By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
In mid-September, at the Viking Theatre of St. Olaf College, The League of Women Voters hosted a forum to hear from the local candidates. This is part 3 of a series highlighting some of the forum’s significant moments, you can find parts 1 and 2 of the series about the candidates for Northfield Mayor and City Council in the KYMN 2024 Election Guide. Today, we are focusing on the candidates for Northfield School Board, Amy Goerwitz, Corey Butler, Claudia Gonzalez-George, Maggie Epstein, Tristan Cox, Iris Lee, and Andreas Thurnheer. Each voter can vote for up to four of the seven candidates.
Of course, the biggest issue facing public schools is the High School Renovation Referendum, and the candidates have taken different stances on the issue. Epstein a newcomer to the board, expressed support for the referendum.
“A no vote on this referendum is not a vote for spending no money, we will need to spend money to renovate the high school and make sure that the failing hvac systems, the limited gym space, that those are taking care of and then if we do decide to renovate or build a building later on we will be spending even more money.”
Gonzalez-George, the current School Board Chair agreed:
“The high school is in need of updates to give our students and our educators a better learning environment a safer place and a sustainable campus. We took care of our building it is not in disrepair it is just many places are coming to end of service”
Butler, also a current board member, explained how the board came to its decision.
“I would invite everyone to visit the district website to get all the facts not to vote yes, but the facts so you know what you’re voting on there really shouldn’t be confusion. I think the plan makes sense. The board spent two years of my time on the board doing this. We spent the entirety of 2022 talking about this issue, came back in 2023 and we spent six months discussing it to get to the three questions.”
Thurnheer expressed some concerns with the current designs.
“Something needs to be done with that high school, but as I said, it needs more engineering and a little bit more planning the future.”
Cox also expressed opposition to the referendum and stated that he would have liked to have offered more options to voters.
“I believe question one has some merit to being on the ballot. I would have structured the questions differently. What I’m hearing from a lot of stakeholders is there’s some confusion about Question 2 and also much confusion about question three. I think more study need to be done on question 3, the geothermal. System how I would have structured the bond is to offer a the option one was discussed in the last 6 months”
Similarly, Lee expressed an interest in giving more choices to voters
“I don’t think the district has sufficiently explained this plan to residents I think the voters should have been given the option of the update plan that the district that that the board discussed.“
Goerwitz, a current member of the board, stated that what Cox and Lee were proposing was not allowed under state law:
“The idea that both Tristan and Iris put out about how to structure the question is actually not a legal option that we had. We discussed it we’re not allowed to do it that way so we had to come up with the best option we could.”
Goerwitz went on to voice support for the renovation citing the lack of current storm shelter space and out-of-date mechanical systems.
This was the only forum that candidates for the Northfield School Board will be in. You can learn more about the candidates at the KYMN Radio 2024 Election, and we will have posted links to watch the full League of Women Voters Forum there as well later this week.
