FIVE SEEK PERRYVILLE SCHOOL BOARD SEAT

PERRYVILLE -- Current members of the Perry County Board of Education plan to interview a future member of the board Wednesday night at the school board office. The interviews start at 6 p.m. and are open to the public.

The board is looking for a replacement for Carol Laws, a school board member who resigned after her husband took a job in Kansas. Whomever they select will serve until April, when voters will select someone to fill the rest of the three-year term.

The board plans to make its selection at its meeting July 9.

The five who have applied for the position are Tom Wesolek, Debbie Balsman, Larry Jones, David Ernst and Wayne Keller. They all said they like the current board and administration. Wesolek, Balsman and Ernst have served on some of the district's long-range planning committees.

Wesolek, a senior customer service representative at Solar Communications, has two children in elementary school. A Perryville resident for five years, he has been active in the public schools, serving on the committee making recommendations on character education and the committee on improving standardized test scores.

He likes the current school board and said he didn't run against Laws and Dennis Martin in April because he "probably would have voted for them" over himself.

Wesolek is particularly concerned about the district's financial situation. When the Missouri General Assembly changed the formula for distributing state aid to schools, Perry County's share dropped, because its property tax rate is so low.

Wesolek said he would look for new ways of raising money but would support a tax increase "if that's what it comes down to."

Balsman, special projects secretary at Perry County Memorial Hospital, served on the Perryville Area Career Center Advisory Council since 1990, is a mentor there, and was on the advisory committee at Perryville Elementary School in 1993, where she helped redesign the report cards.

She said the current school board and the last two superintendents are superior to previous boards and superintendents. In the last six or seven years, she said the district has been better at serving all children.

"You can't teach all kids in the same way," she said, and the district has made great strides in serving the "learning disabled and the accelerated students."

Balsman's children will start fifth and eighth grade in August.

Jones, the second in command at Union Planters Bank in Perryville, believes his 25 years experience in finance would help the district. "Being a banker in the community, I have an understanding of the financial situation of the people in the community," he said.

He is particularly interested in drama and the arts. He founded First Act, an adult community theater company. Jones said he would look for ways of bringing outside funding to improve extracurricular activities like school plays, athletics, band and debate.

David Ernst, a farmer and lifelong resident of the school district, said he wants to represent farmers. "With a farmer on the board, it is a little easier to relate for paying taxes," Ernst said.

He said he disagreed with some recent board decisions, but "I don't want to get into that because I wasn't on the board and don't know the background and reasoning."

Ernst's youngest son will be a freshman at Perryville High School.

Keller just graduated from UMKC law school and is studying for the bar exam. He started studying for a degree in vocational education while in the Navy, graduated from Southern Illinois University and started law school after retirement.

Keller said he wants to be an advocate for vocational education and would like to see it be considered the equal of academic. "What happens here is we underserve kids who don't want to go into college," he said.