beneficial changes to be made.”
Herman has worked as an attorney in Hays for nine years. He is graduate of the University of Kansas and University of Kansas Law School. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for Kansas Senate two years ago.
He is on the board of the Northwest Kansas Community Corrections and Northwest Kansas Juvenile Services boards.
He has a child who formerly attended Lincoln Elementary School, but is now enrolled at Holy Family.
The general elections will be Nov. 5.