Drost running because of passion for children

Carl Drost

Carl Drost

by Charlie Comfort

OSKALOOSA, IOWA- After serving on the Oskaloosa School Board for 20 years, Carl Drost chose to run for the school board once again in 2013 after having concerns about test scores in the district. After serving a four year term, Drost is once again running for re-election. Driving his decision to run for re-election is his desire for the district to give students the best education possible.

“I have a PASSION for our young people and I want them to get the best education possible (with available money) because they are the future of Oskaloosa and America,” Drost said in a recent interview.

Drost said that he believes his prior experience as a board member is one reason why he is the best candidate for the job. Drost served on the Oskaloosa School Board from 1977-1997, with 16 years of that time as board president. He also said that his willingness to research the issues and ask tough questions makes him a quality board member. Drost adds that his past business experience is helpful.

“I owned and operated a very successful Implement store for 40 years, dealing with a product, employees, and a $30 million budget,” Drost said

When asked if he would send his children to Oskaloosa schools if he was young parent looking to come to the area, Drost said he would have concerns if he saw the data reported on the Iowa State School Report Card as a young parent.

“If I only looked at the information on the web, including the Iowa Report Card and the Iowa Assessment results, it would be hard to send my children to the Osky Schools,” Drost said.

However, Drost added that the district has several other positives, including facilities and teaching staff. He said he would not recommend parents not send their children to Oskaloosa.

“When You spend time looking at all the programs and educational opportunities, the staff, and the athletics; Oskaloosa provides an adequate education but everybody needs to decide what is best for their children,” Drost said.

Student behavior and discipline has been a lightning rod issue for the school board over the past year. In August and September 2016, Drost introduced a motion for the school board to direct the Superintendent to implement a discipline program that required the police to be called to school buildings in the event of a “classroom disruption” and that any child causing a “classroom evacuation” be asked to leave the school building for the remainder of the day. At the August meeting, Drost’s motion was controversially ruled out of order by Board President Tom Richardson, with Richardson saying that the motion violated the open meetings law. In September 2016, Drost’s motion was debated to an extent, but did not receive a second. Since then, Drost has continued to express his concerns regarding student discipline and has met with teachers and parents regarding the issue. Drost says that he is concerns school administration is trying to push the issue under the rug.

“The administration has the majority of the Board convinced that there is a special group of children who are above any rule; they are allowed to assault other students and staff and know they can get away with it,” Drost said.

He added that stress levels in the schools will remain high on this issue until the school adequately address the student behavior issue. Drost also said that it is not fair to other students to have ongoing safety and health concerns due to student behavior.

“It is totally wrong that we have students diagnosed with PTSD from attending the Osky Schools,” Drost said.

Student achievement has also been an issue that has attracted a lot of discussion at board meetings. Completely different philosophies on how to measure student achievement has been continuously talked about at board meetings. Drost expressed his belief that standardized test scores are important to the learning process for Oskaloosa students.

“I believe standardized test scores are 1 very valuable indication of student achievement, and should be an accurate representation on the day taken. All schools in Iowa take the Iowa Assessments so they should be comparable,” Drost said.

However, Drost added that he believes other tests the district administers should be considered and used to measure student progress. Ultimately, Drost said the district needs to have scores that are above the state average.

“I am not pleased with the last several years results and I want the scores to be considerably above the Iowa state average (not good enough compared to the placing of 2009),” he said.

Asked about the public perception of the board, Drost said that he believes the school administration needs to choose to address the “tough issues” or the public perception of the board will not improve.

“With the Open Meetings Law, it is hard to get board members, administration, and the public to speak openly about tough issues. I will work towards having open discussions and I have never used e-mail or personal calls to deter discussion,” Drost said.

He also called on the board leadership to openly discuss the issue of open enrollment.

“The Board President and the Administration need to decide that there is an issue,” Drost said.

He also called for there to be open discussions with the administration and board leadership on open enrollment, student discipline, and other issues.

Drost said that he is the best candidate for the At-Large position because of his past experiences in the business world and as a board member. He also cited his ability to ask questions and demand answers as another reason why the voters of the Oskaloosa school district should vote for him.

“I can ask the hard questions that need to be answered and sometimes it upsets some other people,” Drost said.

At the Oskaloosa News School Board Candidates’ Forum, Drost said that if he is re-elected on September 12, he will not seek re-election again and it will be his last term.

Carl Drost will face challenger Kym Life for the At-Large seat on the School Board. School Board Elections will be held on September 12. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee ballots can be cast until 5 p.m. on September 11 in the Mahaska County Auditor’s Office. On election day, voters can vote at one of two vote centers, whichever is most convenient. Voter centers will be located at the ISU Extension Office on North I Street or at the Assembly of God Church on Highway 23 South.

Posted by on Sep 7 2017. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News