12 candidates running for 6 Fort Smith School Board seats

FORT SMITH — The School Board has 12 candidates vying for six positions in the May 24 election.

The zone map for the School Board members changed after the 2020 Census to equalize the population within each zone to about 18,200 residents. The School Board members will represent five zones with two at-large board members, where previously there were four zones with three at-large board members.

In order for the next election for the positions to be staggered, a straw vote will be held after the election to determine how long each candidate will serve: one year, three years or five years. Each seat in the following election is expected to have a full five-year term.

ZONE 1

The candidates for Zone 1, which covers southwest Fort Smith, are incumbent Troy Eckelhoff and political newcomer Philip Whiteaker.

Eckelhoff previously ran unopposed in last year’s board election and said he wanted to run again to experience a normal, full term.

“All we’ve talked about in the last year, minus the last four months, has been all about covid and masks. Let’s be honest, nobody on any school board knew what they were doing when that landed, anyway. So I haven’t been able to do anything to help schools — what I wanted to in the first place, so that’s really why I wanted to rerun,” he explained.

Eckelhoff said he joined the board originally to learn more about what is going on in the district.

“There’s lots of stuff inside the School District, inside education that needs to be looked at, and that’s one good thing about a board having seven members, because we all get to bring something different and unique to the board to help our district in a different way,” he said.

Eckelhoff added he wants to help students so they can succeed in all forms of post-secondary education.

Whiteaker has two children in the district and said he wants to join the School Board to make sure they have the most opportunities available to them.

“I feel like my experience, my profession and also my involvement in the community just makes me a good representative of Zone 1,” he said.

Whiteaker said some of the issues regarding education he’d like to handle, if elected, include removing explicit literature from the classroom and having a universal curriculum across the district.

“So if somebody say transfers in the middle of their third- grade year, to make sure that from school to school they’re learning the exact same thing the exact same week and so on,” he explained.

“But as far as making sure that there’s no mature content in the classroom and so on. That’s probably what I want to make sure the most of, is that our kids aren’t being forced to grow up too fast,” he added.

ZONE 2

Two candidates are vying for the open Zone 2 position. Board member Susan McFerran didn’t seek reelection.

Sandy Dixon and Brittney Hall want to represent west central Fort Smith.

Dixon noted helping to manage a School District is a big job involving a variety of managerial positions, which is why she wanted to run.

“I believe it would benefit the School Board to have someone with my business and leadership experience reviewing budgets and policies and helping the public understand the direction the board is moving,” she said. “Adhering to budgets is critical when spending taxpayer money. This is a function of my daily work, so it is second nature for me to monitor spending and ask questions in order to keep things on track.”

Dixon said one of her priorities if elected will be to listen to parents, students, teachers and the community in order to develop an education-focused environment everyone can support.

Hall previously taught family and consumer science at Van Buren High School for eight years. She said her knowledge of business and education, combined with her vested interest through having two children in the School District, is what makes her the best candidate for the position.

“I think we need to make parents and teachers across the district feel like they’re heard and more involved. I know covid set us back on parents being involved in the classroom or even at their campus because we had to lock everything down — which is completely normal, and that was to be expected. But now that things are back open, I think we’ve got to make sure that we get parents back into the schools to be involved, make it a more welcoming environment once again,” she said.

Hall said she also wants to take a closer look at classroom curriculum the district is investing money in.

ZONE 3

The School Board has two candidates running for the Zone 3 position covering east central Fort Smith: Dee Blackwell and Ryan Goodwin.

Blackwell is serving her first term on the board. She said she’s running for reelection because she enjoys the work, and it speaks to her as a mother with two children in the district.

“I feel like public schools, education, is just such as foundational part of our community,” Blackwell said. “Not only we’re educating our children, our students, the heart of our community, but then they’re going to grow up, and they’re going to launch into their own futures. So to have those students grow up and call their home here in Fort Smith, and to contribute to our community, grow our business, grow our industry, grow our health care, it just benefits our community at large.”

Blackwell said educating students is her first priority as a board member. She said helping grow programs like the classes at the Peak Innovation Center and supporting staff and providing them opportunities for professional collaboration are some of her goals if reelected.

Ryan Goodwin, who was contacted by phone and social media, didn’t return messages for comment.

ZONE 5

Two candidates are running for Zone 5, which covers southeast Fort Smith and all of Barling.

Dalton Person has been on the board as the at-large position 2 member since 2020.

Person said he originally ran because he cares about the community and its future and wanted to improve the quality of education. He said he’s running because he feels he has unfinished business on the board.

“I also want to be able to serve on the School Board and improve our course following the pandemic,” Person said. “That has impacted so many families and so many kids over the last few years. I think that the next few years are going to be critically important to the future of this generation that has suffered for the last two years, from an education standpoint. I think it’s critical that we have a strong plan for improving their education and their path forward here.”

Person said if elected back to the board, he wants to improve the district’s communication and transparency, help create a unified curriculum and give teachers the tools they need.

Tara Mendoza has one child in the district and serves on the district’s parent advisory committee, handbook committee and counselor’s advisory committee, among others. She said she’s running because she saw some confusion from the public about the district’s chain of command and how to access information.

“I just naturally found a passion to help improve the flow of our district and the transparency of everything, making sure that the teachers were being heard, making sure that the students were being taken care of, making sure that the admin had what they needed,” Mendoza said.

“I guess long story short, our district deserves someone that will take the time to really improve things. I’m a stay at home mom, and with my son going to kindergarten, I will have a lot more time to be able to really get in there and help figure out where some of these breakdowns are happening.”

Mendoza said she also wants to focus on curriculum and finding ways to bring students up to grade level expectations

AT-LARGE POSITION 1

Madeline Marquette is facing incumbent Matt Blaylock for one of two at-large seats on the board.

Blaylock said one of the reasons he’s running for reelection is to fulfill his obligation to the people that voted for him by serving a full term.

“It’s really taken kind of a year to get settled in that role,” Blaylock said. “I’m very comfortable in it now, and think we can do some really good things moving forward.

He noted the district’s Vision 2023 plan was developed before he joined the board and will soon expire. He said it would be exciting to be a part of developing new goals.

Blaylock said some of his goals if reelected include teacher retainment and being a good steward of taxpayer money. He said he thinks he’s an asset to the board because his profession as president and mechanical contractor of Blaylock Heating and Air and Plumbing Services allows him to look at district challenges differently.

Marquette is a retired teacher from Fort Smith, having taught French and English at Northside High School for 31 years, until 2005.

Marquette said she’s running because she wants to address the public’s opinion on public education and make sure Fort Smith schools and students’ accomplishments are known.

“I have been concerned that there are forces out there that don’t really believe that teachers are worthwhile and that public schools are not as important as they used to be, so I want to make sure that teachers and public schools are kept important in our society,” she said.

Marquette said she also wants to make teachers’ input heard by the School Board, and provide more extracurricular opportunities for students.

“I think that I would do a really good job because I listen and learn,” she said.

AT-LARGE POSITION 2

The School Board has two political newcomers vying for the at- large Position 2 seat: Taylor Fretheim Chase and Davin Chitwood.

Chase is a stay at home mom with a child about to enter school. She said she wanted to run for the board to make a positive change and have more parents on the board.

“I have a vested interest,” she explained. “And I just genuinely want Fort Smith Public Schools to be the best that they can be, and I think that I have the ability to help accomplish that,” Chase added.

If elected, she wants to focus on retaining veteran teachers and improving school safety and security, Chase said.

“Also, I think that we need to unify the curriculum where no matter what school you go to, from Cook to Cavanaugh, from Woods to Morrison, no matter where you are at, the curriculum is all the same,” she said.

Chitwood said his relationships with teachers through attending Fort Smith schools, as well as his relationships with students through coaching for the Boys & Girls Club, make him a good candidate for an at-large position.

“I want to hopefully create that same experience that I had when I was a student here in the Fort Smith Public School District,” he said. “I want to be that positive mentor, that positive figure that students can look up to and know that someone is actually involved and investing in them.”

Chitwood said if elected, he hopes to improve community engagement and support and provide more opportunities to hear public input regarding the district.