Neighborly Candidates Keep Freeman Campaigns Friendly

The Freeman school board race could earn a spot in the record books as most amicable in election history.

The six candidates in all three contested races agree that they or their opponent would do an equally admirable job. One candidate’s wife is a childhood chum of his opponent. And the daughters of two opponents are best friends.

“My kids are going, ‘Why is Doug running against you, Mom?”’ said candidate Kathleen Lundy, whose daughter is best friends with the daughter of her opponent, Doug Spruance.

The amity results partially from the size of the community. The school district has fewer than 1,000 students, and it seems that everyone knows everyone else.

“You won’t find any meanspirited stuff being said out there,” Lundy said. “Most of us want the same things for our kids.”

Seven people are running for four open positions, one unopposed. The top three issues are growth, growth and growth.

Parents worry that the cozy area and small schools will suffer as more people move into the district.

“People call us up asking if we want to sell because a buyer wants to live in the Freeman School District,” said Doug Spruance.

Indeed, in the past 10 years, enrollment has shot up by 400 students, from 591 to 891. That’s why the school board and administration worked with state legislators during the 1993-94 session to pass a bill known as the Freeman Law. It allows districts statewide to turn down “choices” students if additional enrollment causes a negative financial impact on the district. Choices enrollment - students who live in one district but choose to attend school in another - at Freeman has declined each year since the law was passed.

But issues other than growth have pushed the seven candidates to seek a school board seat. All of them are involved in the community and in their childrens’ schools. Incumbent Bill Adams, for example, has volunteered as yearbook adviser in the high school for seven years, in addition to work with the Boy Scouts and youth softball.

If kids are involved, Adams said, he’ll help.

That attitude is pervasive among these candidates. But they want to take that next step, from community volunteer to school board member, because they’re concerned about how issues in education will affect their children. Among the problems to be resolved are how to comply with state and federal mandates, how to manage the increasing social service role of schools and how to retain a high level of community involvement.

Life has changed for kids since she went to school, said incumbent Sue Cronk. “We’re asking them to be a lot more social and we’re preparing them for the real world situations right out of the chute,” she said. “That’s the whole idea behind education, to better yourself for the real world.”

Spruance agreed, saying he’d like to see a greater emphasis in Freeman on life skills education. For example, he said, children are gaining weight at earlier ages, so schools should teach nutrition. Children also should “understand the stress brought to a relationship when you don’t have enough money,” he said.

Other candidates, who favor a return to basics in education, disagreed.

“I don’t believe a school should be a social service provider,” said candidate Ron Fulkerson. “A school should be about the task of educating its kids.”

Candidate Steve Taylor agreed. He questions decisions such as putting a YMCA-affiliated daycare center on the elementary school grounds, which he said reflects the additional responsibilities schools take on.

“Schools say, ‘If parents aren’t doing it, I guess we’ll have to.’ I take a little bit harder line, I guess,” Taylor said.

, DataTimes MEMO: See candidate profile by name.