Candidate Q&A: CC/E school board

Denny Dalen, Director District 2

1. My wife, Heather, and I have been married since 1997 and have lived in Everly since 2001. Our daughter, Grace, is a senior at H-M-S. I've been employed at AMPI since 2006.

2. I served with Everly Fire and Rescue for 10 years from 2001-2011. I'm currently finishing my first term on CC/E's school board.

3. My original goal when asked to run four years ago was to serve two terms if elected.

4. My main concerns are COVID-related challenges, and low enrollment numbers.

5. Our main goal continues to be improving our K-6 student count. To accomplish this goal, we have updated the playground equipment and re-established a pre-K program.

6. In the last few years, we've needed to make difficult and painful decisions for the CC/E school district. While these decisions were not easy, we are seeing some positive results. Enrollment is up this year, expenses are down and our unspent authorized budget has shown significant improvement.

I would appreciate your support on Nov. 2.

Allison Goyette, Director District 4

1. I am a wife, mother, nurse and CC/E alum. My husband, Matt, and I celebrated our 18-year anniversary this year with our three children, Sierra (17), Mathew (14) and Carter (13). I have been a nurse for 19 years in Spencer, currently working at Northwest Iowa Urologist PC. I am a CC/E graduate, Class of 2001.

2. I have been a dedicated CC/E school board member for the last eight years. In those eight years, I spent one year as vice president and the last three years as school board president.

3. I am running for my current position on the board because I believe in this community and know that we have an amazing elementary school. I have been on this board for the last eight years and there have been some difficult times and major changes. It's exciting to see the enthusiasm of our staff and administration going into this school year and I would love the opportunity to continue to be a part of this family we get to call Clay Central/Everly.

4. As far as concerns for our school district, enrollment has been a never-ending challenge for most school systems and CC/E is no different. I think we just need to continue to promote our wonderful educational system and reach out to any new families in our district. Now that most of the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, getting the public in our doors and seeing first hand what we have to offer will help promote our school and assist in increasing enrollment.

5. District goals:

• To see CC/E thrive as a viable school system by social media outreach and engaging the community support as much as possible.

• To see our educational test scores rise as we forge ahead after a detrimental pandemic by supporting our teachers and providing the most effective and innovative teaching methods to engage our young learners.