At Prof. Kelly Kent’s meet ‘n greet yesterday morning at the home of former Mayor Gary Silbiger, Jessica Beagles-Roos, a past member of the School Board, popped the final question that probably interests most voters about the School Board race.
What are your priorities for spending the $107 million school improvement bond money?
Dr. Kent did not pause.
“Prioritization has to be according to need,” said the neuroscience professor and mother of an 8-year-old and a preschooler.
“I mean where the needs are greatest, but not at the expense of the fiscal responsible outlook.
“If the needs are more urgent on one campus, they should be met first. But it does not mean you would ignore the consequences of letting go something such as infrastructure that needs repair.
“That,” Dr. Kent acknowledged, “is a general answer. To get specific, there are really urgent needs.
“People are super disturbed about the state of bathrooms in the Middle School and high school. I hear about it.”
Four years ago when recently retired teacher Nancy Goldberg ran a successful School Board campaign, she made the deteriorating condition of school bathrooms a central plank – and that is what restrooms have remained, a plank, not a work project.
“People are really upset about the bathrooms,” Dr. Kent reiterated. “I hear it constantly.
“At School Board meetings, students have said that girls don’t go to the bathrooms because they don’t feel they can close the doors of stalls.
“That,” said the first-time candidate, “is not acceptable.
“So there is urgency in bathroom repair and then there is an urgent decision that must be made about what will happen with the empty space inside Natatorium,” dark since the early 1990s.
Somewhere this morning perennial candidate Robert Zirgulis is chortling and happily whistling.
In past campaigns, he bannered the state of the Natatorium, ardently advocating its reopening – only to be hooted down by critics who, by now, may be scarlet-faced.
Dr. Kent was the second candidate in recent days to tout reactivation of the Natatorium. Scott McVarish promoted the suddenly warm idea last Thursday to a Chamber of Commerce audience.
“It is so unforgivable that this space is unused,” Dr. Kent said.
Not only do students tiptoe inside the Natatorium, she noted that there are “layers of pigeon poop. A sad state of affairs.”
Dr. Kent reminded her listeners that Supt. Dave LaRose would like to convert it into a home for the Culver Park school continuation students. The Natatorium is a delicious challenge to the professor’s busy mind.
Bursting to show her ever-present enthusiasm, “I am excited because architects are being consulted now. Those conversations still will be going on in November” when Dr. Kent hopes to join the School Board.
