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The four candidates for Albert Lea school board on Wednesday took on questions about everything from open enrollment, the school calendar and transparency to safety, taxes and teacher recruitment in a forum with KATE Radio’s Mike Woitas.

The forum, co-sponsored by the radio station and the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, was closed to the public in-person, but people could listen on air and submit questions ahead of time if desired.

Incumbents Angie Hoffman and Neal Skaar, along with challengers Kasey Wolters and Mary Jo Dorman, are running for three open seats.

Wolters said she is a lifelong resident and mother to a current student in the district and has a background in the financial industry, currently as a loan setup manager at AmeriNat.

When she ran for school board in 2022 but didn’t win, she said she didn’t initially plan to run again. But she was asked by many people who supported her then to run again.

“My passion for being at the school board table has not changed, and I would like to represent students, parents and staff,” she said, noting that students should be at the core of every decision made by the board.

Hoffman, who together with her husband owns a local real estate brokerage and several investment properties, said she first ran for office because she believed “regular, unlikely people need to step up, get out of their comfort zones and get involved in all levels of government.”

She said she is running for a second term because she thinks the school board needs to become more engaged in the district to do an effective job. She said the board needs to be more plugged in to what is happening in the district, be more accessible to staff, get more information from administration and provide proactive guidance for positions. While she previously felt alone in those concerns at times, she said there is increasing interest in the board to make improvements in those areas.

Dorman said she has lived in Albert Lea for 35 years and earned her elementary education degree in 1984. At the time it was difficult to get a teaching job so she worked for Norwest Bank for a time, but because of her passion for education, she ultimately switched over and became a first-grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary School. She has worked in various roles in the district for 24 years before retiring last year.

“I care about our schools,” she said. “I care about our students and staff.”

She said if elected to the school board, she would work diligently to ensure the district moves in the right direction and would give it her all, noting her love of problem solving.

For a school board to be effective, she said they need to make sure all the information is brought forward from the superintendent. She said she would celebrate the board’s successes while addressing work that needed to be done in a productive manner as she has previously done during her career.

Skaar said he was not “running” for the school board, but instead said he was “standing” for the school board.

A lifelong resident of the area, he graduated from Albert Lea High School and Luther College before he started teaching in the district in 1968 until he retired in 2014. He is completing his second term on the board. He has also been involved with the district’s wrestling program since the ’60s.

“I love education,” he said. “I love being on the board and I love being around staff and students. I  suppose that’s the main reason I’m running. I’m just — I’m an education addict.”

Open enrollment

When asked how the district should tackle concerns over open enrollment of students to other districts, Wolters said she knows quite a few students who have open enrolled into other districts outside of Albert Lea. She said while there are some who open enroll into the district, three is still a net loss of students.

She said the district needs to reach out to families and talk with them about what caused them to open enroll to another district and find ways to bridge any gaps and bring the students back to the district. While the Albert Lea district may have larger class sizes than some other smaller districts, it has many other competitive things to offer.

Hoffman said she thought it was important the district remain competitive or it would lose students, especially as more schooling options become available.

She said she agreed with talking to families who choose to leave the district and find out what their reasons are and noted she would also focus on student outcomes and making sure that students are getting the experience that they and their families are looking for.

Dorman said she also thought it was important to survey families leaving the district and find out why they are leaving.

She noted int he past week she talked with two staff members who open enroll outside of the district. When talking about why, she said class size was an issue, among other reasons.

Skaar said the district needs to put together a staff and curriculum that is “outstanding.”

He noted while there are some reasons families leave that are within the district’s control, there are other reasons that are out of their control.

He said while there are benefits in going to smaller schools, at larger schools they can provide more diverse opportunities to students.

Teacher recruitment

Skaar said the responsibility is with them to create the best district they can, and it is important to support teachers and give them opportunities to improve their professional development. He said it was also important to have an excellent core of administrators and principals who support their staff.

Dorman said it is important to listen to the current teachers, noting how different the classroom looks today from when she first started. She also talked about a program through the University of Minnesota called Grow Your Own Teachers, which works with school professionals, such as success coaches, to become certified teachers while keeping their job.

Hoffman said the district needs to focus on its current staff — retaining them and providing a rewarding environment. She said in the spring she started hearing a lot of information about stress and burnout amongst teachers, and she has been concerned about that ever since. She said the board needs more access to hear fro staff.

Wolters said it is important to build morale and build relationships with current staff so they feel rewarded and also talked about having a community that supports the district, whether that’s through having places for staff to live or through things such as child care. She said the district needs to partner with others in the community for these things.

Communication

Regarding communication with parents, particularly with calls or emails, Wolters said she is committed to keeping lines of communication open and talked about the importance of hearing from constituents, digging into issues and responding.

Hoffman said she has been committed to returning calls and emails and talked about how currently the protocol is if the board receives an email, the board chair responds well on behalf of the board. She said that has never set well with her.

Dorman said since filing for office, she has met with many staff and parents who reach out to her with questions. People are concerned with outreach back to parents and staff are also concerned.

She noted a recent email reportedly sent out by the superintendent to staff asking them to let him know if the school board members reach out to them. She said this came across as threatening to the staff.

Skaar said he receives communication from constituents regularly, and said that current protocol states if an email or communication is sent out to all of the board, it should be the chair who responds.

He said what they don’t need is the entire board receiving a concern from a parent and then the parent getting seven different answers from all seven of the board members.

He also talked about the importance of following chain of command when issues take place, including going to the teacher first and then the principal.

School safety

When asked whether the district is doing enough to keep students safe, particularly in the event of a school shooting, Skaar said the district has put several practices in place that are well thought out and researched and works closely with local law enforcement. He said he was confident the district was doing as much as possible.

Dorman said over the years it has been an issue the district has taken seriously. It now has locked doors on buildings, a speaker where people have to check in through before entering, as well as practices for lockdowns and staff training.

Hoffman said the district has also added a second police liaison officer, as well as a safety coordinator. It has regular drills and recently made improvements to school entrances to make them more secure. Currently there is not a method in place to screen students and visitors through a metal detector, and she talked about how she would want to get feedback on this issue.

Wolters said having the second school resource officer has been a blessing to all of the district schools and talked about the importance of the officers in building relationships with students.

She said the partnership with local law enforcement has been proactive and talked about how they look into any tips that are received. She also said it was important to keep communication open with parents.

School calendar

Regarding the school calendar and whether the district should start before or after Labor Day, Wolters said she has heard from a lot of people who would like to go back to a post Labor Day start. She would be open to a community survey on the issue.

Hoffman said while she didn’t have a personal preference on the issue, she would also support a parent survey. Dorman said while she didn’t have a yes or no answer, she thought it was important to listen to the parents and said it had been a while since a survey had been conducted.

Skaar said he didn’t lean heavily in any direction, but said he remembered as a teacher when they would come back from winter break and have a week and a half left of the semester.

He said he was not convinced, however, that any arrangement would increase test scores.

Transparency

Wolters said transparency needs to happen from the top to the bottom in the district and noted there are many ways to communicate. She said students need to be at the core of every decision.

Hoffman said transparency is an area she thinks the district could improve on and said there needs to be more proactive communication between the district and the public and the administration and the school board. The public also needs to know about issues early enough to give input.

Dorman said as she has been talking to staff, she thinks the district needs to provide more avenues for staff to provide input.

She referenced a statement made from Superintendent Ron Wagner during his initial interview with the district.

“A trusting relationship between a board and superintendent is essential and that is through open communication. You as a board should never be surprised with what’s taking place with the superintendent. I should be informing.”

She said she thinks there have been enough events occurring in which the board has been surprised and didn’t know about an issue and is finding out from the public or has had to change a decision.

She said the board can only be as effective as the information it receives.

Skaar said some information is not available to the public, citing rights of both teachers and students, but noted that transparency boils down to communication.