Taylor: Our students deserve better

Outside of teachers you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has spent more time in USD 257’s schools than Jen Taylor.
She grew up in Iola, attending both Lincoln and Elementary schools as a youth, then Iola Middle School and on to Iola High School, where she graduated in 1994.
Her mother, Deb Greenwall, is school librarian at Jefferson and McKinley. Her father, Steve, is a retired Allen Community College art teacher.
And now the mother of four children — the oldest of which is a junior in high school — Taylor figures she’s been in one school or another at least once a week for the past 12 years.
“That’s why I’m running,” she said. “I care about kids. Decisions the school board makes affect my whole family.”
Taylor is running for a seat on the USD 257 Board of Education. She and Stan Grigsby are vying for Don Snavely’s position on the board. (Grigsby’s profile appears elsewhere in today’s Register. Snavely declined to run for re-election.)

TAYLOR brings a wealth of experience into the world of education.
She volunteers at least one hour a week in her children’s elementary classrooms.
She’s also been an active member for the past nine years of the Jefferson Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization, and a past Lincoln Elementary PTO member. Taylor also served on Jefferson and Iola Middle School site councils and is an Iola Band Parents member.
She also is on the USD 257 Alumni Endowment Association’s Board of Directors and is part of the Friends of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Her exposure to the school district entered another realm last fall when she signed on to lead the “Yes Yes” Committee, an advocate for the failed $50 million construction project.
“I feel like I know a lot about what’s going on,” she said. “I know the teachers, I know the administrators. But the school campaign brought it to a whole other level. Being involved with that, you learn about what you don’t know.”
Voters resoundingly rejected the bond issue in November. Taylor acknowledges the criticism school officials received for not involving the community more in the decision-making process. She also realizes it will be a while before any other type of facility improvement project comes down the pike.
“I was looking forward to the community group they were going to put together,” she said. “I would have liked to have seen that community group formed to see what they could come up with to get more support.”
 That committee, however, was pushed to the back-burner this winter after board members learned of pending budget cuts in light of an ongoing state budget crisis.
“I did not expect the big cuts to come down after we filed,” she said. “ I haven’t seen much out of the Legislature that I like this year. But it reinforced my decision to run.
“I thought, why are you running, with such a horrible financial situation? Somebody has to be in there to make these decisions, and I thought it should be somebody who has a personal investment, who has the kids’ best interest in mind.”
For example, delaying textbook purchases, or curriculum updates are non-starters.
Her oldest daughter, Olivia, is using a chemistry notebook from 1997. Another daughter, Abigail, has a biology book from 2000.
While such dated books wouldn’t be an issue for math or language arts, science is another story.
“Science and technology change every day,” she said. “We need to keep up. Having an 18-year-old chemistry book and a 15-year old biology book hurts our kids.”

TAYLOR ALSO touched on other issues.
It remains to be seen whether USD 257’s relationship with the Bowlus Fine Arts Center will change.
“I agre with the notion that the board has a love-hate relationship with the Bowlus,” she said. “It’s wonderful facility, and I love it. But the funding issue is a hard one to get past for a lot of people.”
She’ll watch with interest to see how the board tackles other potential cuts, such as converting to block scheduling or switching to four-day school weeks.
“Those issues are important, but a lot of that could be decided before we take office in July,” she said. “Some of that may be answered before the election in April.”
She’s also wary of proposals to move school board elections to the fall.
“I’m not a politician,” she said, “and school board elections shouldn’t be political.”
She also is uncertain how legislation affecting teachers’ bargaining rights would impact the classroom.

AFTER graduation, Taylor attended Brigham Young University, earning her bachelor’s degree in humanities and English in 1997.
It was at Brigham young, where she met Ben Taylor, who was ready to move on to medical school at the University of Kansas.
After Ben’s graduation, the Taylors selected Iola in short order, moving here in 2000.
Daughter Abigail is a junior at IHS, Olivia a junior. Ella attends seventh grade at IMS. Jesse is a fourth-grader at Jefferson.