By John Estridge
Kyle Seibert is a 2020 Franklin County High School (FCHS) graduate who was also the senior class president among holding many other offices. He received an associate degree in general studies while attending high school.
And Seibert, 18, is arguably the youngest candidate in the county’s history to run for the Franklin County Community School Corporation (FCCSC) Board of Trustees.
“I am running for school board for several reasons,” Seibert said. “First, as many people already know, I have been very active within the schools’ systems during the past few years, which has allowed me to build connections and relationships with people all throughout our schools and learn about the issues our school system faces. As a recent graduate, I have seen, heard about, and experienced firsthand issues facing our schools. I hope to use this unique perspective, the connections I have made, and my experience organizing school functions to help tackle the problems our schools face.
“I also am running to hopefully give back to the school and the people who have shaped me into who I am today — I would be privileged and honored to play a small role in building up our schools and improving them for all stakeholders,” he continued.
Seibert said he sees three major problems with how things are occurring in the school system today.
“At its core, I believe that there are three major areas the board can improve on that will allow it to better tackle the issues our schools face,” Seibert said. “These include improving communication with stakeholders, widening access to the board, and being better advocates for the school and community. Let me explain what each of these means to me in greater detail:
- “Improving Communication with Stakeholders – At best, I feel that board decisions and information coming out of the board is often hit-or-miss, and there is no one clear direction or source where information comes from. For example, people might find out a decision from the board on Facebook one month, but next month they might find out important information from a press release in a local publication. This is very confusing, not to mention decisions seem rarely finalized before they are released and more clarification is often needed. I think there are a few easy fixes to this, like publishing a clear, concise monthly newsletter with info from previous meetings that is made accessible to all relevant stakeholders. We should also work with local publishers to ensure the information they publish is accurate and up to date. I believe that this will improve the public image of the board and the corporation and will reduce the confusion that is often associated with school information in the community, which I know is a frustration point for many people.
- “Board Access – In my experiences in interacting with people in our schools, I think there is a general feeling that the board may not be the most responsive or open to issues stakeholders might be having, and so people may not present problems they are having to the board,” Seibert said. “This is a huge issue that prevents the board from receiving useful feedback on how we can make our schools a better place. When I talk about improving access to the board, I am meaning creating new ways for stakeholders to provide critical feedback to us and work to improve the perception that the board is inaccessible or not willing to hear criticism and take action on challenging problems.
- “Being Better Advocates for our Schools – It’s the board’s job to be the biggest advocate of our school system, teachers, and our students,” he continued. “I think this could be a part of the reason for declining enrollment; we’re not getting out there and promoting our schools and the opportunities that we have to offer. I believe that the board should play a serious offensive game in this respect, and we should not be scared to go out into our community and the surrounding area promoting our strengths and what we have to offer. As a part of that offensive strategy, the board should even push lobbying efforts at the state level for issues like teacher pay and greater public school funding. Transforming the board into a formidable force that fights hard on behalf of the corporation might sound pie in the sky to some, but our teachers and students deserve nothing less.
“Once we work to fix these fundamental problems, I believe it will be much easier for the board to tackle any issue that comes before it,” he continued.
And while Seibert touched on it in his third point, he said the base problem facing not only FCCSC but many other school corporations in the area is declining enrollment. This is a critical because funding from the state is based on enrollment. With declining enrollment, the school corporations with falling enrollment numbers must make do with less money year after year.
“I think it is probably the defining problem facing our schools in the next few years to come,” Seibert said. “In my opinion, we have really strayed away from talking about this issue, even though it has huge implications on the amount of funding our schools receive, and by extension, how well we are able to equip ourselves with the tools we need to succeed. I won’t pretend that I have a magic wand to fix the problem, but at the very least, I hope to start a conversation about how we can reverse this trend and start collecting information and data on how we can retain students and where students are going when they do leave our school system.”
Leadership is not new to Seibert. While in the FCHS system, Seibert was student council president twice, four times president for the Class of 2020, vice president and president of the local FFA, president of the local Honor Society, vice president of the Key Club and captain of the track and cross country teams for three years.
“I try to keep busy,” Seibert said. “Not only am I just a recent graduate of FCHS, I am a graduate who has been extremely involved in countless functions related to our schools and community over the years. I’ve been ‘in the trenches,’ if you will, and I have seen exactly the types of issues our students, teachers, and schools face. I believe this perspective will prove to be very valuable to the board as we work to navigate and solve the issues our corporation faces.”
Seibert said he did not know getting an associate degree while in high school was even an option. He wants to make it better known to other students at Franklin County High School and especially the students’ parents as it is great way to save money on collegiate expenses.
“After finishing up about five credit-hours worth of classes this spring, I was able to get my associate degree in general studies from Ivy Tech,” Seibert said. “Throughout high school, I always worked hard to take challenging classes, and it just so happened that I had taken the right combination of dual-credit coursework along with those extra five credits over the years to meet the requirements for the degree.
“What surprised me most about this experience is how few people knew that this was even an option; I didn’t even know about it until earlier this year,” he continued. “As a member of the board, I hope to work with high school administration and counselors to make sure that all of our students are aware of this opportunity and many others we offer in our schools. Imagine if all of our graduating seniors each year knew about this program and took advantage of it like I had — it could be a game-changing and money-saving opportunity for them and their families.”
As class president, Seibert was on the front lines of how the controversial graduation ceremony was held at FCHS.
“The 2020 Commencement Ceremony was absolutely the right call,” Seibert said. “At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the board and of administration to do what is right for the health and safety of our students, and the ceremony did just that. I am proud that I played a role in organizing and facilitating this unique event for my class. I think it provided numerous benefits, like greatly lowering the chance of spreading the virus, reducing time spent outside like we would have during a traditionally hot, long, and humid ceremony, and giving our graduates a memento that they will be able to look back on years from now.”
However, Seibert is not sure the current FCCSC re-entry plan is the correct way to go.
“I have mixed emotions about the current reopening plan the board has approved for the 2020-2021 school year,” Seibert said. “On one hand, I am glad that the plan seems to give people options for how they’d like to send their children back to school this fall, and the board seems to be listening to parents and guardians in the community; but, again, the board and administration should always make sure the safety of our students and staff is our top priority.
“If I am being honest, we have had literally months to prepare for every possible scenario for schools reopening this fall, and yet it still feels like we are rushing to figure out and implement policy before our doors open August 5,” he continued. “It only took a week for the originally published plan to be amended by the board. How many times will it change until schools open in a few weeks? Trust me, I understand that the situation that we are in is constantly changing and policy should be updated as needed, but all of our options should have been clearly laid out on the table much earlier to allow time to prepare to reopen safely. Looking back, we could have spent the summer preparing and training teachers for e-learning if, and likely when, schools are shut down again and taking similar action to prepare for the worst-case scenario, which we appear to be walking right into as cases of the virus climb. Even if we don’t like to admit it, we knew the current situation we are in was a possibility, and we should have spent more time preparing for all possible outcomes for a safe reopening.
“The current plan also leaves many, many questions unanswered,” Seibert said. “What happens when the first student tests positive for COVID-19? What about teachers who are exposed to the virus and need to quarantine? Are they being paid for the time needed to self-isolate? How does our student attendance policy change with the pandemic? What happens to morale when, God forbid, a student or member of our staff catches and dies from the coronavirus? Obviously, these are very uncomfortable questions, but they are ones that need to be answered before we open our doors.”
This fall, Seibert is going to attend IU at Bloomington with his endgame being he would like to eventually go to law school and become a lawyer. At IU, he plans to have a double major in economics and Spanish.
“Beyond law school, I am not sure where I will exactly end up, but I am prepared to go with the flow and see where life takes me,” Seibert said.
While he is running for school board at 18, Seibert said he does not see himself as a career politician.
“Despite what I have heard from some people, I don’t see my bid for school board as a springboard into some life-long political career,” Seibert said. “While being civically engaged is hugely important, that is in an entirely different ballgame from being a lifelong politician. Like I said before, I am running this cycle to bring a new set of ideas and thinking to the board and to give back to the schools that helped shape me into who I am today.”
While he will be in Bloomington, Seibert has devised options where he can remain in constant contact with constituents and FCCSC.
“Even before I decided on running for school board, I planned on still being active and present in our community while I was in college,” Seibert said. “I will be in town frequently where I hope constituents will be comfortable sharing information and problems they may be having with me. I also plan on maintaining an active Facebook page and maybe a newsletter informing constituents about proposals I plan on introducing to the board, and I will always be just a phone call or email away to anyone that needs me.”
Seibert wanted to address his age and the fact he is running for school board.
“I would like to address some issues people might be having with a candidate that may be a little younger than candidates that typically run,” Seibert said. “First, experience: While some may worry that I am lacking in this department, I would argue that I actually have a lot of experience where it matters, in communicating with a stakeholders, organizing programs and events, and more. I’ve honed these skills greatly during the last four years, and I have demonstrated time and time again my work ethic and determination to learn new things quickly when needed. I promise that I will use this same drive for the betterment of our schools.
“Second, I think people may be nervous about (my) commuting between Bloomington and Brookville, which is a reasonable concern. It is important for people to know that other members of the board routinely travel back home during trips for board meetings and other events, and some members have even traveled back from Florida to attend meetings and other functions. I plan on still being very active in our community during my time in college, and I promise I will be able to make the quick drive up from Bloomington to attend meetings, meet with constituents, and events in the community. I also think living in Bloomington and being integrated into the IU community could be advantageous to the board as well, due to the fact that I will be able to network with interesting people there and bring back new ideas and opportunities for the corporation.”
Seibert is running for the Second District seat on the board. The Second District includes townships of Blooming Grove, Fairfield, and Brookville 4 and 5. Registered voters in those precincts are the only ones who can vote for that candidate.