By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
After 37 years working in schools, former Hays Middle School Principal Craig Pallister is seeking to get back into education. He filed this week to run for the Hays USD 489 school board.
Pallister, 65, joins a field of eight other candidates for four open positions on the board, including incumbents Paul Adams and Luke Oborny and newcomers Lori Hertel, Tammy Wellbrock, Alex Herman, Allen Park, Jessica Moffitt and Cole Engel.
“My thoughts are still with public education,” Pallister said. “It is one of those [things I wanted] to give back now to education that I have the time to do it.”
Pallister said he does not think the district or the board needs any major changes.
“I moved to Hays 37 years ago when my oldest child was just getting into kindergarten because it had a great education system and it’s a great community to raise kids,” Pallister said. “We just need to publicize how good our public schools are. I don’t think people realize that if they went to other places around the state of Kansas, Hays is very, very lucky.”
In terms of facility needs, Pallister said he thought the biggest need is at the elementary level.
The district has had two failed bond issues in three years — in 2016 and 2017.
The school board has discussed adding two sections to Roosevelt Elementary School and closing Lincoln Elementary School, which is more than 90 years old and has significant infrastructure problems. The board will consider time lines in July for a bond election in 2020.
The board has also discussed including in the bond issue expansion of the HMS cafeteria.
“The specific need for Hays Middle School after being there for 25 years is the cafeteria,” Pallister said. “We were lucky to get additions built on a couple of times while I was there, so we have the space, but it is the cafeteria that is really the specific need. It is not a want; it is a need.”
The cafeteria was built for 400 students and is now serving almost 700 students.
“We get them fed, but we had to rush their lunches so much,” he said. “They don’t get to socialize. It is like being in a restaurant that is overcrowded and has people standing in line all of the time.”
The school district reached impasse with the Hays NEA during negotiations last year.
“The district just needs to listen to the teachers about their needs and what they want to change in the district,” Pallister said. “I think the district needs to get back to realizing our staff and faculty are the most important part of the school district. They are the ones that meet our kids every day. … If you have great staff and great teachers, you will have an outstanding district, and that is what we have.”
He said he thinks the district needs to promote itself to continue to draw quality teachers and staff members to the district.
“We should send out something that says, ‘Hays USD 489 — one of the best districts in the state of Kansas,’ ” he said, “and we could stand behind it because we have the teachers and we have the staff and our kids come out and are prepared.”
The board has also heavily debated its one-to-one computer policy.
“Technology is just part of the integral education process,” Pallister said, “but our kids need that solid technology background to be able to be successful through 12th grade and then through post-secondary education.
“I have had two daughters go through universities now, and they had a very good technology background after being in USD 489 and it is having it every day in front of them.”
Pallister was the assistant principal at HMS for four years before serving as head principal for 21 years. Prior to working in Hays, he was an assistant middle school principal for three years and a teacher for 10 years at the middle school in Dodge City.
He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fort Hays State University.
“I have the historical background because I have worked under four superintendents of schools in Hays,” he said. “I feel like I bring a lot of knowledge of education and the historical knowledge of how the district has done the good things and the times we have not done good things.”
Pallister’s wife also worked for the Hays school district. She retired this spring from her position as a librarian for Roosevelt and Lincoln Elementary schools.
Pallister said the most important reason he is running is because he has a granddaughter who will be a second grader at Wilson Elementary School in the fall.
“I just have the time, and I want to be involved in education because that has been my life,” he said.