Candidate questionnaire: James Seyer

NAME: James Seyer

AGE: 46

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cape Girardeau

SPOUSE, CHILDREN'S NAMES:

Lisa Seyer (Spouse)

Hunter Seyer (Son)

Hayden Seyer (Son)

EDUCATION:

Oak Ridge High School 1984 Graduate

Three Rivers Community College 1986 Graduate (AA degree)

OCCUPATION:

Service Technician (25 years)

EMPLOYER:

Forklifts of Cape

BUSINESSES OWNED, ALL OR PART:

J&C Seyer Farms, Oak Ridge Missouri

PUBLIC OFFICES HELD OR SOUGHT; GIVE DATES:

Oak Ridge Board Member since 2010

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST NEED YOU HOPE TO ADDRESS IF ELECTED?

As a board member, my highest focus is to provide a safe environment and a quality education for the children in our district. As technology advances, we need to make sure we are giving the children the opportunity and the tools for them to excel in any area of studies. We are a small school, but I feel we have an excellent staff that challenges our children to do the unexpected. Changes are not made overnight. It takes planning, doing, checking and actions for projects to be implemented. For example, we have been working on providing a dual credit program with a local college. This has taken a lot of thought and process to start the implementation, due to limited resources of being a small school. Working together with the faculty, parents and the board I feel we have a very bright future.

WHY ARE YOU THE BEST CANDIDATE?

I attended all my school years at Oak Ridge and graduated in 1984. Currently I have two children enrolled at Oak Ridge. My father, Andrew Seyer Jr., was a past board member and my mother, Bertha Seyer, worked at the school in the cafeteria. I have a sister, two sister-in-law's and a niece that are teachers. I was raised on a family farm in Oak Ridge and still farm today. I understand the financial challenges that are presented to us every year. When you plant a crop, you plant with the intention of harvesting that crop. Droughts, floods and other events sometimes prevent that. As in our schools, you budget for providing a quality education. When government cuts, rising fuel cost and other unexpected events happen, you have to adjust. If you can't adjust, the school, the community and the children are the ones that suffer the consequences.