Steiner Heads Last School Board Meeting As President

Time and time again, voters were asked to invest millions, on both new schools and major facelifts. While the construction was needed to ease overcrowding, Steiner told the board that it led to taxpayer bond exhaustion. “We’ve now had three bond cycles, where we’ve had bonds fail or we’ve opted not to put bonds on the ballot,” Steiner said. 

Steiner encouraged the board to continue its current focus on student achievement and watch the data closely, to make sure the district’s budget is spent on things that really work.

“One of the things is to constantly be assessing the success or lack of success in what we’re doing, and to be prepared to discard the things that aren’t working as well as they used to,” he said.

Steiner says steady improvements in student achievement will gain more community support for bond issues and school funding. He says state revenues are good right now, “But it’s uncertain how long they’ll be that way. Because right now they’re being propped up by high oil prices, but with low volumes of oil, it makes that real tenuous, going forward into the future.” 

Steiner says during the time he served, the board became more independent and reform-oriented, a trend he hopes will continue.

The board elected former state lawmaker Gretchen Guess as the new president. Guess was elected during this April’s municipal election.

“It may be a surprise to some that she was selected to lead the board. But she has a lot of management skills developed over the years in her professional life and has a good understanding of organizational issues,” said board member Jeff Friedman in a statement.

Jeannie Mackie was elected as the board’s vice president.