The residents of the the North Callaway County R-1 School District will be electing the new school board members on April 7.
The possible choices are incumbent Scott Starkey and newcomers John Wortmann and Amy Reinhard. School board member Dennis Zerr's term has also expired, but he will not be running, which leaves two open seats for three candidates.
The schools that are governed by the board are Auxvasse (K-8), Hatton-McCredie (K-8), North Callaway High School, T-Bird Learning Center (preschool), and Williamsburg (K-8).
The ballots have not been proofed by Superintendent Bryan Thomsen, but he said that the likely platform will be three names with check boxes and voters will check two of the possible three.
Scott Starkey
Starkey, 50, has a wife, a 17-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. Both of his children attend a school in the R-1 district. His address is in Montgomery City, but he lives just south of Williamsburg, he said.
He is an incumbent who has served one term of three years.
Starkey is a full-time farmer who graduated from North Callaway High School and has three years of college experience from Southwest Missouri State University.
He is running to try and improve the school for the betterment of the kids, he said. A larger issue that he is focusing on is the recent bond issue passed by the board, which he says is an example of board activity of which he approves.
"We finally got it passed, so we will be able to improve the school for the kids," he said. "We are building a new agriculture science building, a new maintenance building for the buses, putting in a new track, and we are improving our technology throughout the whole school. We are always facing the issue of trying to improve the school for the kids to improve their education to make it a good learning environment for them."
Amy Reinhard
Reinhard, 38, has a husband and three children. Her two oldest sons are 10 and 5 and she has a 3-year-old daughter. Her children attend Williamsburg elementary, she stays at home with her youngest child.
She is originally from Chester, Illinois, and she graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a bachelor's of science in Secondary Education.
"I have always wanted to be involved in my kids education," Reinhard said when asked why she is running. "I have taught high school math before, and served on the PTO Board and with the Fulton Preschool Board, and I feel that now is the time that I can do it."
She said a large issue she is concerned about is the use of technology in the schools. She added that many occupations involve computer use and that the children need to exposed to up-to-date technology to ensure they are not lagging behind and that they can go as far as possible with their education.
She also said the current board has worked well together and she is glad that the new science building is coming. She added that she recently has attended the last couple of board meetings and they have reassured her that she wants to be a part of the board.
John Wortmann
Wortmann, 43, has a wife and three sons, ages 13, 11 and 8. All three attend Auxvasse Elementary. He is originally from Josephville.
He is the owner and operator of Wortmann Agri Services, a company that builds grain handling and grain storage facilities. He obtained his high school diploma from Fort Zumwalt in O'Fallon.
"The reason I am running for the school board is that I think it is probably everybody's civic duty to run at sometime, and especially mine since I have three children in the district," Wortmann said. "It will be interesting to see how the school functions, how everything takes place and how all the pieces fall and why they fall where they do."
He mentioned the bond issue and the new agriculture building as something he considered a large issue that the board is facing. He added that the board has not had any major conflicts or anything he considers problems.
"I feel that the education and agriculture programs are probably the two things that are important," Wortmann said. "Academics and possibly the agri program, if kids are wanting to get a scholarship, are two very likely spots where most kids can succeed."