This is the seventh story in a nine-part series featuring the candidates in the city and School Board races.
There will be two open seats for the School Board, with five people running for the seats.
Early voting for the election will begin in-person Oct. 15. Advance ballots will also be mailed Oct. 15. The last day to apply for an advance voting mail ballot is Oct. 28.
The county election office will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 15 through Oct. 24, then 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 27 through Oct. 31. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1, Eudora City Hall and the county election office will also be open for advanced voting. Nov 3 is the last day for advanced voting, which will be from 8 a.m. to noon at the election office.
Regular voting will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 4.
Travis McCormick
Current Job
Works in telecommunications
Community involvement
When my kids were little, I was involved with the elementary school, middle school. Rec Center coaching. High school booster club activities. Ran for north township twice. Still attend all meetings and participated in multiple Douglas County Commission meetings over the last several years.
Why are you running for election?
Primarily running because there’s a vacancy, and no one else wanted to step in and fill it. So, figure as a taxpayer and as an organization that is using tax dollars, somebody should at least have a voice. Why not me?
What issues are most important to you?
I don’t have any specific issues with the school. So, right now, the status quo seems to be pretty good. If elected, you know, once I get in and get a better understanding of how the finances are being used, or what the cumulative GPA is for the school district as a whole, and how it’s moved over the years, I suppose at that time I’ll pick an important issue and start to see what differences I can make.
I think I would like to see the STEM programs expanded and, you know, the addition of some more vocational programs, or at least maybe some programs that were geared more toward operation of your own business. I seem to believe between Peaslee Tech and Eudora, there’s a lot of vocational opportunities out there, or educational opportunities for kids, but at the same time, we don’t tell those kids, hey, you have the opportunity to run your own business, and this is probably how you would do that. Or here’s a business management class to get a basic understanding of what it would take to do that, or how your finances would work.
What steps need to be done by the district to continue to prepare for any growth as Panasonic is officially open, if any?
I think just understanding what that growth could end up being, first, trying to decide what steps you’re going to take for something that hasn’t been realized yet. It’s difficult, you know, continuing to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes is probably a good first step, regardless of whether Eudora grows much as a district or not. Past that, I think it’s a, you know, kind of a wait and see, what did the numbers tell you, you know, as far as growth goes.
How do you hope to improve the educational experience for students in the district?
Yeah, so educational experience, as long as the grade point average stays up and the graduation rate stays high, educational experience seems to take care of itself. I guess the addition so, as I kind of spoke to there earlier, the addition of some classes that might help students come out of high school be more prepared for possibly being in a vocation where they can open their own business, or, you know, I’ve always wondered why, at a high school level, we don’t have the opportunity for kids to learn more about investing in their 401K, how better to handle their money, why their credit rating is important, how to deal with credit cards.
There’s a lot of life skills classes, and I don’t want that to be understated, I guess. But there’s kind of – there’s a whole host of classes that could be offered at the high school level that would be beneficial to a lot of people, but they’re just not out there, unless you take them at a college level, and some of those students just don’t have aspirations to go to college.
What is the board’s role in helping to recruit and retain staff and teachers?
The board’s role is probably just to ensure that, you know, pay is fair and equal based on districts that are around us and retaining the teachers is pretty much kind of the same stance. Certainly don’t want to be overpaying individuals if grade point averages are falling or their classes are suffering. There’s got to be some metrics for measuring performance to say, okay, yeah, this teacher is performing, and likewise, meet them at a comparable salary for that performance.
What would you like to see from the Legislature to provide better support for K-12 education?
You know, at this time, I’m not sure what I would expect the Kansas Legislature to do as far as K-12 education. I don’t believe education is necessarily driven from the top down, right. So, to have the state mandate educational requirements for every school district, broadly across the board, doesn’t always seem reasonable.
What is the district’s greatest strength?
I think the biggest strength in the district would be the size of the community. I think the size of our community is great. It allows everybody to kind of know of everyone. You may not be the best friends with everyone, but at least you understand their point of view, because it is a smaller district, it’s easier to communicate from one person to the other, or from, you know, the middle school to the high school, or parents to teachers. It’s pretty open. So, I feel like in larger districts, that communication is often lost because there’s just such a vast number of people, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, if you’re too large. So, the size of the district.
What about the biggest challenges for the district?
The biggest challenge for the district would be to not grow too quickly. And I know I said earlier, understanding the growth of Panasonic and then what those next steps would be. You know, an explosion of kids into a single class could definitely change the way things are done pretty drastically. And that can happen over, you know, the course of three months in a single summer, just depending on how much growth Eudora sees and how quickly resident opportunities are presented.
You know, several apartment complexes get built, let’s say, for instance, over the next year. Then next summer, you can see an explosion in student enrollment going into the fall … so that’s the biggest challenge.
What is your vision for the future of the district?
I think it’s just kind of status quo. As long as the district is performing at a high level and students are graduating, grades are good, overall experience for students remains positive, and there’s not a lot of teachers leaving the district for what they would consider to be better opportunities or better pay then I would really just hope that over the next four years, the district remains where it’s at.
It seems to be in a positive spot, but it’ll really just depend on, you know, getting into the meetings and being more involved in the financials or how things are handled. Again, I’d like to see the growth in the STEM programs and more of that vocational area. I think a lot of kids are leaving the district and maybe don’t have the opportunities that they’re looking for because maybe the classes just aren’t available to them. So, suppose some addition to the educational experience would be nice.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Given the opportunity, I think I’m well suited to spend the next four years helping make decisions or guide those decisions as a whole. But again, nothing happens in the School Board, you know, at a single point. So it’s all based on a majority, but the opinions I have to offer are based on, you know, having been through the school district, having seen it from my own eyes, having sent two kids through it, and now being a taxpayer who’s just watching as the school district continues as one of the – well, the biggest employer in Eudora, right? So understanding that, I think, allows me a good perspective.