Upcoming Meetings

Dear Members of C413JE (Citizens for 13J Excellence),

We have a number of important meetings coming up.

Monday, April 4th is the regular school board meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the CHS cafeteria. Immediately preceeding that meeting is a Performance Audit Review meeting at which the board will be finalizing the shape and scope of the recently approved performance audit of the 2008 bond. Although board materials indicate that this meeting will be in the cafteria as well, I have been informed that they will actually be meeting in the CHS library. You may need to check both locations. A performance audit is something we pushed hard for and we're hoping that they have taken our request to make it a true and comprehensive audit seriously.

April 13th at 7 p.m. C413JE will meet at the Independence Public Library to discuss the elections. At this point, the indications are that Susan Stoops will in fact opt for the recall election rather than resign. We will need to move fast to continue our educational campaign and also to get out the vote. Initial word from the country clerk is that ballots will be mailed around April 14th and due back by April 28th. The steering committee will be meeting several times between now and then to put plans in motion. At our meeting on the 13th we will need organize volunteers to help distribute yard signs and door hangers and also to phone bank to registered voters in our district. We will also be planning the candidate forum that we will hosting on April 25th.

April 25th at 7 p.m. at the Independence Public Library C413JE will host a forum for school board candidates. This is good timing as the ballots for the May election will be mailed on April 29th. All five candidates will be invited (Steve Love, Preston Baxter, Kathy Zehner, Mary Shellenbarger, and Steve Moser) and we will send them a list of questions/issues in advance. School board elections usually pass by with very little notice. Most voters don't know who the candidates are nor are they familiar with the issues. C413JE believes it is time to change that - we need to know who we are voting for and where they stand on the issues confronting our school district.

See you soon!