Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Leas, Gillespie battle for seat on school board
BENTONVILLE — Different philosophies motivate the two candidates for the School Board’s Zone 2 seat.
Brent Leas, the incumbent seeking his second term, said he enjoys advocating for the School District and supporting its employees.
“My biggest job as a board member is just to cheerlead and to champion the great things [staff members] do and just make sure we are affording them the resources they need to do the best they can, using those tax dollars as efficiently as possible and as effectively as possible to benefit all of our kids,” Leas said.
Amy Gillespie, the challenger, believes Bella Vista families need better representation on the board. Zone 2 covers east Bella Vista.
“I want someone who is going to fight for Bella Vista families,” Gillespie said. “I keep hearing that Bella Vista families have felt like an afterthought for years now. And that’s not OK. I want someone who’s going to consider us when they make decisions.”
The election is Sept. 19. Early voting begins Sept. 12. The Bentonville Zone 2 race is the only board race this year in Northwest Arkansas’ four largest school districts. The Springdale, Rogers and Fayetteville districts each have one person running unopposed for an open seat.
Leas, 47, joined the board in 2012. He’s been part of two successful millage campaigns — one in 2013 to build West High School, the other this spring to build four schools over the next five years. The district opened Osage Creek Elementary and Creekside Middle schools this year without asking voters for a tax increase.
Leas had a part in establishing the Ignite program, which immerses students in real experiences in a professional environment with support from a facilitating teacher and professional mentors. He also supported expanding Gateway, an alternative education program for high schoolers, and collaborating with the city of Bentonville on building a pool for the high school swim and dive teams.
“I believe I’m the best choice because of my track record,” he said. “I’ve already proven I will make the right choices. I will listen to my constituents when they reach out to me. I will represent them well.”
While he generally supports and trusts the administration, he said there have been times he’s questioned certain decisions.
“But one of the first things we learn as board members when we go through training is that if there’s somebody hired to do that, it’s not our job,” he said. “I do trust that we’ve got a great administration in place.”
Gillespie, 38, began attending board meetings regularly in 2014, shortly after her first child started kindergarten at Cooper Elementary School. She was drawn by the administration’s proposal at the time to rezone attendance boundaries.
Gillespie’s child wouldn’t have been affected by the rezoning, but she was upset by a proposal she said was “thrown on the community without good data behind it and no real rhyme or reason.” The board eventually declined to act on the rezoning recommendations that year, in part because of the public’s protests.
She said she has missed only two board meetings since April 2015. She reports on what people say and do during the meetings to her followers on social media.
Gillespie said she’d like to see the district and board adopt a stronger approach to long-term planning.
She said her experiences — first as a student-teacher for a semester in Joplin, Mo., and later her work in the private sector focusing on company policies and procedures — are relevant to a board member’s duties.
Both candidates see growth as the main issue. District enrollment has increased from 12,000 in 2007 to more than 17,000 today, an increase of more than 40 percent. Officials expect that trend to continue.
In a surprise decision this year, the board voted 5-2 to earmark nearly $2 million toward completion of a stadium at West High School. The district must raise about $2 million more from the community for the project, but supporters of the decision say the board’s money provides necessary seed money.
That decision angered Gillespie. The district has many needs and the board failed to properly analyze how else the money — most of which came from the sale of land on Bright Road — could be used, she said.
Leas, who voted for the allocation, said he was fulfilling a promise the board made years ago to help pay for the stadium when money became available.
The board added the item to the agenda during the July 17 meeting. There was no prior public notification there would be a vote on the matter. In retrospect, Leas said that wasn’t the best way to go about it.
“If we had to do it again, I think I would have encouraged us to see that through
differently,” he said.
Leas lists numerous endorsements on his campaign website, including Michael Poore, the superintendent of Little Rock schools and former superintendent in Bentonville, and Centerton Mayor Bill Edwards. The political action committee Conservative Arkansas also has endorsed him.
No campaign finance reports had been filed as of Friday. Pre-election finance reports are due Sept. 12, a week before the election, according to the Benton County clerk’s office.
The board spent months in 2015 debating board member Grant Lightle’s suggestion the district add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes under its anti-discrimination policy. The board eventually voted 4-2 against the idea; Leas voted with the majority.
Gillespie strongly supported Lightle’s proposal, but said last week if elected, she won’t resurrect the issue unless a change in law compels her to do so.
“I’m not running for a position that makes law. I’m running for a position that
follows it,” she said.
Eric White, who represents Zone 3 on the board, has publicly supported Leas and criticized Gillespie.
“Brent has character & integrity — that is what makes him so different from his opponent,” White tweeted last week.
The community needs local leaders who will unite it, not divide it, he wrote in an email to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“Mr. Leas is that man. He will contribute to the successful execution of our existing strategic plan and will ensure Bella Vista students and constituents are at the forefront of those discussions,” White wrote.
Following a candidate forum at Cooper Elementary School last week, White tweeted Gillespie represents “progressive liberal activist & micromanagement.”
Gillespie, when asked about White’s comment, said anyone who came away from the forum with that impression may have missed something.
“I presented clear ideas. I said I would like to do a study on transportation and do some benchmarking. I don’t think that’s micromanaging, I think that’s fresh perspectives,” she said.
White said he’d be able to work with Gillespie if she’s elected.
“It’s her activism I disagree with. The School Board shouldn’t be in the news. It’s a governance body, not a grandstanding place,” he said.
Kim Benyr, a mother of two Bentonville students, said she supports Gillespie, whom she’s known for about a year-and-a-half through the Cooper Elementary Parent Teacher Organization.
“She is very knowledgeable about what parents in this zone are concerned about and she has ideas about how the money should be spent to help benefit Bella Vista parents as much as everybody else in the district,” Benyr said.