Bluffs Hopefuls Focus on Graduation, Testing Council Bluffs School District
Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 21:00 CDT
COUNCIL BLUFFS -- Improving the district's graduation rate and making sure that students meet testing standards are key issues in the Council Bluffs Community School District board race.
Five candidates are vying for two at-large seats in Tuesday's election for the Bluffs district. The terms will be for three years.
The other two seats up for election only have one candidate each. Those seats each carry a one-year term because the winners will be filling vacancies.
Incumbents Bobbette Behrens and Gina Malloy are vying to keep their seats in the competitive race. Behrens said she wants to continue to work on the district's low graduation rate. The district's 2004 graduation rate was 72.1 percent, compared with a state average of 89.7 percent.
Behrens and Malloy said district plans for a career academy will help. The district is planning to offer more classes geared toward professions such as health care and computers.
The district also links students who need extra direction with adult mentors. The programs are meant to give students reasons to stay in school and graduate.
Candidate Kevin Brown also favors increasing vocational training for students. He also said he wants to see the district expand its honors courses. Brown unsuccessfully ran for school board in 2003.
Joe Hotz and Janine Headen said the district needs to do a better job teaching reading so students can meet federal standards.
In results released last month, Abraham Lincoln High School and Woodrow Wilson Junior High missed federal target scores in both reading and math. Thomas Jefferson High School was short in reading, and Kirn Junior High was short in math.
Hotz also said parental involvement is crucial to having students succeed.
Council Bluffs school district Candidates for two at-large seats Bobbette Behrens, 42, real estate appraiser (incumbent) Kevin R. Brown, 47, co-owner of a book binding business D. Janine Headen, 57, homemaker Joe Hotz, 40, assistant manager at a refrigeration supply company Gina Malloy, 29, owner of a public relations firm (incumbent) Uncontested candidates running to fill two vacancies Melanie Bates, 35, captain in the Omaha Fire Department Mark Brandenburg, information unavailable
Source: Omaha World - Herald
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