Five people will seek three seats on the Albert Lea school board this fall.

Members of the community had the chance to file for three school board positions until 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Jill Marin was the first to file on July 30 and was written about in the Tribune the next day. Since then, four others have filed for office: Mark Ciota, David Klatt, Kendal Langseth and Heather Sadauskis. The election is Nov. 4.

 

Mark Ciota

Mark Ciota, CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System of Albert Lea and Austin, is running for his second term with the school board. He said he wanted to run again because he has enjoyed the last four years and said the board has done a lot of work he wants to see get finished.

In the past four years, the board has moved from being a management board to a governance board and that it has done well, Ciota said.

He highlighted that the school board has worked hard to standardize the experience that each student gets across all of the buildings. He also said the board has done well fiscally with limited resources.

Looking to the future, Ciota is interested in seeing ACT averages improve. He also wants to work to provide alternative learning tracks for students who aren’t interested in going to college. He wants to provide the same quality of education about career paths, job training and job placement for those students.

Ciota also wants to further work on relationships with local businesses to give seniors work experience.

Ciota is interested in being on the board even though his children are out of school because when the medical center interviews prospective employees, the second thing they always ask about is the school system, he said. He wants to help the school be the best it can be for that reason.

 

David Klatt

State Farm insurance agent David Klatt said he has looked at a school board position for a while and decided to run for the first time this year.

Klatt said now that his children are out of school, it seemed like a good time to offer his viewpoints to the school board.

He would like to see the school continue to become as fiscally sound as it can so it can provide as many programs as possible. Klatt said learning and extracurricular opportunities are important for students.

As his children will be graduating from universities and medical school soon, he connected their success to programs in elementary and high school.

Klatt said there is always room to add more to continue to help children succeed in the future, and he wanted to contribute his time to that.

 

Kendall Langseth

Kendall Langseth, private consultant, is similar to Klatt: He was always interested in being on the school board, but it wasn’t the right time. Now, Langseth believes it is his time to offer his service to the school board.

Langseth said he worked at the University of Minnesota for 17 years, so education is very important to him. He has three children who went through the school system, and he wants to work on the educational system in Albert Lea.

He said there are a number of things that he would like to examine, such as seeing if the school board is meeting goals and doing the best it can for students in Albert Lea. He also highlighted that he would be interested in examining the systems within the school district.

 

Heather Sadauskis

Heather Sadauskis, who works in dialysis through the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said she filed for the school board because she has always been passionate about public education. She believes that the most important thing to do as a parent and community member is to be actively involved with the school.

Sadauskis said not all students have a strong support system and she wants to be an advocate for students who don’t have a voice. She said she wants to make sure teachers aren’t just teaching for one sector of students, whether that be gifted students or those that need more academic help.

As a district, she wants to make sure all students are being reached equally because one of the biggest things is making the student successful, she said.

She also said it is important to look outside of the box and contemplate ideas that may seem unconventional, as they have a potential to benefit students and to be economical.