The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1301434
D-2 Wednesday, October 21, 2020 The Press-Dispatch ELECTION 2020 By Andy Heuring The District 5 school board race is a rematch of the 2016 race, pitting in- cumbent Steve Potter against Kris- ta Halbrader. Below are profiles on both. KRISTA HALBRADER Krista Halbrader, of Winslow, is Assistant Controller at D-Patrick in Evansville. "I'm over the people who do payroll and accounts receivable, also accounts payable, title clerks, purchasing, buildings and grounds maintenance, as well as IT and ca- shier officers." She has worked at D-Patrick for almost six years. Halbrader and her husband, Ran- dy, have been married for 24 years. They met while stationed on the same ship in the Navy. They have three daughters. Samantha Love- land is a teacher at Princeton Ele- mentary. Alexis is in college and Car- lie is a sophomore at Pike Central. Halbrader currently serves on the Patoka Trustee Advisory Board, is treasurer of the Pike Central Cheer Boosters and is a member of the Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. She graduated from Castle High School in 1991 and served four years in the Navy. She attended Ivy Tech and obtained an associate degree in accounting and then got a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Ad- ministration from the University of Phoenix. "I used to work for the school, I know how the budget works for the school corporation," said Halbrad- er about her experience. "I know they are getting ready to face hard times again with IPL pulling out and I would like to get better communica- tion throughout the school." She said she is running for school board because, "Numbers are my thing." "I really would like to see better communication happen through the school. Being in the military, I would like to serve my community by being on the board. These kids are our fu- ture," said Halbrader. She said the most important issue facing the school is the budget. "I still don't think our budget is where it needs to be. I think we still have a lot to work on. I would like to be able to help them get there." Regarding goals, Halbrader said, "Really, one of the big things is com- munication with parents through the school. I don't feel like that is a strong point for us either." She said people should vote for her "because of my dedication to the county, my community and people. I will help anyone I can and I will lis- ten to everyone. It doesn't mean we will see eye to eye every time, but I'm here to make things better. I'm going to have grandkids in the com- munity and I want to make sure this place is ready to give them the best education possible." STEPHEN POTTER Stephen Potter, of Winslow, is completing his first term on the school board. He has worked at IPL since 1982, where he is an assis- tant to the engineer senior, a posi- tion where he is a contractor admin- istrator overseeing contractors and permitting. Prior to working at IPL, he worked in oil fields and small coal mines. He and his wife, Kelly, have three adult children: Kayla Sims, Kris- ta Hay and Colton, as well as three grandchildren. Potter is a member of the Spur- geon General Baptist Church, IBEW 1395 and National Rifle Association Benefactor. He graduated from Pike Central in 1979 and attended Vincennes Uni- versity for one year. Potter said he has a wide range of experience that has helped him in his roll on the school board. He listed that experience as "dealing with the work I do at the plant with the contracts and contractors. For years I coached, but I thought of it as a teaching opportunity." He said while he was coaching with former school board member Gary Hor- rall, he watched how Horrall "han- dled things and listened to what his thoughts were. I always thought Gary did it how it should have been done. I always respected Gary's point of view. He was the voice of reason when there didn't seem to be any." He said his three and a half years on the school board has been an eye opener for him. "I really realized how many strings were attached to all the financing, but that has changed in all this." "I knew there was some (strings attached), but not to what extent." "It has been interesting to watch our people work to save money." He added, "We have some good people in place." Potter said his philosophy is, "Ba- sically make sure I don't get in their way. I try to learn to ask questions and try to keep from having people think I'm micro managing them. I never responded well to that and I try not do to that," said Potter. He added, "Learning what the role of a board member is, there is a fine line there." "Our job isn't to be involved in the day-to-day process, We have people hired in those jobs and we have to trust they are doing their jobs. We are there to facilitate and see they get what they need. If someone is want- ing to hire someone and they bring it to me, I have to trust they have done their due diligence. It is their recom- mendation to make, it isn't up to me to second guess that. They will own that decision. My job is to see that is how that happens. I don't do the in- terview. I try to stay engaged, but not feel like I'm intruding," said Potter. "I always felt like I should be doing something for the community. I have lived here all my life and a lot of good people have treated me well. The rea- son I first ran is I thought about the folks who were in place and meant a lot to me when I went through school. I think of Mr. Wallace, Mr. Hays and Mrs. Hays, Mr. and Mrs. Lamey, all the folks we had at a young age. Mr. Briscoe and Mr. Fulk, who were in- strumental in making things func- tion. I didn't realize how much cha- os I was probably causing them," said Potter. "You think about what can you do to make sure the next generation has those types of people caring for them in place." Potter said he is running so they can continue what they have been doing. "We got the Chromebooks in. Mr. Iger was wanting to go one-on-one and teachers were wanting that. The kids were wanting to have their own devices, then COVID hit." Potter said thankfully they had those devices in place before COVID hit, because it made it much easier for them to do the virtual learning. "Who knew when Dana Deffendoll was assistant superintendent and created the IT position, we would be so dependent on it. We had started looking at e-learning last spring. It was to help us with the snow day sit- uation to keep from going to school in June. Then COVID hit and we had to ramp that up. I was so proud of everyone. It took all hands on deck to get us through that," said Potter. "We are trying to find the best bal- ance. We still have to teach these kids and they have to get an educa- tion. We are a phone call away from State calling us and closing it," said Potter. "A lot of things in play worked out in our favor that weren't really in our plan. I'm just thankful that peo- ple had enough foresight to be ready for it." He said COVID was similar to when the tornado hit Petersburg in 1990. "We had just went through something horrendous and tried to come out better. Now we are just try- ing to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We will know when we get there. It is basically semi-controlled chaos." "It isn't what anybody signed up for. No one could have foreseen how their jobs were going to change and be impacted by it. If you walk through and see all the plexiglass we have put in and that has to be cleaned all the time, it is just an ex- ample of one thing that has increased the work load. It seems like the kids have adapted as well or better than the adults," said Potter. Potter said he thought the most important issue for Pike County Schools is "getting through the pan- demic as unscathed as we can. Our seniors lost the last half of their se- nior year. We tried everything we could to honor them on graduation. Tried to think of ways to do it and still social distance. We did an ex- cellent job. I know what my senior year felt like. I was thinking about all the kids, particularly those graduat- ing, and making it as normal as we can inside the constraints we have been given. A lot of it is dictated to us. Trying to keep that balance of free- dom to do things, but yet use cau- tion so we don't create problems. I have grandkids in Winslow and Pe- tersburg, and middle school. I'm not going to sign off on something that will put my grandkids at risk. Unfor- tunately, you are never going to be right with everyone," said Potter. He added, "I knew when I signed up to run for school board, it is like coaching, you don't get into it be- cause you want to make everyone and your friends happy. You aren't going to do that. Just because peo- ple doing what is right in their heart doesn't mean we are always going to agree," said Potter. His goals are: "Get through this year. I'm praying everyday we can get through this school year and keep ev- eryone healthy, and get on the back side of this thing so we can have a normal graduation for these kids. I don't want to do go though what we did last year," said Potter. "Long term, we have a lot of real- ly good kids who have been asked to adjust to a lot of things. I would like to get through that. I would like our vocation training, that had been add- ed before I got there, to continue. I think it is so important to kids in this area, our precision machining, weld- ing and robotics. There is so much I would like to expand on that. So we have kids who don't want to go to col- lege, they have other options and can go into trades." Potter said keeping up with in- frastructure needs is another goal. "That building is 45 years old. We are at the end of the life cycle on a lot of stuff. We have things creeping up on us. The water tower is going to be an issue. A lot of big ticket items. We have to be careful or those are going to eat our lunch," said Potter. "Our maintenance department has done a good job of staying on top of things. They and Dr. Blake have worked out our capital project funds. There is a list and we trying to get worked through that." "It is stuff that people don't think is involved in education, but if your building doesn't function, your toi- lets don't flush and your heat and air doesn't function, it is hard to teach kids," said Potter. Potter said people should vote for him because, "I'm dedicated. I work hard. I'm open and honest to a fault. You may not like hearing what I have to say, but sometimes the truth isn't pleasant." "I feel like I have put everything I have into this. I enjoy it. I love this community. Been here all my life, I wouldn't be who I am had it not been for a lot of people in this community pointing me in the right direction. I want my kids and grandkids and oth- ers to have the opportunities we had, and I think that starts with a good solid education, from people who tru- ly care about them. I believe we have that and are maintaining that. I never want to never lose that," said Potter. PIKE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 5 Krista Halbrader Stephen Potter S ER V I N G P I K E C O U N T Y 1 8 1 0 - 2 0 2 0 NetEdition subscribers: If you are adding or renewing your NetEdition subscription, please include the following: Email: _________________________ Password: ______________________ (Minimum 7 letters, can include letters and numbers) www.PressDispatch.net/Edition Payment Amount: P.O. 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