Mid-Prairie and Highland school board elections tomorrow

Voters in the Highland and Mid-Prairie School Districts will select school board members at the polls Tuesday. Four persons are running for the four open seats on the Mid-Prairie School Board. Incumbents Randy Billups and George Schaefer will seek another term on the board. Matthew Frascht and Charles ?Chuck? Freeman are also on the ballot. Voters may vote for no more than four candidates.

The three polling places for the Mid-Prairie school board election are at the Kalona Community Building, the Wellman Parkside Activities Center and at the West Chester Heritage Building. The polling places are open from noon until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Highland School District has four open seats on its board as well. For three of the four seats, the incumbent has chosen not to run, the one exception being Cindy Michel. Michel is from Riverside and represents District 6.

The incumbent at-large school board member Bruce Temple will not run again. His seat is the only contested seat, and it will be contested by four persons. Alan Beers of Ainsworth, Dwight Houseal of Riverside, Laura Temple Scheetz of Riverside and Nick A. Smith of Riverside are all contending for the seat.

Only one candidate registered for the District 2 race and that is Michael Golden. Megan Allen is also running unopposed in District 6.

The two polling places for the Highland school board elections are at the Ainsworth Fire Station and at the Riverside City Hall. Polling places are open from noon until 8 p.m.

Smith said Highland is on the right path and he is seeking election to the board in order that the district stay on that path. Smith taught at Highland for 28 years until he retired last spring.

?We started a few new programs and a new philosophy that I liked,? he said. ?The concept is that the students should learn at their own pace. The teacher generally acts more like a facilitator for learning knowledge rather than giving knowledge from on high.?

Smith said he is especially pleased with the new program the district has for students with learning disabilities.

?The old program was to take those students out of the class and have them go to a resource teacher, or leave them in class and have them see a resource teacher later in the day,? he said. ?This new program brings resource teachers to the classroom. In some cases, like the year before last, I would have up to three resource teachers or aides and myself in the classroom, particularly if I had kids with learning disabilities. It?s targeted right then and there on the spot. I found it to be incredibly successful.?