Christa Reinert’s Re-election to the School Board

I am running for reelection to Mercer school board because I care about the state of our school and our community.  I want to continue to strive for higher academic achievement for our students, promote a positive staff environment, address the management of our school and the budgetary concerns that face the district of Mercer School.  

Reaching higher achievement will only happen when the School Board along with the Administration actually discusses state test results and addresses what we can do for our students.  The below average ACT scores at Mercer School are a concern and I feel that with our near one on one teaching in Mercer we can work harder to improve these scores. Also, with our community friendly, small school we could utilize more of our retired professionals to establish programs to get these retirees into our school and enrich our students. education further.  

 I have been and continue to be concerned with the fact that we do not have a foreign language teacher.  It is a known fact that “Rosetta Stone” and online foreign language sources do not and will not ever provide the needed interaction of in person teaching of a foreign language.  We need to hire a teacher to fulfill this shortfall immediately.  

I am concerned with the staff turnover our school has experienced over the past seven years. We need to retain our great teachers and address what our district is not providing to these folks who have left and fix it.  

I do not feel the School Board and the Administration is tackling the campus repairs that are so urgently needed.  This district needs to have a long term “Comprehensive Plan” that encompasses all the upgrades and continued repairs that our building requires. It is crucial to prioritize the repairs that are needed and complete these repairs with our available budget.  I have mentioned the Board should consider bidding these jobs so that we could utilize two fiscal years to afford these repairs (i.e.; bids in May/June commensurate repairs June thru Aug allowing for two fiscal year budgets).  

I am not satisfied with the spending in Fund 80, I would like the school board to have an actual discussion about what the school is providing the community, the use and effectiveness of these programs and the cost to the taxpayers.   

Mercer School is a critical piece to the puzzle that completes our community.  It is necessary that we all work together as a community and a School Board of Education to address the issues I have outlined above to ensure our school’s existence.   

If I am reelected, I will continue to work toward improvements for our students’ education, improvements in our school’s infrastructure and retaining our quality teachers.