[10/9/04]Spending changes the Vicksburg Warren School District made this year to avoid a local tax increase were commended Friday while school board candidates addressed a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

All seven candidates for the two seats up for election this year were represented at the luncheon, attended by about 72 people.

One of the two candidates for the District 5 seat, Tommy Shelton, 51, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi Valley Division, commended the district for responding to a lower-than-expected allocation from the state by cutting spending instead of raising taxes.

During the question-and-answer time that followed candidates’ statements, a follow-up question for all the candidates was asked about Shelton’s comments on the district’s finances.

His opponent, Joanne Dishmon Gibbs, 48, said she would favor raising taxes only as a last resort. Gibbs said she has 13 years’ experience each as a budget and management analyst with the Corps, for which she is now an Equal Employment Opportunity specialist.

Shelton added that he began attending board meetings and reading about education when he decided to run for the post about a year ago.

“This is the last year of mandatory pay raises” for teachers, Shelton said. “If we can get through this year, then things will level off.”

The consolidated district’s budget rose $9 million to $72 million this year, mostly due to 8 percent raises required, but not fully funded by the Legislature.

Five candidates are in the race to represent District 1. Some of them also addressed the financing issue. Among them were Bryan Pratt, 36, director of information technology at Ameristar Casino, and Brenda Theriot, 52, a nine-year secretary at Vicksburg High School.

Pratt commented that while no one likes to raise taxes or have them raised, education is important enough as an investment to warrant consideration.

“The education of children is a foundation pillar in the community,” he said.

Theriot said she would “fight to keep taxes down.”

Candidate Jerry Boland addressed the question by referring to improved education as a tool for economic development.

“I think we need to look at the big picture: Where are we going to be 15 years from now?” he said, adding that better education could help attract an increased tax base that in turn would provide more revenue for schools.

The event was the second in as many weeks in which all school-board candidates were invited to speak. The election of two new members of the five-member board is Nov. 2 on presidential ballots. Terms are six years, but are staggered. Board members get token pay for attending meetings, but no salary.

Theriot outlined a specific idea for addressing the problem of absenteeism. She proposed using the school’s computer system, including possibly a scanning method, to track absences by class and allow immediate calls to parents or extended family members of absent students.

School and Youth Court officials over the past two years have increased cooperation aimed at getting or keeping children in schools. And insufficient attendance on annual standardized-test days has been blamed for both district high schools’ failing to meet federal guidelines for year-to-year improvement.

Shawn McKeever, 33, a shift supervisor at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, and Steven Elwart, 51, director of system engineering at Ergon, also said they would stress trying to find ways to improve students’ test scores.

One school received a superior, Level 5, rating while the other 12 schools in the district were rated successful, Level 3.

“There is no doubt that we all want Level 5 schools,” Boland said. “And there is no doubt that the present (VWSD) administration has a plan to put us over the top.”

Elwart could not attend the luncheon due to a commitment he said was made last year. In a statement read in his absence he, too, stressed the importance of the test results.

Elwart repeated his pledge to be accessible to his constituents if he is elected.

“I believe that means going out to folks and not waiting for them to come to you,” he said, adding that he planned to hold periodic meetings open to all.

McKeever repeated four main points on which he said he would focus as a member of the board. In addition to raising test scores, they include trying to reopen Bovina Elementary School as an extension of the planned change of the district’s student-assignment policy from the use of mainly “megaschools” near the city’s perimeter toward the use of “community schools” with attendance zones.

McKeever said he recognized that he did not know the answer to every issue but that he is “willing to listen, learn and inform” his constituents.

Pratt repeated his position that, while the district has made improvements in communicating with the public, he believes it can do more to ensure open participation. He said he would push for more-thorough and earlier documentation of major initiatives the board plans to decide.

Gibbs and Shelton both said they had served on appointed citizen committees to help write the district’s strategic plan, which the board approved in 1999. Gibbs is making her first run for public office while Shelton narrowly lost election to the District 5 post the last time it was up for voting.

Shelton repeated that, besides controlling spending, he would place priorities for at least the next year on making sure the district was doing all it could to ensure the safety of all students and school personnel and to plan ahead as much as possible for the transition to community schools.

Both school-board positions became vacant through resignations and are being filled by interim appointees. Districts are the same as those for supervisor and election commission contests.