rachelweitekamp
This is the seventh story in an 11-part series featuring the candidates for City Commission and School Board. One story will be featured each day between Oct. 8 and Oct. 18.
Mark Chrislip
Candidate for School Board
Current job
I am an organizational health consultant. I run my own business.
Current community involvement
I’ve been on the school board for 32 years so I’ve been involved in a lot of things.
Why are you running for election?
Well, a couple reasons. With Panasonic, we are going to be going through a lot of strategic planning, trying to figure out how to be prepared for that growth. I feel like my experience will be very beneficial to the board and to the district, so that’s one reason. The other is that this is my way of staying connected to the community. When I started, I had kids in school and they’ve all gone through school, now I have a few grandkids. It’s just a good way to stay involved with the community, and I think I can help make a big impact.
The opening of Panasonic will have a big impact on the region. What steps do you think the school board should be taking right now to prepare for that?
First thing we did, we passed the bond that we just went through and that was just prep work. What we’re gonna do is go through the process of trying to understand, what do we think it will look like in five years? How do we get to the place that we need to be to be able to serve the community?
It’s going to be difficult to understand the growth and the impact until we see what happens with housing in Eudora. If the housing doesn’t support the growth, then we won’t see the growth. So, it’s really a wait and see. But at the same time, keeping our eyes out. The superintendent and I had a conversation with the folks in Reno, who have already gone through this, and they gave us some help as well.
How do you hope to improve the educational experience for students in the district?
Improvement is something we always want to look at, but I think we do a great job at that right now. We do a good job at handing off from building-to-building and preparing students in advance for what the next step is going to be. The administrators do a really good job of handing that off, so improvement would just be to continue what we’re doing.
There are other things we need to improve on: math and reading scores are down. The effects of COVID really hurt a lot of areas. We have a staff that is very dialed into the data. So, as a board, our role is to look at the data and help encourage what we’re going to do to make things better.
Nationwide, school districts have been struggling to hire and retain teachers. What role do you see for the school board in helping with that issue?
I think Eudora is in a great place because the quality of life here is really good. So, I don’t think we have as much trouble attracting good teachers as a lot of places do because it’s just a community people want to be a part of. The support from the community for the schools is tremendous, like, 75% approval of the bond is unheard of.
We try to do a lot of things to help teachers. We have a program called a stay interview, instead of an exit interview, and the purpose behind that is that we ask the teachers and staff a lot of questions to get their input on how they feel about the district and what we could do to improve. Then, every year, the board looks at that and tries to make adjustments to improve. We try to keep a close ear to what’s going on and that’s been beneficial.
Pay is always an issue, and we do what we can. But that’s really a legislative issue more than a local issue.
Staff also play a critical role in keeping schools going: bus drivers, janitors, cafeteria workers, secretaries, etc. How do you think the school board can support and retain these employees?
We do the same thing. They are involved in the same stay interviews. We get input from them. We try to do what we can to make sure we’re competitive from a wage standpoint. We have one of the best bus driver retainments in the state and that has a lot to do with the people that are running that. We have administrators that do a good job at supporting those folks.
With the passing of the bond, there are a lot of changes coming to the schools, especially the high school. What do you think are the greatest needs in the district as it relates to infrastructure?
Unfortunately, HVAC is a big issue – it’s not a very sexy thing, but it is something that’s very necessary. Also, the gymnasium is a huge benefit to the whole school district. We made a decision to make that as big as possible so it will accommodate a lot of different sports and activities. That’s really important. The safety at the middle school. That’s one building we didn’t have a really big safety measure in place, so we’re really excited about that and it’s important.
Adding classrooms at the high school, connecting that building so that kids don’t have to walk from one building to another in the cold or the rain or the wind or whatever it is, that’s good. I think that we have put in place some really good things. Then, of course, the pre-k, that’s gonna be huge.That’s gonna be a really cool building.
What would you like to see from the Legislature to provide better support for K-12 education?
More finances, especially in the area of special education. They haven’t met that requirement. But that’s really our biggest need – for them to help out with finances.
What is the district’s greatest strength?
We have a lot. I think our staff is a great strength. The community support is a great strength. The school foundation is a huge support. We have good buildings. We have really good facilities. We do a good job at providing all that we can to give the tools to the teachers that they need. I think we are a great district. I think we are one of the best in the state of Kansas, frankly.
What about the biggest challenges for the district?
One of the biggest challenges is what we’re going to see in the future and how we’ll adapt to it. Just academic improvement, dealing with the effects of COVID, working hard at improving our math and reading scores, I think those are areas we need to be focusing on.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I’m excited about the future for Eudora schools. The past 32 years, I’ve seen a lot of things happen that have really improved our district, and I think we’re on that trajectory and I just want to be a part of making that continue.
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