College Education Time

The Nov. 2 election for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Board has become more crowded.

Two additional challengers have filed for the at-large position currently held by Patricia Swanson, who is seeking re-election.

Leona Dillingham and Brady Goebel have joined Swanson and Billy Weir in the race.

Dillingham, who turns 47 in September, is a University of Southern Indiana student and a recently laid-off worker.

She has two grown children and one in middle school. She said she’s entering the race as a parent who has been concerned about her own child’s education, and because she does not believe the school district’s recent construction boom will improve its academic quality.

Goebel, 38, is operations manager at Irving Materials in Evansville. He has two young children and relatives who are teachers.

Goebel credited Superintendent Vincent Bertram for “lots of great initiatives,” but he also said “there is a perception that a lot of other areas get overlooked.”

He cited issues such as textbook rental prices and lengthy bus rides endured by some students in the school district.

Goebel said he also has concerns about teacher-student ratios in the school district but acknowledged that’s a difficult issue to tackle at a time when state education funding has been cut.

“When parents put their kids in private schools, (class sizes) tend to be one of the reasons,” Goebel said.

Weir, 50, is running for the School Board for a second time — he ran for the same seat in 2006.

Weir is a METS bus driver and vice president of the Delaware Elementary School PTA.

“If I do get elected, I will go to every school and make myself known at every school and see if there are any problems that we can fix,” Weir said.

Meanwhile, in the 2nd District election — where voters will choose two names on the ballot — Greg Jones has signed up to challenge incumbents Sally Becker and Mike Duckworth.

Jones could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Chris Kiefer, an incumbent from the 1st District, is unopposed for re-election.

Four of the seven School Board seats are up for election this year. The remaining three seats are to be contested in 2012.

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