TRANSCRIPT: Charles City School District Candidates Forum

Editor’s Note: This is a mostly verbatim transcript of the Charles City School District Board of Education Candidates Forum held Wednesday evening at the Senior Center.

MODERATOR TONI NOAH: Thank you for being with us to meet and hear from our candidates for the Charles City Community School Board, whose names will appear on the Nov. 7th election ballot. The candidates are Dara Jaeger, Bruce Koebrick and incumbent Pat Rottinghaus.

Tonight’s forum is being sponsored by the American Association of University Women and the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce.

My name is Toni Noah and I will be serving as your moderator this evening. At this time, we would ask you all to turn off your cell phones or silence them, one or the other, please.

Since this is a forum, not a debate, each candidate will have the opportunity to respond individually to every question selected by our forum committee.

That committee consists of Yolanda Van Ausdall, Jody Flint, Judy Mulcahy and forum co-coordinators Anna Burnham and Mark Wicks.

Candidate responses during this forum will be limited to one minute. Each candidate will also have one minute for opening remarks and up to 90 seconds at the end for closing remarks. The forum is scheduled to last for one hour.

Tonight’s timekeeper is Amy Assink, with the assistance of Marilee Monroe. They have signs to let the candidates know when they are nearing the end of their allotted time and when they are expected to stop talking. We have asked our candidates to be extremely conscientious about observing time constraints.

In addition to the questions submitted ahead of time to the Chamber office, the committee will also consider questions submitted tonight up until 7:30 p.m. All submitted questions will be considered. Those selected will be chosen based on how well they cover a wide range of issues and may be combined with other questions addressing similar topics.

It has long been the forum’s practice that only questions that can be reasonably answered by every candidate will be used.

We will begin with the opening remarks, starting with Pat Rottinghaus.

ROTTINGHAUS: Thank you, AAUW and the Chamber for sponsoring this event tonight. As Tony said, my name is Pat Rottinghaus and I have worked in education my entire life.

I’m the retired middle school-high school counselor and I’ve been subbing a little bit due to a maternity leave in that area at the high school and I’m really tired tonight. Anyway, and I’m also a current school board member and that does take time and energy to do that.

I’m married to Frank, who’s retired from being the county treasurer, but he doesn’t know how to retire, either, and he’s farming with his brother at the moment.

We have two daughters who graduated from Charles City High School. Anne, who is a teacher in Arlington County public Schools in Arlington, VA, and Libby, who is an operation process manager, leader team …

Timer: STOP

JAEGER: I’m Dara Yeager. I’ve been married to my husband, Troy, for 29 years. We’re both lifelong Charles City residents, other than when we lived in Ames, when we attended Iowa State.

Troy is a sales rep for a ag chemical company and I am a stay-at-home mom and I also sub at our schools. Today I was at Washington and the preschool. We have four children. Tate’s 27 and he’s a school administrator in San Antonio. Rhett is 24. He’s a diesel tech out at Shamrock here in Charles City. Roush is 20. He’s a student at NIACC, and he wrestles there, and then we have Harper, she’s in third grade at Lincoln. And we also have a 6-month-old granddaughter.

KOEBRICK: Good evening. Nice to see all of you. I am Bruce Kubrick. I am, first and foremost the father of four young children, all under the age of 13 … –  pride and joy of my world. That’s why I’m standing here in front of you all today.

Next is my beautiful wife who has supported me and pushed me to do this. And so here I stand because what she says go. Beyond that, I work for the secondary roads department here in town. I am a small business owner and a farm-to-fork beef operation.

We sell our own meat and we do wholesale and retail beef and pork cuts. We also are distributors for Conklin Industries and in the process of trying to buy the family farm and do a little bit of that on the side. It’ll be a hobby for now, until we can make it more of that.

So we are busy, but the main reason I stand before you tonight is because I do put my family first, every time, and without being willing to stand here and do this, I can’t say that and be honest.

NOAH: First question. How do you think the community currently views our school system?

JAEGER: I think it’s mostly favorable, but I do think there are some issues that maybe they question, you know, some decisions that are questioned.

KOEBRICK: I would say that our community would definitely say it’s in favor of our school. Look at the people that are sitting here tonight. Look at the people throughout the community that are willing to discuss the issues.

I would like to hope that it’s favorable, but we all know that there’s cloudy days. And we’ve been seeing more of those recently.

Personal opinion, that has a lot to do with the day and age of technology. You’re seeing a lot of stuff come to light on Facebook with their opinions that are not always backed by facts and all I can ask of anyone that I discuss with is to inform yourself.

I don’t care who you vote for after all this. I don’t care how you vote on anything. Just know what you believe in, why you believe in it and be honest with yourself and what you’re doing going forward.

My opinion of the school, I’m very proud of it or I wouldn’t be sitting here this evening.

ROTTINGHAUS: I’m going to start with, it depends on who you talk to. But I think that it should be favorable and it I think it is favorable for most people. Recent test scores are improving, our culture and climate is improving in the building, based on different surveys that we’ve done. Everybody there is doing their best to do what’s best for kids and I have a favorable opinion or I wouldn’t be sitting here, either.

NOAH: What unique contribution would you be able to make to the school board?

KOEBRICK: My unique contribution I feel personally, would be that I come from a agriculture farm-type background, very simplistic lifestyle and very proud of that lifestyle. With that lifestyle comes critical, financial, considerate and passionate.

I’m passionate in what I do. I will put everything I have into what I’m working on. And as far as being critical and financial and constructive, I’ve come from an area where one day you’re pinching pennies, the next day you’re sitting there with a pocketful. So knowing how to play the ebbs and flows and be critical in times where we need to be critical and splurge when we have the availability to do so in the right ways, that’s how I feel I can bring my personal experience in.

ROTTINGHAUS: Well, obviously, as an incumbent, I’ve had four years of experience and that is helpful. My education background is helpful, I believe.

School finance is really difficult to understand. It’s very complicated and I bring that partial, at least, understanding to the thing to the board. So I just think my education background has been helpful to being on the board.

JAEGER: I think I’m open minded and practical and as a mother of four I just – and one is still in school – I really want this district to be the best that it can be.

NOAH: Where do you stand on the proposed high school and auditorium improvement?

ROTTINGHAUS: Well, obviously I voted for the bond issues, so I’m very pro all of it.

I think the high school, if we do not do something about it, we’re going to – I’ve said this to several people – the kids are going to be using porta potties in the parking lot because the sewer system, I don’t know if you saw the video by Jim Lundberg, but steam was coming up out of the floor and they had to open up the floor because the pipe was broken.

We really, really need to do the school and we need the auditorium. The auditorium, not only for the kids that are in the fine arts and performing arts, but also for the community, because, you know, we can have other things in there as well.

If we didn’t have a football field, I think people would be pretty up in arms. So we don’t have a auditorium and we need one. Thank you.

JAEGER: I definitely think we need to do the improvements on the high school. The auditorium, I think that might be a sticking point for a lot of people. So I guess I’m willing to listen to what people have to say about how they feel.

KOEBRICK: Well, we jump into the hot button issue right away. I guess the best way I can explain this is I am critically supportive or supportively critical, as they’re mentioned.

We need the improvements, there’s no doubt about that and I before this meeting I sat in the Vote Yes meeting and did all I could to be informed.

To be honest with all of you, I’m on the fence. I think that the improvements need to be made. I want to see a performance arts center, I really do. I’m just, I’m having a hard time with the way it’s being presented as 10% being performance arts when we can’t delegate 10% of anything else.

Fifty-six percent of it is renovations, but nobody can say that of that 56% of it, 10 of it is going strictly to this. If you were to tell me 10% was going to the heating and air conditioning, I’d have no hesitation. Ten percent is going to the cafeteria. I’d have no hesitation.

And I don’t want to have hesitation on the performance arts center. I just want to see it phased properly and I want to see people be educated.

NOAH: What is the greatest challenge you feel that Charles City schools face in the next three years?

JAEGER: I’m sure finances are a huge issue and probably declining enrollment has a lot to do with that. I also think sometimes they’re not great at planning for the future, maybe with facilities? Because I feel like sometimes things come up quicker than I think, you know – people might be more willing to be OK with them if if they were forecasted a little sooner or people could see them coming and people could say, oh, OK, we’re going to need this in five years or 10 years, and I don’t think we do a great job with that.

KOEBRICK: If only we could see the future. Things that could happen in the next three years, obviously we need to make these upgrades one way or another, whether we budget it to make sure we’re making the improvements and the upgrades, we go with the bond referendum.

Financials are every year, there’s no doubt about that. We need to have a grip on the financials every single year.

I hate to look back at the past because it’s always ‘hindsight’s 2020,’ but I can look right now with what’s going on in Rockford Community Schools. They’re also asking for a $5 million bond issue for their heating and air conditioning. It makes me always ask why didn’t we? What if? Why didn’t we ask these questions sooner?

Unfortunately, we’re at a point now, folks, that we’re going to have to do something one way or another to get the school back up to par, to keep people coming back.

My other big thing is I want to know why we’re losing enrollment. Is there a way we can do an exit interview with these families that have chosen to leave?

Is it because we don’t have the facilities that we need for these children? Or is it because of something else that is a caliber education, sports, so on and so forth?

ROTTINGHAUS: Obviously the bond issue needs to pass as we’ve talked about to do the improvements at the school.

We do have a five-year and a 10-year ICAT, which is buildings. We have a five-year plan and we have a 10-year plan, so we do look ahead at things like that. It’s on the website, I do believe and if it’s not I can get it put on there.

The other thing is the enrollment. It’s a problem and I know that the superintendent did do exit interviews this year. She called and contacted every single family that left and she also welcomed every family that came in.

I think it’s a combination. There’s several things in the works for that. The amount of credits. They’re putting in some things at the high school, for support for students. So those are all the things that we’re working on and we’re well aware need to continue to be worked on.

NOAH: How do you feel about the governor’s new legislation that allows families to use public funds to go to private schools?

KOEBRICK: All right, cat’s out of the bag. All four of my kids are going through the private school, currently. I am not going to hide that from anyone.

Am I thrilled that I didn’t have to pay as much in tuition this year? Absolutely. I am a financially conservative person. I am very tight with my money. I am tickled that somebody gave me a chance to have the caliber of education I feel I’m getting at IC.

Now, that being said, my oldest is in the middle school here. We only go to 6th grade at private school and they’re all going to move through this public school. I need to see the best education I can see here as well.

As far as how the governor made a ruling, I can’t do anything about that. Whether I support it or not is not going to make a whole lot of difference here.

I can only help Doctor Lundquist as she plans on who she’s going to give finances to and how they’re going to delegate finances. She had a lovely article out on how she does that relationship with the IC principal. I would suggest talking to her.

ROTTINGHAUS: I believe that public money is for public schools. I don’t mind people getting money in private schools for tuition and things like that, but we already spend a lot of money. We have textbook reimbursement in the public school. We have busing. We have special education, which comes from federal funds that we have to do special education in the private schools.

So far this year, that has not been a big financial burden on our school, but it’s only the first phase, and I don’t know how it’s going to impact us down the road.

I also think there needs to be more transparency. They don’t have to report their test scores. They don’t have to be accountable for how the money is spent. And they don’t have to have open meetings. Those are all things that bother me about taxpayer dollars going to private schools.

JAEGER: I would agree with Pat that I think it would probably hurt public schools.

NOAH: Do you believe the current procedure in the district for having a book removed from a school library works well?

ROTTINGHAUS: Well, I just went through all the policies this summer, so I’m pretty familiar with them so we could get them all updated. We have a a book challenge policy and anybody who wants to challenge book in our library can do so. There’s a committee that would review the book and decide whether it should be removed or not removed.

I am not pleased with the legislation that says that books need to be out of schools. I think books are written for people to read them, and we don’t know, and we can’t judge what child needs to read which book? So I kind of have a hard time with all that. Some of it’s really like classic literature.

JAEGER: I think it’s dangerous to start to ban books and I think it is more of the parents’ decision on what their children are reading, rather than the school’s.

KOEBRICK: I think I’d have to agree with both of them and the fact that I don’t know if the government should get to say who gets to read what when. I think that should call more and more to parents and adults and families of all sizes.

We need to work on our communication. And I’m not just talking in the home. I’m talking with your teachers, your school board members, things like that. If you have concerns, as Pat just mentioned, they need to be addressed. Let’s work together to find common ground.

We’re already in a hot button climate where everybody’s out to fight each other. Why can’t we have those conversations, find the right way?

Again, legislation happens in a variety of ways. A lot of times it’s through lobbying and things of that nature. People are pushing their agendas and things of that nature.

I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to speak on that a whole lot, but I will say the communication between parents, teachers, administration needs to improve, regardless, to make sure we’re making conscious decisions for our children.

NOAH: School safety is a big issue nationwide. Do you feel the Charles City School District is adequately prepared in that area?

JAEGER: I think it’s getting better. I know that the buildings are are locked today. When I was at Washington, I know they’re locked. They’re even locking the interior classroom doors during the day. So I feel like there’s probably a lot more we can do, but I think we’re on the right path.

KOEBRICK: As I mentioned earlier, I sat through the meeting for the Vote Yes Committee and heard things that they were talking about in the door locks were put in place after Sandy Hook. These things were put in place for these safety type measures, how they became to the point where people are going on tours and realizing that they’re not working the way they should be, and we don’t have the lines of sight.

I understand safety first and I’ll be the first one to tell you if somebody comes between my me and my kid, look out. I have always been there for my children. I expect the school, when my kids are in the care of the school, they are their responsibility because I can only get there so fast.

I guess I think we’re in a point of disrepair from what I heard this evening. I’m going to schedule to take that tour and I would encourage all of you to do the same. Again, be informed, no matter how you feel. Inform yourself to know what state our buildings are really in.

ROTTINGHAUS: Last year we established a committee that was supposed to have been in place but wasn’t, which is the Life, Safety and Crisis Committee, which I’ve served on as the board president.

It’s the emergency manager, the police, the sheriff, the principals, board representative, and we have made tons of improvements to the safety in our school and now we’re down to the part where we need the money to finish it.

So we’ve written a couple of grants. We’re in the middle of that, a $50,000 of building from the state to be able to put secure entrances. That’s a lot of red tape to go through, but we feel pretty confident that we’re going to get those on top of the bond issue. Thank you.

NOAH: What do you see as the biggest need for the schools, the students and the staff? How would you address this need?

KOEBRICK: That’s probably one of the toughest questions I’ll hear all night. What is the greatest need? I don’t know how you can pinpoint any of those things from a personal stance.

As I mentioned, communication has been the one thing in my personal situation that is always needing to be improved, whether it’s communication sitting in here and being informed, sitting in a bond meeting being informed, speaking to Dr. Lundquist and understanding what’s going on. The teachers themselves.

We’ve dealt with a variety of issues in our family life that if we couldn’t figure out a way to communicate with the teachers and the principals, we’d be going backwards every day.

That being said, I also would like to see a lot more support for our teachers and our administration. I know it’s really easy to be critical of these people that are sitting in front of you, including all the board members. Lord help me for sitting up here. Not sure if I want to do all this with you putting a bullseye on yourself.

Bus ask yourself, would you do what they’re doing and can you back them up for doing their best?

ROTTINGHAUS: I would agree with Bruce that support from the community is something that would really be helpful for the school, and support from the parents. It’s a hard job and since COVID and the time that kids spent at home attendance has become a really big issue, also.

Children can’t learn if they’re not in school, and I know that the school is doing comprehensive attendance from pre-K through 12th grade to try to catch it early. I think that is a huge need, but we need parents to be cooperative with us about that.

Another need of course, is the building. You’re going to get sick of hearing me saying that. But I think that right at this moment we have gotten some people in place that are real leaders and are compassionate and care about kids, and we’re heading in the right direction.

JAEGER: I would say that we definitely need to do the updates on the high school and I also feel that parental support is huge. That’s a huge problem, I think. Is it’s hard to for the teacher to parent the child, and I think a lot of times that’s what they’re doing.

NOAH: Do you feel the move to grade-alike schooling has been beneficial overall?

ROTTINGHAUS: I do think it’s been beneficial. It allows the teachers to meet together all in one spot. We have professional learning communities, is what they’re called, PLCs.

We have been able to align the standards so that the first-graders are getting this and then sequentially the second-graders and it it’s helpful. Then we know that all the first-graders are getting the same thing. All the second-graders are getting the same thing throughout the school. And we’re in that process of aligning all those standards.

The next thing would be to make it sure that it goes Pre-K through 12, that they’re all aligned and getting it. And I think our test scores have moved up this year and I think it’s part of that and it’s been a benefit.

I know it’s hard having to go to three different schools to drop off your kids, but I think it’s worth it.

JAEGER: I think it’s great for the collaboration between the teachers and I also feel like it’s it’s nice for the kids to just be with the same group from 4-year-old preschool almost through graduation, really.

I have a daughter who’s deaf, and she’s had the same friends for a long time and she hasn’t had to make new friends, and she won’t have to make new friends as she gets older because she’s had the same group. So that I think from that standpoint it’s a really good thing.

KOEBRICK: I guess I can’t personally speak on a whole lot of that, having most of my children going through the private school, but with my 13-year-old being in eighth grade this year, I’m starting to learn and learn quickly how it’s working.

Unfortunately, seventh and eighth grade is the grades you’re hearing about in the news that are falling behind because of the COVID generation. I think we’re seeing that, but I applaud our school system, our teachers, our educators, our administrators and our school board for the things they’ve put in place to bridge that gap and get our kids back on track.

So like I said, as younger kids, I’m not real acquainted with that system, but I am very proud of the way it’s being handled. For what I know of it.

NOAH: Who should have the most say on the curriculum content – parents, teachers or school administrators?

JAEGER: I guess I would say teachers. They’re teaching it and I would say they would know how well it’s being received better than anyone.

KOEBRICK: I would say it’s a combination of the teachers and the administration. However, I will come back to the same thing I’ve said all night. Communication is key.

If we can’t communicate with our parents what we’re doing, how do you expect them to support you and so forth and so on.

But it’s got to come down to the teachers. We have to trust in our teachers and our administration to be doing the jobs we’re hiring them to do.

We put high expectations on everyone else in this world to do what you’re hired to do. If I can’t do what I’m supposed to do when I go to work, I don’t belong there. So if I’m hiring you to be a teacher, administrator and do what’s right for my children, I expect the highest standards, that’s why I hired you. You were my best choice. Do your best.

ROTTINGHAUS: I think it’s a collaboration between parents, well, mostly teachers, administrators and parents.

We’ve been doing something the last few years which, well, just a couple of years, I think, where we’ve piloted curriculum in the classroom. Then you can really see how the teachers can actually see how the kids are doing and the kids even have something to say about some of the curriculum, if it’s helping them or it’s not not helping.

We don’t do it across the board, but just like in a couple grades or or couple classrooms or whatever.

But teachers, definitely, you know, they went to school for several years. They take continuing education classes. If the teacher doesn’t know what curriculum they should be using, they shouldn’t be in the classroom.

NOAH: How will you work with the teachers union if elected to the School Board?

KOEBRICK: I don’t see any reason not to work with them, I guess. Probably the same way I parent my children in some ways, firm but fair. If you’re on the board and you’re expect to hold people to a standards, they work for you, and we need to make sure that again, communication, communication, communication.

I expect that if I’m elected, any one of the parents or members of this community can come to me and ask me a question and put me on the hot seat. That’s what I’m here for. But in return, things roll downhill. I’m going to come ask those questions of those teachers at the teachers’ unions.

The unions are in place to help these teachers not feel like they’re stranded on an island if it becomes a hot button issue. They have to have some support. You can’t get it all from just one place, so I don’t see any problem working with those outfits, but again, firm but fair. You have to be able to stand there and take the questions that I have to take on your behalf.

ROTTINGHAUS: I’ve served on the negotiations committee for the district all four years that I’ve been on the board, and we have implemented a new process. It’s called Interest-Based Problem Solving. And how we do that, it’s not like the the school sits on this side of the table and the teachers sit on the other side of the table and put their things forward.

We we brainstorm at the beginning. In fact, there’s a meeting next week. We brainstorm what’s needed in the district. The teachers have their things. The administrators have their things. Often they are the same and it’s really surprising to me how often they’re the same.

And then we talk about what the new money is and how that can be divided. And it’s very amenable, and I think it takes a lot of attention out of the whole negotiation process.

And just to say, the superintendent is the only employee of the school board. The principals and the Superintendent have to take care of the teachers.

JAEGER: I guess I would just listen to all sides and keep an open mind.

NOAH: What would be your top three goals as a School Board member?

ROTTINGHAUS: Well, I want to see the academics continue to improve in the school district. I want to be fiscally responsible. I think we’re probably, I guess that’s part of the reason why I’m running for the board again. I think we’re just getting on an even keel and we have some new things in place to reach our academic goals and to continue to improve. Nationally, test scores went down. Ours went up. That’s a good thing. And I just, I want to be a part of trying to keep it going in that right direction.

JAEGER: I guess I’d like to see enrollment stabilize. I’d like to see the improvements made to the high school and just continue on the right track with academics.

KOEBRICK: Pretty easy to piggyback off of great ideas from both these ladies. Again, academics is first and foremost for me. I’ve got kids that are coming through and I expect them to be at the highest standard. So academics and between academics and financially responsible decisions, whether it’s improvements or new buildings or however it is making sure that we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s.

Whether the bond referendum passes or not, we all know that it’s going to have to be managed properly so we don’t have things get out of control.

Beyond that I would like to see building support for our administration. I think we have a great superintendent that is putting her heart and soul into this when she really didn’t have to and she needs to be shown the support so that she can do her job to the best of her ability.

NOAH: OK, this one is kind of a piggyback on on that. How would do you plan to see that your top three goals are achieved?

JAEGER: Well, I guess you would need, with your enrollment, I guess the exit interviews sound like a great plan, and knowing why people are leaving.

Hopefully the bond I would think, hopefully it will pass and if it doesn’t pass you need feedback. Why? What was the sticking point for you.

And academics. I think we’re really doing well. I I just love the new principal at Washington. I thought today he was so hands on and involved, and I think in Lincoln in the same way. I think we’re really on the right track academically.

KOEBRICK: We start with academics. I would say that the only way to push that is communication amongst board members. But holding everyone in the system to the highest standard we possibly can.

Wherever you stand on this credit issue, as whether we should have more or less credits, I’m on the fence. I can see both sides. I want our kids to be held to the highest standard. If you reduce those credits, I expect the standards to be the highest level of those standards so that we’re really honing in on developing those skills to the highest level.

Financially responsible, it doesn’t matter what board you sit on or you just balance your checkbook at home. You got to sit there and you got to crunch the numbers and do the right thing. We’ve all sat there and had to balance our checkbook and go, I guess we’re a little short this month. or hey, let’s order pizza.

You know, you got to do what’s right. And so I think I could do that by just conversations amongst the board members and being willing to be open-minded all the time and not stuck in one way or another.

ROTTINGHAUS: I agree. I think communication is really key and I also think supporting the superintendent to do her job, and financially we have a excellent new director of finance. She’s had 16 years of experience, and she is really straightened out our books. There wasn’t anything missing, but she straightened them out and got everything in the right categories because she has that experience and and knows what she’s doing.

Just to continue what we’re doing, I think communication among the board members is key. I think communication to the public is key. We’re trying to be as transparent as we can be, but oftentimes the public doesn’t know everything that we know just because we’d be there till midnight. So thank you.

NOAH: We’re ready for the candidates’ closing remarks, which are 90 seconds long. We’ll start in the reverse order of our opening mark remarks.

JAEGER: I’m just really willing to serve this community as a school board member. I want the best for our schools, for my own children and for every child that attends them.

KOEBRICK: First and foremost, again, thank you for all being here and being informed. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not here to get your vote. I just want you to get to know who I am. Whether you like me or not, that’s up to you. Take it or leave it, I’m going to do the best I can to do what’s right by my family and kids, and I hope my morals and ethics will support the rest of the community.

Outside of that, confident and critical is what I am financially, family based is the rest. So if you got any questions, please don’t hesitate. I can either word vomit to you all night or I can just listen to what you want to say. So thank you very much.

ROTTINGHAUS: I think many of you know me personally and you know that I throw my heart and soul into anything that I do. I am passionate about the students and the school system in Charles City, and I’m passionate about the community.

I think that by working together – the Tourism Board, the Chamber, the Economic Development, the newly formed Housing Commission, the school system– I love our meetings we have on Thursday morning as board president with all of those people because – the hospital – everything we need to work together to improve our community and make it thrive.

I will continue to work hard. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort, you wouldn’t know I was retired. I think my four years of experience and my education background, I deserve to be on the board again and I would appreciate your vote in November, and thank you again for hosting this forum to the Chamber and the AAUW, thanks.

NOAH: As citizens, we respect, admire and thank these community members who place their names on ballot to school board candidates and spent this evening answering our questions.

We also thank the Chamber and a AAUW for putting together this forum, Jake Gassman and the Charles City High School Music Department for sound technology assistance, and the Charles City Senior Center for donating the use of this facility.

And especially we want to thank all of you for your attention and your participation.

We would be remiss if we did not remind you that on Election Day you will be voting to fill two seats on the school board. That absentee ballots will be available to fill out in the Floyd County Auditor’s Office beginning on Wednesday, Oct. 18th, or they may be sent to you by mail if you fill out the request form at the Auditor’s Office or on the Floyd County website.

That (absentee ballot requests) must be returned to the Auditor’s Office by 5 p.m. on Oct. 23rd, and that Tuesday, Nov. 7th, is the day you have the right to vote in person at the polls.

Finally, we invite you to join us again tomorrow, Oct. 12th, at 7 p.m. to meet and hear from our candidates running for City Council in Charles City.

Thank you and good night.