Stuart Bailey
Sartell
Voters in Sartell recently received a political mailing on behalf of the three candidates running “together” under the same platform. They are candidates Aaron Alexander, Michael Gruber and Michael Ringstad. We already have three school board members who ran “together” in 2022. Their election resulted in chaos within the school district, halting necessary HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) replacement under the guise of transparency, holding up the approval of non-union administrative contracts because of wanting to single out an individual due to some kind of disagreement. If even one of these new candidates were to be elected, a certain ideology would descend upon the board. Kids Before Politics? Forget it. Parents having a say? Curriculum decisions? Only if it fits with the majority board members’ ideology. Lease levies and other necessary district expenditures? Sounds like everything would be relegated to referendums and bond issues, hardly efficient in moving normal day-to-day operations forward within the district.
And what happens when negotiations begin for new teacher’s contracts and the non-union contracts? The issues spelled out in the recent mailing require more than a simplistic yes or no answer and deserve meaningful discussion. We in the district deserve candidates who will hear us. I will vote for Chelsea Thielen, Tricia Meling and Matt Moehrle to keep balance and sensibility on our school board.