Darrin Bechtel

Education/Profession:

• Education: North Montgomery High School (2005); IUPUI, bachelor’s degree 2009 • Occupation, current political office (if applicable): Agent with Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, precinct committeeman

Position statement 1:

• What specific experiences and skills qualify you to be a school board member? I am an excellent listener. This is essential when working for a school system and community. We need to be able to hear the concerns of our corporation staff and the community. I am a team player and community minded. I will work hard with our administration and school community to ensure our school system continues to be the best it can be. My children are in the school system and I have relatives that currently work for the school corporation. I will utilize this perspective in order to make educated decisions.

Position statement 2:

• What do you think are the most important issues facing the school corporation? My focus will be teacher retention and striving to maintain a positive environment for our educators and students. More so than ever, student safety and health are at the forefront of every school corporation. I will continue to support our districts focus on health and safety.

Position statement 3:

• What are some of the concerns you hear from students, parents and citizens of the school community? The main concern, and my focus will be keeping our teachers for the long term and making sure they are equipped to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Maintaining an effective student to teacher ratio also seems to be a concern of our community. I will work with our administration to ensure the class sizes are at an effective level.

Position statement 4:

• How can you balance the budget and meet the needs of the students? I will continue to support the boards fiscal responsibility. They have been doing a great job balancing and maintaining the budget. I will continue to look for new cost savings opportunities that support our students and administration.

Position statement 5:

• During and following the COVID-19 pandemic, what will you do to help the recovery of the schools in the district? I will focus on keeping our children in school while maintaining health and safety protocols. I will encourage the need for extracurricular involvement to help get our children back to doing what they love. Our school community needs that sense of normalcy while maintaining a safe environment.