John Schlarmann, Monticello school board

   Personal history: I graduated from Monticello High School in 1992. I attended Iowa State University. I am married to my wife Jami of 23 years; we have three kids: Kinzi, Haili and Nick, who all attend Monticello Community Schools. I farm in rural Monticello, where we raise cattle, crops, and run a trucking business.

   Why did you decide to re-run for school board? I have been a member of the Monticello Community School Board for eight years. I wish to continue my role as a school board member because I enjoy representing the Monticello community. I always welcome feedback from the community, staff, and students. I listen to their concerns and do research to better understand the situation. I am open-minded and take every aspect into consideration before sharing my opinion. I am invested in our school system and the leadership we have in place. We have made a lot of positive strides in our schools and my hope is to continue to be involved in these decisions. These decisions are not made lightly. I consider who and how it will affect the district before I cast my vote.

   What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Monticello School District? With Monticello Community Schools’ strong leadership, we face less challenges than other schools near us. One challenge that I’ve felt strongly about is getting adequate teachers with respectable wages. There is a nation-wide shortage of teachers and Monticello students deserve to be taught by qualified teachers who do their jobs well. The allowable growth that the state gives us each year makes it harder to balance the budget as costs have skyrocketed in the last several years. Our leadership teams and school board must come up with creative ways to attract new teachers and retain the current teachers to provide effective curriculum and instruction for our students.

   What is your position on a future central campus and bonding for a new PreK-4 building? We are currently in the process of gathering information to help the community make an informed decision.

   I know there are a lot of positive aspects of having our PreK-12 grades in the same location, but there is a lot of costs also associated with this decision. The bond issue is always a hot topic. The increase in living expenses has been a struggle for most. We need to weigh the options and see how we can continue to benefit our students and teachers and not overburden our taxpayers.

   New construction costs continue to rise every year. We need to make informed decisions on whether the near future is the time to build or waiting a few years.

   The old middle school was 100 years old; the elementary schools, Shannon and Carpenter, are closer to 65 to 75 years old. At some point the difficult decision must be made when to quit putting money into old buildings and invest in new construction.

   When the land was purchased for the middle school and high school it was bought with the intention of having a central campus. There are many advantages of having a central campus, it just needs to be decided if now is the time for that goal to become a reality.