~Sikeston R-6 School Board
SIKESTON -- Technology changes, parental support and student achievement are among the biggest challenges facing the Sikeston R-6 School District, according to candidates squaring off in the district's school board race.
Voters in the Sikeston R-6 district will choose two of the following three candidates for three-year terms during Tuesday's election: Scott Crumpecker, Julie Crader Dolan and Ann Jones.
"The biggest challenge facing the Sikeston R-6 School is to prepare our children for future challenges," Crumpecker said. "Increasingly, technology changes are a driving force. I also see that continual challenges are in the foreseeable future with the school's infrastructure as the needs of the district change."
Crumpecker, who works for the United States Department of Agriculture Service Center in Dexter, currently serves as a grant administrator, managed by a board under USDA policy.
Crumpecker said his qualifications to serve on the R-6 Board of Education are derived from his job skills, volunteer service to youth, farm management duties and real life experiences.
"Through my work with USDA, I have had much exposure dealing with boards -- some formal and some informal," Crumpecker said. "I deal with budgets and work plans on a daily basis. I oversee the performance of my family's farm operation, by managing the finances and negotiating contracts."
Crumpecker, 41, lives in the Morehouse area with his wife, Becky, their son Christian, 9, and daughter, Paige, 5.
Dolan, 53, is the vice president of the Sikeston R-6 School Board and has worked as an attorney for 23 years in the private practice with Dolan and Dolan in Sikeston.
"Our biggest challenge to our community and school system is the very challenging student population," Dolan said. "We have a large number of students who qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, which has increased from 50 percent when I became a board member to the current 60 percent of our student population."
Approximately one-third of the district's parents provide great support at home; the rest of the households cannot or do necessarily offer support at home, Dolan said. As a result teachers are spending too much time addressing the social needs of the children and not enough time teaching, she said.
"My goal is to continue to provide for our professional staff the tools they need to meet the ever increasing needs of our student population," Dolan said.
Dolan and her husband, David, live in Sikeston and have two children, Win, a 2005 SHS graduate, and Claire, who attends Sikeston Senior High.
Jones, 49, of Sikeston serves as the president of the Sikeston R-6 Board of Education, which she has been a member for the past three years.
"During this time, we studied the needs of the facility," Jones said. "The bond issue passed, and the math and science building is under construction now."
A member of Hunter-Memorial Presbyterian Church in Sikeston, Jones is also a member of the Sikeston Public Schools Foundation Board and a past member of the Sikeston Public Library Board of Trustees. She works as a real estate agent at Rainmaker Real Estate in Sikeston.
"Our biggest challenge continues to be our No. 1 goal -- improving student achievement," Jones said. "Every day our teachers and administrators are focused on this issue. How do we teach more effectively to give our students every opportunity to learn?"
Jones is the mother of three sons, Ben, a 2002 SHS graduate, and Peter, a 2004 SHS graduate, who are both students at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Her youngest son, Charlie, is a sophomore at Sikeston High School.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.