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Get to know 4 of 8 APS school board candidates

By Reagan Voetberg 9 min read

ALPENA -- Eight candidates are running for four seats on the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education. If elected, they will serve a four year term beginning January 2027 and ending December 2030.

Two incumbents are running, AJ MacArthur and Sarah Fritz. They are both in their first term on the board and are running for a second term.

The other candidates are Evan Carlson, Kayla Ratz, Claire Kipfmiller, Lindsey Klein, Vincent Thomas, and Robert Bruning, all running for a first term.

Listed below are responses from MacArthur, Klein, Thomas, and Bruning.

Q: What background and experience do you have that makes you a well-rounded candidate?

Bruning: Bruning is a father, with one child currently attending Thunder Bay Junior High. He is a veteran and was an engineer with NOAA. Bruning heads the Bikes for Books program with the Alpena Hopper Lodge No. 199. He does the bookkeeping for that program.

Klein: Klein attended public school from sixth grade through high school. She helped house homeless people at Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency. She now works in the public housing industry as the executive director of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare in Alpena.

MacArthur: MacArthur is the owner of AJ's Berry Farm and has owned that business for almost 30 years. He was raised in a contractor family. He is currently serving his first term on the Board of Education as the vice president.

Thomas: Thomas is a parent of five children in the school district and worked at AHS for four years, where he supported educators and spent time with challenging students. He is a farmer and has learned how to manage a budget through that work.

Q: What do you think is the best solution to increasing the literacy rate in the district?

Bruning: "I'd like to put a little more money towards a mentoring program," Bruning said. "Whether it's another student that's doing well in school reading or an older student and give them 15 minutes."

He said if that doesn't work, he would want to try a different reading curriculum.

Klein: "I feel like the literacy rate isn't just on the school district," Klein said. "It also is at home. When it comes to at home, it’s gonna depend on those parents, helping those students, making it interesting, trying to get them engaged, when it comes to reading and things of that nature."

She said we need to be more innovative in what programs are offered, like The Alpena Boys and Girls Club, or family nights.

MacArthur: Having parents read to their kids at home. The more a child reads at home, the better they will do in school, the more they will want to read.

Thomas: We need to try and get the parents involved. If you can't read you can't do math, you can't do any of it. At the school level we need to start young, right at the beginning with reading. He wants the curriculum to focus more on reading in K-2.

Q: What is your plan to work with the board/superintendent/admin to better student outcomes?

Bruning: "I want to take the best of both and make common sense decisions based on what’s going to be best for the teachers, the students, and the parents," he said.

"When it comes to trying to work with the board and the Supe, I'm going to make common sense decisions whether it’s with the majority or minority for how it's going to work best for those three priorities for me," Bruning said.

Klein: "You have to have the viewpoint of not instantly thinking that one person is at fault for things," Klein said. "Being able to sit down, have a comfortable, calm conversation with where you can help, what can you do to support them and resources that they may need to make the system work as a whole."

MacArthur: There isn't a lot that we do as a board that directly affects the student outcomes. Curriculum choice and making sure tools are in place for administration and teachers is the biggest job the board has affecting outcomes.

Thomas: The superintendent has one boss and that is the board. He enforces policies and comes up with ideas to support the district. The board members’ job is to make smart decisions for constituents. We need to find out what we agree on and we need to remember to put our students first. In the end we share the same goal.

Q: What are your top three issues?

Bruning: Improving reading and math proficiency, security in the classrooms (referring to addressing student misbehavior), and transportation.

Klein: Community support; Staff engagement, safety, and retention; implement a policy where politics cannot be talked about during the school day

MacArthur: Fiscal responsibility/financial solvency, long-term facilities plan.

Thomas: address decreasing enrollment, unused buildings, staff shortages, and student behavior.

Q: Would you support the new $29 million bond?

Bruning: "Before I agree or disagree to the bond I want to see where the bond money went on the last bond that we did, how much is left, where it went, and how much of an overpay did we do on contracts for certain projects," Bruning said.

Klein: Klein said she sees the need for the work that needs to be done and that it would be a benefit to the community. As a board member, she would want to see the documentation and make sure that all policies and laws are being followed.

MacArthur: He said he doesn’t like taxes, but understands why they're bringing it to us. MacArthur said he has a hard time bringing this to the public because of his aversion to taxes.

Thomas: I'm not really familiar with it yet; I'm not against it. If the work needs to be done the work needs to be done. They are aging buildings.

Q: How much of a concern is the school staff shortages and what can be done to address it?

Bruning: "The teachers have their hands full with the teaching and when it comes to that, they can't just teach the classroom," Bruning said. "They have like four or five different jobs that they got to do."

He said he would like to get teachers more help so they don't feel so much stress. He'd also like to see retention bonuses for teachers every five years.

Klein: She would like to know if pay is part of the issue with teacher shortages. From looking at the Rehmann survey results, she feels that teachers may be in a fight-or-flight situation constantly.

"And that does take a toll on you and your employment, so we really need to go back to the drawing board on what we can do for our current staff," Klein said.

MacArthur: It's a symptom of a larger problem. The bigger issue is the things that we are demanding of the teachers, he said. There is a lot of downward pressure being put on teachers from administration and state and federal laws.

Thomas: You take our bus drivers and support staff, we won’t be having school. We can always find subs for teachers. We need to have more competitive incentives to keep people around; we need some longevity incentives. He proposed training other staff to be bus driver subs like maintenance and custodians.

Q: What does it mean to you to be non-partisan?

Bruning: "Well non-partisan is exactly that, not politically motivated by one party or the other, or any party for that matter," Bruning said.

He said he is going to run the middle of the road, vote common sense, and vote with his heart.

Klein: To be non-partisan means that you have full ability to have your personal beliefs and how you vote personally, but that's to stay out of your role on the board. When you are on the board you have to look at it as a whole. You have to look at dignity and respect being upheld for every student, for every staff member, regardless of your personal differences with them.

MacArthur: He said he is not beholden to the Alpena County Republican Party and doesn't consult with them. He said if he is expected to leave his values at the door that is a different conversation, and that anyone who says they are leaving their values at the door are lying to themselves. Nothing can come in front of you without that lens to look through.

Thomas: Everybody’s partisan when it comes down to it. Sitting on the school board, decisions are not going to be made on my political beliefs. We need to make decisions based on data not on political beliefs. Whatever is best for the kids is the decision I’m going to make, not whether a Democrat or Republican will support it.

Q: What are you most proud of accomplishing your first term? How do you hope to build on that in a second term?

MacArthur: He doesn't feel that he championed any specific cause, but said that the board functioned more as a team to keep the schools running.

Q: What is the best way for voters to contact you with questions?

Bruning: Email him at robert_bruning@yahoo.com. He also has a Facebook page: Committee to elect Robert Bruning to the APS Board.

Klein: Contact her through email: lindsey4689@live.com. She also has a Facebook Page: Lindsey for Alpena Public School Board.

MacArthur: Contact his school board email: macarthura@alpenaschools.com

Thomas: Contact Thomas through email: vincentthomasforalpenaschoolbd@gmail.com. His Facebook page is Committee to elect Vincent Thomas to the Alpena public School board.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@thealpenanews.com.

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