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Top: Lynn Greer, Janice Kiger Bottom: John Leacher, Eric Peacock
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Four candidates are running in the May 8 election for two seats on the Milan school board. A public forum that took place last week provided voters the opportunity to meet the candidates and ask questions.
The Milan News-Leader invited the candidates this week to provide biographies and to answer two general questions.
Lynn Greer
"I have lived in Milan for 17 years. I have been married for 26 years to my wife, Nan. I have two daughters, Lindsey, who is a senior at University of Toledo and a 2003 graduate of Milan High School, and Nicole, who is a senior this year in Milan and will attend Central Michigan University this fall.
"I work in marketing for Clearwater Systems-Kinetico, a family-owned residential and commercial water treatment company. I was a coach in the Milan Youth League, parks and recreation leagues, and coached travel softball and basketball.
"I was a member of the Milan girls' Athletic Booster Club and Hoop Group, creating the sign fund-raiser for softball, raising more than $15,000 in three years and creating a program fund-raiser for girls' basketball, raising more than $4,000 in two years.
"I am a member in the Milan Chamber of Commerce, Home Builders Association of Washtenaw County and the Washtenaw Referral Network. I have attended Marble Memorial United Methodist Church for 17 years and I have served on the Staff Parish Committee, been a youth group leader, and I am a member of the Joyful Noise Praise Band. I have volunteered for Relay for Life, Faith in Action in Monroe and helped raise money for the Old Fire Barn."
Q: What strengths and/or significant perspective would you bring to the school board?
A: After being involved with the schools during my daughters' educational and sports careers, I feel that I have been involved enough to see the challenges that exist locally with our schools and I have never been afraid of a challenge. And with a positive,open-mindedattitude and a little creativity, I feel that we can get through this tough time.
I would be honored to serve my neighbors and friends on the school board. As a good listener, I can be a sounding board for any concerns within the school district.
Q: What do you consider to be the primary challenges facing the Milan Area School District?
A: From attending school board meetings the last few months, any school funding or budget cuts seem to be the No. 1 concern among board members. Since "No Child Left Behind" was passed at the federal level, higher graduation and testing requirements have been put into effect without sending the proper funding to help schools achieve these goals. With current state mandates on graduation requirements, schools have had to spend more to reach these goals again without the additional funding. So, stretching every dollar as far as you can becomes a real challenge for every school district.
We now live in a global economy, where our kids are competing with kids from around the world for jobs. So we have to keep the bar raised so our kids get the highest-quality education possible to be able to succeed in the real world.
Janice Kiger
(Kiger did not provide a profile.)
Q: What strengths and/or significant perspective would you bring to the school board?
A: I am a mother of five children, all of whom attended or are attending Milan Area Schools. For the past 24 years, I have volunteered in the schools and have seen firsthand the effort and dedication our staff gives to educating our students.
These years of experience have opened my eyes to the importance of putting programs in place to meet the needs of each student. If students are continually frustrated and feel like failures early in their academic careers, we will never keep them in school long enough to give them the education they desperately need.
My availability to be in the buildings has allowed me to see policies at work that enable our staff to help students acquire new skills.
As the wife of a self-employed farmer, I have had plenty of opportunities to distinguish between wants and needs. As a school district, we want to give our students every advantage, but financially we realize we have to choose programs that give them the best chance to succeed. We also have to make responsible decisions as to what we are fund-raising for so as not to overwhelm a community that has given generously to our needs and our wants.
Q: What do you consider to be the primary challenges facing the Milan Area School District?
A: Extracurricular activities teach our students many valuable lessons, especially about preparedness and discipline -- important career skills. The parents of our students have given tirelessly of their time and money to maintain the programs that their children are involved in.
It's also the responsibility of our school district to oversee the requirements that advisers/coaches ask of the students so that further financial strain is not put on the families.
The state and our school district have put new graduation requirements in place. Finding the way to put the programs in place that will allow our students to achieve those requirements with the funds available is a work in progress. I would like to continue that work.
The goal of our school community is to give our children the tools that they will need to become productive members of society. Whether our students decide to enter the workforce straight from high school or continue their academic career at a university or vocational program, we need to know that Milan Area Schools have prepared them well.
John Leacher
"I am a police lieutenant with 19 1/2 years of experience in police work. My wife is Betty Rosen-Leacher, to whom I've been married for almost 18 years. My children are Jessica, 14, a freshman at the high school, and Samantha, 12, a sixth-grader.
"I earned my associate's degree in criminal justice from Henry Ford Community College and my bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary technology from Eastern Michigan University.
Q: What strengths and/or significant perspective would you bring to the school board?
A: I believe I would bring several strengths and unique perspectives to the Milan school board. I previously served five years as a school board trustee with Airport Community Schools. In that time, we negotiated several labor contracts, including two teacher contracts, two maintenance contracts, a bus driver contract and several individual contracts. I believe I learned a lot from these processes.
I have been a member of a union all my professional life. I was in the patrolman's union for nine years and have been in the command union for the last 10, serving as president for one of those years. This experience has given me a balanced perspective regarding both labor and management. I believe that perspective would assist the Milan board with labor related issues.
I also know the value of bringing children up in a tight, close-knit community. In the relatively short time we've been in Milan, we've come to love everything about it. The people of this community have made us feel like family. The school community has been no different. As a school board trustee, I want the closeness to remain in our schools as this is a reflection of our community as a whole.
Q: What do you consider to be the primary challenges facing the Milan Area School District?
A: I feel the primary challenge facing our school district, as with many others, is financing. We are constantly being told by the state to do more with less. I believe the Milan school board, administration and staff have done an outstanding job in managing the finances, but I know with the economic forecast, that job is not going to get any easier.
Another challenge, closely tied in to financing, is the Michigan Merit curriculum. I like the rigor that has been added to the new graduation requirements, but there is no financial support from the state to assist in making these changes. We, as a district, are going to be challenged once again to make this work with the resources we have, or less.
We need to make sure our legislators know how we feel about this. I have no problems contacting my legislators and letting them know I'm not happy. I did this when I served before and I will do it again. The challenge is getting the entire community making those same calls.
The Milan community cares about its children, and I know we can rise to these challenges and continue to offer our kids the best educational experiences possible.
Eric Peacock
"I have lived in the city of Milan for eight years. My family and I moved to Milan when I joined Milan Dental Associates. My wife's name is Dawn and I have two children, Benjamin, who is 9, and Gabriel, who is 6.
"I obtained my bachelor's degree in chemistry from Eastern Michigan University in 1991 and my dental degree from the University of Michigan in 1995.
"I have been active in the community as a volunteer at my children's schools, as a coach for both the Milan Youth League and Little Reds Basketball, and as a board member for the Milan Youth League.
Q: What strengths and/or significant perspective would you bring to the school board?
A: There are a number of strengths I feel I could bring to the school board. I have a number of years of experience running a service-oriented business with 20 employees. I feel my experience in budgeting and employee relations would benefit the board.
I also feel I bring a young parent's perspective to the board. As a parent with young children in the district, I have ample opportunity to communicate with and take input from other district residents through my community involvement and my practice. I think this would allow me to represent the views of the district residents accurately.
Q: What do you consider to be the primary challenges facing the Milan Area School District?
The most obvious challenge to our district is our goal to maintain the highest quality of education possible as the district's costs increase at a much greater rate than its revenues. Working in these difficult times we still have the most important challenge of preparing our students for higher education or to be competitive in the job market.
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