This is the ninth 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. 

Heather Whalen

Current job 

An urban nonprofit called Caring for Kids Network in Kansas City. Teaching third grade on Tuesdays.

Community involvement 

Different sports organizations, parent organizations. I’m a LinkUp mentor at the middle school. Volunteer at All Night Prom.

Why are you running for election?

I absolutely love and believe in Eudora schools. It has been a privilege to serve these past four years on the School Board, and I have enjoyed immensely supporting the administration, the staff, the teachers, the students, the parents. I just think it’s a way that I can use my background as an educator to help navigate some of the things that the board faces. 

I bring a little bit of a different lens and viewpoint. I’ve been in education in some form for over 35 years, and I have found that very helpful as we navigate topics on the board. I also served on a School Board in Kansas City, in the inner city, for 13 years previous to this, and so it’s just a passion of mine to support schools, and this is my opportunity to support the schools that two of my daughters have graduated from, and my son is currently a high school student. 

What issues are most important to you?

Most important is providing a high quality educational experience for every student that walks through our doors and that could look different in many ways, so making sure that the teachers, administrators, every school has what they need to support all those different interests and types of students that come to the Eudora schools. 

So, that’s very important to me is that students feel known, and I think that’s why I’m really passionate about the strategic plan that we built as a board a little over a year ago. The strategic plan where we included that our promise of every student in Eudora schools will be known by name, strength and need. I think when a student at either kindergarten all the way through high school feels known, that somebody knows their name, they notice when they’re not there, they notice if they seem sad or things have changed, when they feel known, I feel like the academics will follow, and I’m amazed at the staff that we have in Eudora, the teachers, administrators are the most giving, caring, all-in staff that I have ever been around. So, that’s a passion of mine.

What steps need to be done by the district to continue to prepare for any growth as Panasonic is officially open, if any? 

That’s a great question. That’s something that we’ve been focused on as a board since we learned of Panasonic coming and now is here. I think there’s some things that are within our control and some things that are not within our control. 

So, one that I feel like we did [with] immense community support and partnership was the passing of the bond. I think that was a fabulous thing for our district, and not as something just for [the] future. That is something that’s impacting every student now, and I’m very proud of the fact that that bond made significant improvements and impact at all four of our buildings across the district, from the Early Learning Center to the elementary school to the middle school to the high school. 

If you walk in there, you can see exactly where the money has gone. That’s something that I think was very due and important, and that will help with any growth that we do see. 

I think continuing to look at: Are we preparing our students the best we can for the world that we live in now? And so, some of the new academic improvements we’ve made at the high school with some individual learning plans where we’ve increased our college opportunities to receive college credit, and just also partnering with more real-world learning experiences, like with Peaslee Tech, where our students who aren’t wanting to go the four-year college route, they are taking classes through Peaslee Tech and other opportunities where they can earn certificates, even through Chef Low’s program and the auto body tech and things like that, where they can enter the workforce right out of high school better prepared. 

I think things like that are very, very important for growth for Eudora and then housing is an issue, and we can, as a board or as community members, we can support the growth of housing. Some of that’s a little bit beyond our control, and that is hurting our enrollment numbers, and it makes it seem like our numbers are down, and that makes it seem like a negative thing, but it’s actually because of a positive thing – if everybody comes to Eudora and loves it and nobody moves out, so we’re just short on housing and so those are some things that are challenges for us is the housing situation in order to increase our enrollment. 

How do you hope to improve the educational experience for students in the district?

Really, as a School Board member, the best way we can do that is by supporting our teachers and administrators with ideas and innovations that they come up with, and allowing them creativity and ability to do some of those things. Again, we’ve seen that kind of at the high school level, with the partnering with Peaslee Tech and some of the real world learning opportunities, and the innovation of the creation of Cardinal U, where students were partnering with other universities that we hadn’t in the past, where they’re getting different opportunities to earn more college credit before they graduate.

But then more than that, it’s not just at the high school level. As a district, we purchased a new English language arts curriculum last year for the whole district. So, that’s impacting and improving the education experience there. This year, the elementary staff and administrators worked really hard to adjust their schedule to provide more collaborative opportunities for their teachers to dive into the data and really work and see what’s working, what isn’t, where they can adjust by the week, instead of just waiting until the end of semester or the end of quarter when they have time. 

So, again, just allowing the people who are in the classrooms every day, seeing the kids, allowing them the opportunity to be creative, be innovative, and work their amazing magic with our kids on how best to educate and serve them

What is the board’s role in helping to recruit and retain staff and teachers? 

I think it’s an important role, and part of our role, for sure, because we have the opportunity to – like I kind of said, it kind of ties back in with allowing our teachers and educators to be innovative, to be creative, to provide the opportunity, the funding, the salaries, competitive salaries, for them to do that. And then it shows in the quality of how teachers feel about working in Eudora and there’s always a difficulty with finances, just in Eudora’s location, in being so close to Lawrence and Kansas City. 

So, it will be the financial piece of being able to be competitive is a struggle, a real struggle, and with enrollment decreasing, it continues to be difficult, but I am committed, the board is committed to providing every opportunity we can to be competitive in our salaries and our benefits, but also providing workplace opportunities that make teachers feel supported and appreciated.

What would you like to see from the Legislature to provide better support for K-12 education?

I think that, again, that’s a place that will always and forever be a continual battle. I think just providing, supplementing fully what they have committed to for special education would be a great place to start. Funding what the state has always said they would fund, because that burden falls on the school district to make up the difference, and that has hampered many districts across the state. 

I think providing the tax breaks that districts need, that cities and communities need, making it even for the city of Eudora to want to do some of the initiatives that they have that would bring in revenue, to limit some of the red tape that hampers growth in the city, which therefore then trickles down and hampers growth in the school district.

What is the district’s greatest strength?

Our people, by far. Eudora’s greatest strengths are its teachers, its administrators, its students, its parents. It is the thing that drew us to Eudora 12 years ago. When we were driving through Eudora, thinking about possibly moving here, I saw in many of the business windows what turned out, what I didn’t know at the time, that turned out to be the foundation’s the Cardinal heart. 

And it was evident from the moment we first started looking that this was a town united around its schools, and that is a huge thing. I grew up in western Kansas, and I know that the heartbeat of a community is its schools, and so if the schools are supported, then the community flourishes. And so Eudora, I think, is the shining example of support across the board for not just high school or middle school, but the elementary school, the Early Learning Center. 

And it’s, you know, you go to a Friday night football game and you see the band, you see the cheerleaders, you see the parents of all of those, you see the students, you see the alumni, you see the senior citizens coming to the game, and that is just a snapshot of support that we see across the board in many of the initiatives that we have. And the Eudora Schools Foundation plays a huge role in that, too. I think that’s one of our other greatest strengths is the support that we have from the foundation, which again reflects the support from the community.

What about the biggest challenges for the district?

Housing. Right now, that is one of our biggest challenges, is the lack of affordable housing in the city and so, again, that isn’t necessarily something that falls on the School Board that is facing our district. We need housing and that, I think there’s –  I know there’s some initiatives and plans in place to work on that, but that is something and so then just adjusting to our enrollment being lower than it has been, and just the different areas and places where we can trim and be efficient, but not where it hurts our people or the academic product that we’re creating.

What is your vision for the future of the district? 

My vision for the future of Eudora is to continue to be a place where every student feels welcome, known, and I guess that really falls back to the promise that we formally put in place in our strategic plan. But just that every parent feels supported, as well, that we’re all in this together in the sense that each entity, from the board to the administrators to the teachers at every school building are for the parents, we are for the kids, and we are here to support them in whatever way and their child in whatever it takes to make them successful and to have a positive and meaningful learning experience and help them achieve what their goals are, whether that is on to college or on to a career path straight out of high school. 

So, my dream, my hope, is that parents feel supported, teachers, administrators feel supported, because we are all wanting to see success for each of our students.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I just want to say thank you for the opportunity for these past four years to serve on the board to support parents, teachers, staff, and I would love the opportunity to do it again.