The top two officers of Western School Board will face challenges for their seats Tuesday.

Jon Marley, board president who represents Monroe Township, faces a challenge from newcomer Jim Watkins.

Ron Colby, a longtime Western teacher and administrator, is taking on Harry Kenworthy, the board vice president and Harrison Township representative.

Two other members — Michael Koloszar, who represents Honey Creek Township, and longtime member J. Conrad Maugans, who holds the at-large seat — are running unopposed.

Monroe Township

Marley, a father of four children in Western Schools, is in retail sales for The Andersons and also farms. Wrapping up his first term, he’s proud of the work the board has done on a building project that is awaiting final approval from the state.

“I want to continue with the board to make sure it ends with what is best for the students,” he said. “What we need to make sure is when we are done with the combination of the primary and intermediate buildings that there are enough classrooms for the future growth of Western.”

He likes the planning that increased the size of the kindergarten area to allow for all-day classes and updating the science area within the high school.

“We haven’t updated the science labs or classrooms since the building was built. That’s kind of a shame when you think about it,” Marley said. “We have a large group of parents with a science background sending kids to Western. The building project takes care of that.”

Watkins, an audit inspector for State Farm Insurance, called the project one of the three main issues he thinks Western faces.

“I’m all for the building project,” he said. “There are a lot of underlying issues with it, including all-day kindergarten and staffing, maintenance and transportation for all-day kindergarten.”

He thinks there is a morale problem.

“I found this out when I decided to run and I talked to 30 people who work at the school. Of the people I talked to, 44 percent felt morale was low,” Watkins said. “I thought that was disturbing.

“As far as being able to fix that problem, I would fall back on my experience at State Farm and create a policy of total inclusion at the school. When decisions are made, the administration and board decide what is and isn’t done. What I would like to see is them talking to every employee and include them in the decision making. When you do that, morale goes up tremendously and you get a better quality of work.”

He also feels there are ways to give the student body a voice.

Marley pointed to the recent change in the corporation’s grading scale as something he is proud of helping with.

“That has the potential to keep more kids in school. Western did a fantastic job with the upper echelon of students and we’ve done an improved job with the lower academic-based students, but we haven’t done a lot with the middle-of-the road students. I think this well help the average student.”

Watkins feels there needs to be more progressive leadership.

“The people I talked to feel the board members need to set their personal relationships aside. They felt there were too many ‘yes’ people on the board,” he said.

Marley has enjoyed his nearly four years on the board.

“It’s a good board with good people serving it,” he said. “They always put the kids first in their decisions.”

Harrison Township

Kenworthy, a quality manager at Delphi, is finishing his first term on the board. There are two areas in particular on which he focused.

“One of those is the wellness policy. I’m very proud of the school corporation taking the initiative for hiring a dietitian to lead our wellness improvement plan,” Kenworthy said. “The other thing I focused on, and it is because I have seen a lot of presentations on it, is how to keep more kids in school by utilizing in-school suspension as opposed to expulsions and out-of-school suspensions.”

Retired since 1999, Colby wants to give back to the school and community.

“I’ve been involved with this community all my life. My wife and I are not going to be world travelers,” he said. “This corporation has been good to me and now it’s time to give back.”

He feels academics and supervision need to be a focus of the board.

“Are we providing the opportunities for all students, whether advanced, remedial or average, to be successful? We need the value of inclusion for special education students corporationwide.

“We need to review and update the evaluation process for all personnel in academic, support and extra-curricular positions as well as addressing concerns from parents, teachers and building administrators,” he said.

With the possibility of all-day kindergarten being mandated by the state, Kenworthy thinks Western is in good shape with the building project.

“We have developed a good plan to facilitate an effective full-day kindergarten,” he said.