Election 2024: Meet Saline Board of Education Candidate Brad Gerbe

Voters in the Saline Area Schools district will elect four members to the Board of Education in the upcoming general election. The candidates are incumbents Jennifer Steben, Susan Estep and Brad Gerbe, and Darcy Berwick, Kelly Van Singel, Shari Barnett and Jason Tizedes.

We asked questions of all the candidates. Here are Brad Gerbe's replies.

Brad Gerbe

Bio

School Board Treasurer & Finance Chair (3 years).
School Board Compensation Team Member (3 years).
Served on district’s Sex Education Advisory Board (SEAB) (1 year).
Teacher of Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology and Forensic Science at Manchester
High School (21 years).
Lead contract negotiator for Manchester’s certified personnel (8 years).
Married to Jessica (19 years)… Two children… Graham (16, Junior at Saline HS) and Bryce (13, 8th grade at Saline MS).

Why are you running for the Board of Education?

As a parent with two students currently in the Saline school system, and as a teacher going on 21 years now, I understand two very different sides of the educational experience. These perspectives inform my thinking as a Trustee on the Saline Board of Education.

Through my work as a professional educator, I am well-versed in educational modalities and mechanisms that are rooted in research and best practice. I have been committed to supporting the tremendous educators of Saline in their mission to provide engaging lessons and enhance learning outcomes for students. I have developed relationships with them and I am connected to their experience. I believe this connection is reflected in the endorsement that the Saline Education Association and the Saline Education Support Personnel have made of my candidacy to continue on the Board for four more years. 

As a parent who wants what's best for kids and their classmates, it is important that every student feels safe in our schools, and that Saline feels like home. I value the conversations that are occurring surrounding inclusivity and equity. I believe that we can provide strong educational outcomes for all students, including those who are of color and students who are LGBTQ. We have also done quite a bit to enhance safety for students and staff while they are at school.

This work is continuous and ongoing and involves technologies like the InformaCast system which has been adopted districtwide and our annual commitment to reviewing the district’s safety plan.

As the Board Treasurer and Finance Chair for the past three years, I am proud of the financial

stability we have attained. The district is on strong financial footing. And yet... we continue to work and identify ways to be good financial stewards. Four years ago our fund balance had dropped below 10% and our cost structures did not match our student enrollment. Fast forward four years and we have more than doubled our fund balance (it is the highest it has been in many, many years) and taken significant steps to get our structures in line. We accomplished this while maintaining strong contracts with our administration team, our teachers and support personnel.

As a financial leader for the district, I pledge to continue to advocate that Federal and State governments meet the funding needs of our local schools and students. I have an acute understanding of school funding to support these conversations. I understand: pupil counting (FTE count) and foundation allowance, the impact of the Headlee Rollback and Proposal A, and allocated state and federal funds such as Title 1, 2 and 3, 31A and bonded dollars. My position as lead bargainer for the certified personnel educators in Manchester provides me with insight into the process of budgeting and collective bargaining as well as the allocation of restricted funding sources.   

Lastly, as a teacher, a Trustee, and as a dad, I understand the overall school experience for students. The students are who I desperately want to serve! The Board of Education is responsible for developing and implementing policies and procedures that directly impact the health, safety and well-being of our children. I believe I will be able to continue asking important questions and helping mold policies that are practical and fulfill the district's stated mission to be transparent and inclusive of all students. I will listen when we don't agree and I will be thoughtful as I make decisions that impact our kids. I am the parent of a 16 and a 13-year-old. Like you, I have high expectations for our schools. As

I sit here today, I can honestly and confidently declare that I do not possess any established agenda. I am running for reelection to the Board of Education purely out of a desire to serve the students. I want our children to grow up in a tremendous community and be supported by great schools. I want to continue to be a part of that.

Why should voters choose you?

In my time as board member I have been given the trust of our board team as the Treasurer and Finance Chair, a position I have held for the past 3 years. In those 3 years we have managed to establish the largest fund balance that Saline has had in a very long time… and we have done a lot of what we would call “right sizing” to address our current structural needs as a school district.

I also believe in those 3 years that I have established myself as a trustworthy teammate and colleague and that I have been able to provide the perspective of a boots on the ground teacher

to the Board team. I think it is important to have a teacher or a support personnel individual on the Board and I am glad to have filled that role along with my friend and board colleague Jenny Miller. I also believe I am a steadying influence for our board team and someone who desires to listen willingly to do my best for kids- the students are everything and that’s why I serve in this capacity.

I believe that there is more work to do, primarily related to the bond of 2022 and we will have potential important business items such as if we can’t talk our current superintendent Steve Laatsch into not retiring at the end of his contract. It is likely that within the next four years that we will be in the market and I want Saline’s reputation for excellence to encourage a strong applicant pool. We also have to demonstrate stability from the Board table and I believe I have been able to provide that for the community and parents and families. For those reasons and others, I am asking for the continued support (your vote) of the Saline community and if you want to learn more about what I believe in I invite you to visit www.votegerbe.com. Thank you.

If elected, what are your top priorities?

My biggest priority is providing continued stability and maximizing excellence. As I stated in the last answer there are a number of exciting changes that are on the horizon for students, families and the Saline community. We are going to be able to provide tremendous opportunities through the new transportation center, new athletic facilities, STEAM improvements and competition fields, upgrades and new opportunities for our Career and Technical Education (CTE) students, updates to classrooms including state of the art technologies, and senior center enhancements.

Furthermore, I possess a genuine desire and priority for all students and staff to feel supported and safe in the school and that everyone in our schools gets to be their authentic, real selves. In addition, I want to continue to be part of a board team that strives for connection and works to establish relationships. I will care about students and families and I will listen to our collective experiences. We have established a number of goals for the district and I want to contribute towards the attainment of those goals. These include maintaining academic rigor, promoting a culture of equity, maximizing civility and unity, and working towards the future. The future is bright for our schools and I would be excited to continue to be good stewards of finance and to work towards the improvements our recent bond passage (thank you voters!) is going to support.

The board’s transgender policy states that school staff shall not reveal a student’s transgender status to the student’s parents. Do you agree with this policy? Why or why not?

This is a difficult question to answer. I believe in school- parent/ guardian partnership. I think when we work together, using the district’s tremendous resources and talent, that we realize better outcomes for students. So, in a perfect world I hope that parents and staff will work together to support students in all parts of their lives in order to ensure that all students are living their best, authentic lives.

All that being said, some students are or may not be ready to share these realizations with their parents at home. Some may not reside in a home that is a safe space. School may be a safe place for these students. It might even be the only safe space for these students. In this way, the transgender policy is meant to protect these students. When we passed the transgender policy the district’s policy committee took its time to seek out professional guidance for protecting these students. As a board we sought out both legal expertise and human expertise.

The strong recommendation of this expertise was that we incorporate language that protects students and staff members. The rationale is that the adopted language maximizes safety for students. It is NOT a desire to try to hide information from parents/ guardians. We saw data that supported the inclusion of this language and reduced incidents of, something we don’t want to talk about, teen suicide, which can be an alarming reality for students who reside in unaccepting home situations.

The board used to have a 10 percent cap on schools of choice students. What do you think of schools of choice and how should the district use it?  

I believe the consensus at the table is that the Board still strives for and prefers a SOC cap near 10%. At least I do. What I/ we have allowed is for discretion of our superintendent to have some flexibility with the cap to protect resources and programs. In our current funding system, students equal funding. That’s the way the system is drawn up. Certainly NOT perfect.

Personally, I’d like to see school of choice completely gone in the State of Michigan. District kids are district kids. This ensures loyalty and a sense of pride in the community where individuals live. A guy can dream, right ?

To definitively answer the question, I think our district needs to continue its current utilization of school of choice where opportunity presents itself. Namely to stabilize class cohorts and recently we made a move to prioritize accepting the youngest learners, kindergarteners. This allows us to pair these children with our outstanding staff members from the youngest age possible. It also allows students to grow up to be Hornets. Bottom line: I want to have robust programs and I want to be able to have the best talent in our schools. These things take money and require participating individuals. In that way I’d call School of Choice a “necessary evil”.

What’s a strength of the district? Do you think there may be ways to leverage that strength to improve education in the schools?

I think THE strength of our school district is that it ties together our community. When I think about all the things we offer there is so much more than curriculum. We offer high level special education, transportation, food service, community education, athletics and clubs, etc.- there is so much about our school system that unites us. As seen by the support the community gives to our schools, such as passing a $180 Million bond so that we can be a destination school district. Because I do believe that we are indeed a destination school district, yes, I believe we can leverage it. We have to find a way for families with children to come to Saline. We need affordable housing.

Also another tremendous strength is the quality of people who choose to work for Saline. We have incredible staff members with a plethora of talents. We can also leverage this through marketing opportunities to drive families to choose Saline. We could, with recognition of these individuals’ talents ($$$!), also use these talents to offer shared services to other school districts. I’m just spit-balling… but hopefully readers get the idea.

Lastly, we are leaders in so many areas because of the incredible facilities and resources we are able to offer. It is not a mistake that our athletic programs, our e-gaming team, our robotics and science Olympiad teams are elite. These are also areas that as we support them we should expect to experience growth and be competitive for students and for the best talent to want to work for Saline. These opportunities enhance the overall school experience for students and strengthen our school system.

What’s a weakness of the district and how should it be improved?

I think the great challenge of our time is polarization. I'm a bit of an idealist when I write- I don't think most people want to be polar. I certainly don't think they do when it comes to our kids. I believe that most people want to live their life somewhere near the middle. There are times I agree with conservative principles- financial budgeting and responsibility for example. However,

I tend to be more progressive with wanting every kid to see themselves actively represented in the curriculum and in our school’s policies. Wanting a great life for our kids- unites us. Now, we might have differing belief systems and priorities, but I think we need to learn to care about those who don't worship the way I do, love the way I do, have the same life experiences and needs from the school system that I do. We have to work for one another.

I believe that I am steadying force on the Board. However, I am NOT perfect. And I certainly have a set of core beliefs and values- and I will vote accordingly. That said, I will listen and think about how I can meet the needs of all of our students and families. We may not agree, but I will try to understand.

As pertains to our schools, a weakness of our district- or as I would call it- area of opportunity- is economic equity. We ask a lot of families financially. Especially as applies to sports and clubs & activities. I’ll share an example from my life. In order for my son to play a high school sport (which is an outstanding program with top notch coaches and top notch resources (uniforms)) we are asked to pay the participation fee ($275) plus we were asked for a team fee ($100) and required fundraising. Every family provides a meal for an away contest. Some parents were asked to provide funds for a team trip. Plus, there are ancillary expenses as well. While I am glad to pay these things I don’t want a family’s financial wellness or lack thereof (things sometimes just happen to all of us- bills, loss of job, etc) to be a barrier for students to participate in every portion of the school experience. I want EVERY student to be able to experience the learning opportunity that comes with the Washington D.C. trip. I want every football player to have the best helmet possible. I want every Robotics team member to be able to travel to Houston for Nationals. In our 1 on 1 meetings with the superintendent (we have quarterly meetings with Steve) I am continuously talking to Steve about how to do we make sure  that all students can realize these opportunities- AND to evaluate if we are asking too much of families. I’d like to see us pursue if there are business partnerships and/ or donors in thecommunity who would be willing, with the appropriate recognition and advertising of said support, to make the necessary financial commitment to cover these expenses and opportunities. It’s a dream- but we can try. 

Should the board be more careful about adopting policies that are cited as reasons to  leave the district for private schools? Why or why not?

As I stated in the previous question I think we need to have a core set of beliefs and try to work collaboratively with each other to see how we can optimize the experience for all of our students. It’s no secret that I tend to lean blue, along with what I think is a little over 50% of Saline. However, that means that almost 50% leans or tends to favor conservatism (red). As such, we have to work to connect with one another. 

I don’t want any student to leave his/ her/ their home district. I want to keep all Hornets home in our public school system. That said, there are priorities and core values for families that we just simply canNOT provide or we’d be breaking the law. For example, we canNOT incorporate prayer and/ or religion into our daily curriculum and/ or school sponsored/ provided schedules.

Therefore, families who wish for the incorporation of religion and religious values in their student’s school life as a priority have to pursue private education.

So… to definitively answer the question… I don’t think we adopt policies intentionally to incite  families or discourage them. We just pass policies that feel are right to support our public school student population at this particular snapshot in time. When we consider policies we are intentional. We offer public comment, we engage in debate, we meet in committee. We are intentional about gathering feedback and so I think we (at least I know I am) interested in hearing from families and if they have a different viewpoint, as long as they express that in a meaningful and respectful way, I want to try to understand and figure out how we serve these families. An example of how I’ve done that is through my support of the opt-out policy. While I can confidently say that I will NEVER opt my child out of any lesson or instruction, I understand that there are some families that for deeply personal reasons (both blue and red families) choose to exercise the opt-out. I am protective of that right and I really do want to partner with families wherever and whenever we can.

As a board member, what obligation do you have to the people with whom you disagree?

I feel like I’ve answered this question a couple of times. I do feel an obligation to listen to those who don’t agree with me. For example, when people come to public comment- I think we have to take it. Meaning for those three minutes, individuals are free to tell us their truth and how they feel… irregardless of my feelings. I signed up to do this job. I have to take it.

What I won’t do is compromise my moral compass. I am going to vote a particular way. Yay or nay. However, I will listen and try to find ways to work with others to ensure that our collective vision is incorporated whenever it is appropriate to do so. As long as a student’s life experience isn’t invalidated by what the person is asking us to consider, then I am willing to listen and give due consideration. I embrace the Bridge to Civility and I think it’s an important part of being a Board team member.

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