Rieke: School board is position of responsibility

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- With five weeks left before the Tuesday, Nov. 7 general election, candidates for the New Ulm Schools Board of Education are gearing up for the race.

There are 11 candidates for four open seats. Incumbents Gene Forstner, Brian Wieland and Donald Potter, filed for office. The other incumbent, David Leuthe, did not file.

Candidate Sheldon Rieke, owner of Rieke's Books in New Ulm, believes that schools are an important function of the community. He has served on other boards and has volunteered in District 88 schools.

"This is something I can do to really help the schools," he said. "It seemed like a good fit for me. This is something I can help with and something I would be good at."

He has considered running for the school board for several years, and decided that the time to try was now.

Rieke, a native of New Ulm, graduated from New Ulm High School. He attended college in Iowa and lived on the east coast and in the Twin Cities. He returned to New Ulm 11 years ago to open his own business. He lives on the family farm where he grew up, near St. George.

He has a 10-year-old daughter who attends Washington Elementary, a five-year-old son who attends kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary, and a 4-year-old son who attends the Coming Together Program.

All board candidates attended orientation last week, where they received information about what would be expected as a board member. They received a rough draft of the 2001-2002 budget.

After the failure of the excess levy referendum in May, the district made several cuts, and it is anticipating a need to cut as much as $1.5 million in 2001-2002.

"If elected, I understand cuts will have to be made," Rieke said. "It is my goal to do as little damage to the curriculum as possible when those cuts are made."

Staff makes up the biggest portion of the budget, and staff will suffer when large cuts are proposed, and there is no way to avoid that, Rieke said.

"I hate to see class sizes up," he said. "I also hate to see cuts in music and physical education at the elementary school. This is something my daughter notices."

There are no magic answers to the district's budgetary woes, and Rieke sees very little fat that can be trimmed from the proposed budget.

"When cuts are proposed, I believe that nothing is sacred, not even athletics, which don't make a huge difference in the budget," Rieke said. "You can't take a percentage off everything, you have to look at all areas equally. There is a lot of information that has to be sorted through."

If elected, Rieke promises to listen to the concerns of people in the community, do his homework, and do what's best for the children.

"I believe the district needs more parental involvement, and one job of a board member is to educate the public about the need," Rieke said. "The board needs to look down the road toward the future affect that any decision made will have. We will be faced with getting quality teachers down the road. This is not an immediate concern, but is one we should be aware of."

One of his goals is to make state officials more aware of the financial troubles faced by schools in rural Minnesota. He would also like to see teacher contract negotiations handled by the state to avoid putting the board and teachers at odds. He also supports all-day, every-day kindergarten.

"Since announcing my candidacy, I have developed a new appreciation for how complicated the budget matters really are," Rieke said. "It's a very involved process. There were no surprises to me about what was expected as a board member, though."

Last year, he served on the District 88 Long Range Planning Task Force so he could learn about the district before making the final decision to run.

"It's a complicated task," he said. "It is not so much a position of power as it is one of responsibility. If I am elected, I will be responsible. The people have a choice this year. There are lots of good candidates."