The newest members of the Anderson Community Schools Board of Trustees on Tuesday repeated their vows to work collaboratively with administrators, other board members and the public to further the district’s educational mission.
Robert “Buckie” Bookhart, Joanna Collette and Mandy Webb were sworn in as new board members during Tuesday’s meeting. Board President Pat Hill, the only incumbent who ran for re-election in November, also took the oath of office.
“I’m not coming into this as a me thing but as a we thing,” Webb said. “The only way we are going to get some of the concerns met is working together. Hands down.”
Bookhart and Collette previously served on the board, with Bookhart serving from 2016-2020 and Collette serving from 1994-1998.
“So much has changed in 25 years since I’ve been on this board,” Collette said. “A lot of things are the same, but so many different issues, and the staff and attorney have done a really great job, really, in a short amount of time, hitting the important issues for us.”
During a break in a daylong orientation session for the new board members, Bookhart said his time away from the board let him learn more about the issues the district faces.
“I’ve learned a lot since my first time on the board,” he said. “It’ll be different this time for me, just because of the experience I’ve had in the past.”
Bookhart was the most vocal participant among the six members present at Tuesday’s meeting.
During the board’s reorganization, he nominated himself for president, and later, as the board considered a routine approval of its rules of engagement — an outline of protocols for public conduct that is read at the beginning of each regular meeting — he objected to some wording in the document.
“I’m all about doing the right thing,” Bookhart told those in attendance.
“If the public wants to speak, let them speak. (If) they start getting rambunctious, we’ll have the police officers throw them out. But don’t be stifling people who take their time to come to a community meeting where they want to try to communicate and find out what’s going on.”
The three new board members, along with their incumbent colleagues, will confront several ongoing challenges in the new year. The district is in the midst of a yearlong process of gathering feedback and formulating a new strategic plan, which Superintendent Joe Cronk said will demand much of their attention.
The board must also prepare for negotiations on a new contract with the Anderson Federation of Teachers and manage the task of retaining educators in a challenging hiring environment, he said.
“School corporations compete for teachers now, and salary has to be competitive,” Cronk said. “Going into next year’s bargaining cycle, we have to be competitive with salary.”
Also, Cronk noted, some legislative surprises could emerge from the current session of the General Assembly that may affect funding and other aspects of district operations. Gov. Eric Holcomb last week proposed a 6% K-12 funding boost for the next school year that would be the largest increase in more than a decade.
“That’ll go through numerous calculations and cogitations, so just dealing with all of that, that’s going to be what’s going to take up most of our planning,” Cronk said.
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.