CULLMAN – Cullman City School Board candidates participated in a public forum last night at Cullman High School. The Cullman City Education Association (CCEA) hosted the event, which was sponsored by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and The Cullman Times.
For the first hour, the candidates discussed issues one-on-one with constituents and potential voters.
Julie Fillinger, candidate for place five, was able to discuss some of her goals and ambitions she wishes to accomplish if elected. Her highest priority, she said, is “that every child feels cared for,” and she pledged to uphold very high standards academically; also, she noted that everyone in the Cullman City school system needs to feel, “cared for and heard.” She did admit, however, that she has only been to two school board meetings in the last year, as a private citizen, and has a lot to learn. She has spoken to many educators and individuals such as Russell Raney in her efforts to educate herself on school board procedures and needs for the position.
Mary Hovater, candidate for place one, has, “been to several (school board) meetings, especially over the last few years” in preparation for her school board run this year. She was inspired by her children who have gone through the Cullman City school system and the fact that she “(has) some skills that will translate very nicely from a federal to a state level… dealing with federal budgets and strategy as well as implementation that they need on a school board.” She wishes to address several pressing issues, especially unity, a primary issue that she heard on her listening tour in the community. When asked about transgender issues she said, “We have to follow the law and we don’t want to alienate anybody, but it’s a very delicate situation.” She continued, “Even though at times we can be closed-minded individually, in general we are very open-minded about making sure that there is inclusion. I’m all about inclusion,” making Mary Hovater “the candidate of inclusion.”
Suzanne Harbin, incumbent candidate for place five, says her main focus is, “to see the inauguration of our strategic plan and to see it come to fruition,” and to handle the overcrowding of classrooms, “particularly in the elementary schools.” She wants to, “accommodate those students (brought in by annexation and businesses moving in) if they want to come into Cullman City Schools.” Harbin also noted that she would advocate for “family, neutral bathrooms where anybody can go in and feel very comfortable,” should the issue of transgender bathroom rights come up during her term. She did note, however, that the Cullman City School Board has to follow the state school board.
The forum started with an invocation from Cullman High School Principal Kim Hall, at 6 p.m.
Each candidate has a different set of priorities. Everyone agreed that overcrowding is an immediate issue that needs to be addressed. Kevin Binkowski, candidate for place two, says his primary focus, however, is on updating and maintaining a technological edge over other schools to improve Cullman City Schools.
Joey Orr, candidate for place one, noted, “If you’re planning a trip, the school board sets the destination (while) the teachers, the facility, the staff and administration figure out how to get there.” She believes that the school board needs to spend more time listening to “the people on the ground” as she laid out her plans to personalize the board.
Harbin suggested expanding arts and foreign language funding in the elementary schools to make the Cullman City school system one of the best in Alabama; along with expanding the piano program in the middle school and high school. She said she would like to see about offering a college within Cullman High School.
Candidates were asked about the possibility of a sixth grade academy in an effort to curb overcrowding in the elementary schools. Orr offered a subjectively interesting proposal to fix this issue: she suggests that each school “specialize” in an age group to better focus teachers’ abilities towards a certain age group mindset. She noted the success of the primary school when describing her plan to tackle overcrowding. She also showed support for a sixth grade academy should that come to a vote in her tenure. Fillinger responded in a similar sense by expressing her plans to put, “second and third grade at East Elementary and fourth, fifth and sixth at West Elementary.”
The forum addressed the fact that several complaints have been received about school traffic, especially traffic around Cullman High School and the primary school. A proposal that will face the newly elected school board is the issue of staggered school scheduling where each school starts at a different time in order to alleviate traffic flow. Lee Powell, candidate for place number three, stated quite bluntly that, “it’s obvious that you don’t want someone showing up at the same place at the same time.” He said that he agrees with the concept of a staggered schedule and argued that, to an extent, the schedule is already staggered; however, he wants to consider exactly how staggered the schedule will be because he does not want the schedule to be too staggered.
Susan Martin Hauk took a more comical approach to this question by stating that, “If you don’t like sitting in traffic, leave early… leave a few minutes later or a few minutes earlier if you don’t like that heavy duty traffic.” She went on to talk about early dismissal on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the high school, saying “if we dismiss our high schoolers [on] Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., why can’t we let them start later two days a week instead of letting them out early?” A notion that would surely be greatly appreciated by many Cullman High School students.
Chris Branham, candidate for place two, said he wants to approach the traffic situation from a business perspective. “When we’re dealing with an issue, good or bad, we always look at it from a customer’s perspective and from a business standpoint and somewhere in the middle is a happy medium,” he said, as he wants to weigh all of the ideas that are coming in to resolve the traffic issue.
It seems the debate that never dies has creeped its way back into our school board election: fast track/duel enrollment or Advanced Placement (AP) classes?
Fillinger came right out of the gate stating that she, “is not a fan of fast track,” and expressed her own experiences with AP when talking about her son, Drew Fillinger, who is a senior at Cullman High School and takes AP classes. She mentioned several college trips to wit the admission councilors constantly asked, “Do you take AP classes, or “How are you doing in AP classes?” as she made the argument that AP classes better prepare students for college. Hovater said she is “pro-whatever is best for our kids” and says that it allows the child to follow their own path.
Harbin clarified that duel enrollment does not hurt the school systems’ rankings because all fast track students must return to the high school to take standardized tests, such as the ACT, and the number of fast track students is a very small percentage of students enrolled at the high school.
Regarding current communication policies with respect to the board, the administrators, the facility and parents, all candidates were in agreement that more could be done to make the process more transparent and that the process could be improved in some way. Steve Sides, incumbent candidate for place three, says that he “is currently satisfied and that it can absolutely be improved.” Binkowski offered to, “listen to our community (and) walk around knocking door-to-door,” in an effort to make sure that everyone’s voice will be heard. Branham suggested that “each board member, once a year, show up at a (Parent Teacher Association) PTA meeting,” to try to listen to issues in the community.
Education has drastically changed over the last 10 years and will continue to change at an accelerated rate as time goes on. Harbin rolled out her idea to increase internships from the current small scale, to a much larger program that will prepare students for their future careers. She mentioned internships, much to the excitement of the crowd in attendance.
Hovater began to get emotional as she started relating her own, personal experience as a student at Cullman High School who got in the co-op program at Wallace. She said she “wouldn’t be anywhere near where she is today,” without the program.
The prior school board approved a five-year plan that represents community expectations for the school system which will culminate during the upcoming elected term. Powell said that “the five-year plan is just a start,” and that the school board must have an “everyday plan” that addresses short-term goals on a day-by-day basis. Orr followed up by saying, “successful people, once they reach their goal, they set a new one,” showing her support for the idea that what was laid out in the five-year plan is short-term and that the school board must set new, ambitious goals once the current ones are completed.
Education funding is a hot-topic issue in Alabama, where schools get their money from federal, state and local governments. What revenue is locally provided is generated by property and sales tax. Hauk, Harbin and Hovater support raising property taxes in order to raise funding for the school system, while Binkowski avoided the question by saying that he, “would support whatever the citizens of the city decide to do.”
Branham, Sides, Orr and Fillinger stated that they do not support raising taxes.
In their closing statements, candidates were given the opportunity to add anything that may have not been asked during the questioning.
Hauk closed by saying that, “we (as a board) need to focus more on our kids that are not going off to college; our AP college grads don’t usually stay in Cullman, but our other kids do. We need to invest back into this community the same way this community has invested in the schools.” She also introduced her thoughts on term limits or staggered terms for school board members.
Sides made one final push for his campaign saying that “I’ve been an incumbent for the past eight years and you know what you’ll be getting for the next four years.”
Hovater said, “I don’t want to stand on the sidelines, I want to help. I feel like everybody in the community ought to take a turn; it’s our community.”
Cullman City Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Patterson stated that she is very excited to be working with the new board members.
The municipal election for the City of Cullman will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 23. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Residents of Cullman will vote on the following:
Mayor
- Woodrow "Woody" Jacobs
- Max A. Townson
Cullman City Council Place 4
- Clint Hollingsworth
- Wayne Walker
Cullman City School Board Place 1
- Mary Hovater
- Joey Orr
Cullman City School Board Place 2
- Kevin Binkowski
- Chris Branham
- Susan Martin Hauk
Cullman City School Board Place 3
- Lee Powell
- Steven Sides
Cullman City School Board Place 5
- Julie Fillinger
- Suzanne Fuller Harbin
Get out and vote!
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