Here's what Sioux Falls school board candidates have to say about why they're running
Five candidates are in the race for two open seats on the Sioux Falls School District’s Board of Education.
The joint city and school board election is set for April 9. School board candidates will also face off in a debate at 6:30 p.m. March 13 at the Instructional Planning Center at 201 E. 38th St.
Here’s what each of the five candidates had to say about why they wanted to run, and what makes them qualified to be one of five board members leading the district. Their names and responses are listed in order of when they responded to the Argus Leader’s questions in time for our deadline.
More: 5 candidates enter race for two seats on Sioux Falls School District Board of Education
Editor’s note: Answers to questions sent by the Argus Leader have been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Marc Murren
Marc Murren, 68, is the current vice president of the school board and is running to keep his seat on the board. He is endorsed by the Sioux Falls Education Association.
Murren grew up in the Sioux Falls School District, attending Cleveland Elementary School, Whittier Middle School and Lincoln High School. Murren’s three children also grew up and graduated in the Sioux Falls School District, and he has two grandchildren currently enrolled in the district.
He was hired as a social studies, computer, physical education and health teacher at Washington High School in 1989. He was also the head wrestling coach for 28 years, an assistant football coach for 30 years and assistant track coach for five years. His last year as a teacher and coach in the district was 2021.
What made you decide to run?
I ran because I thought my 42 years of teaching and coaching would bring a different perspective to the board. I ran to continue serving the students and families of Sioux Falls. For 45 years, I have worked with and for kids. I believe in public education. As a public school, we take whoever shows up, all are welcome. I also wanted to be a voice for our employees of the district while serving on the board.
What do you think you can bring to the board that hasn’t been seen before? What sets you apart?
I bring a passion for students. I have an honest, everyday attitude to do what's best for all students. We are going to encounter challenges with growth in our community. I have a firm belief we will meet these challenges and continue to be successful. We will be successful with the help of our teachers, administration, all other devoted employees, and our stakeholders in the community that makes education work.
What are the biggest issues you see facing the Sioux Falls School District today?
A priority for me is to have the Sioux Falls School District students K-3 reading and performing math skills at grade level. This is a foundation kids need to have to be successful in school. In K-3, they learn to read. Once students learn to read, they will then read to learn. Recruiting and retaining effective teachers is crucial.
Attendance is a huge concern for me. When students are not in school, they can fall behind, and learning becomes very challenging. It is a trend nationwide. As a district, we are working hard to encourage students to have regular attendance.
School safety has become an issue across the United States. It is important that parents, students, and school officials work together for school safety. It is essential that our students and staff have a safe environment to learn and grow. As a school district, it is critical we inform and reinforce our safety protocols. We must continue to improve our safety measures and policies.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected, and how do you plan to do so?
I hope we can work together with the community to improve educational opportunities for the children of the Sioux Falls Public Schools. I hope our citizens feel there is an open line of communication if they wish to address any concerns, positive or negative. I will work with our administration to reinforce open lines of communication. I will commit to advocating for children and work with anyone who can help enhance learning in our district. I want our learners to achieve and thrive.
Gail Swenson
Gail Swenson, 67, came to the Sioux Falls School District as a teacher at Roosevelt High School when it opened in 1991 and taught speech, journalism, newspaper and oral interpretation there until 1999.
She served as president of the Sioux Falls Education Association from 1999 to 2005. She also has the SFEA's endorsement this year in her campaign. In July 2005, she was named a teacher on special assignment and worked in staff development for the district. In September 2005, she was named supervisor of both homeless and Indian education.
She returned to the classroom in 2011 at Lincoln High School where she taught speech and American literature until 2014, when she left the district to serve as superintendent of the Dupree School District, and then as superintendent and secondary principal in the Tripp-Delmont School District.
What made you decide to run?
When I retired in July 2021, I knew I had more to give to education. I wasn’t ready to jump back into being a superintendent, but wanted to use my passion for teaching and learning, and my knowledge of district leadership, in a meaningful way. During the holidays, I was visiting with some retired educators. We were talking about the school board election. Someone asked me if I’d ever considered running for the board. I said I had, and they asked me to consider it for this election. After more conversations with friends and family, I decided this was a good time for me to run.
What do you think you can bring to the board that hasn’t been seen before? What sets you apart?
Being a retired superintendent, I bring a unique skillset to the board. I am familiar with the elements of leading a district. I won’t need to play “catch up” in the areas of budget, policy, management, facilities, curriculum and student achievement, or school operations. I’ve created a vision for a district and, working with the board, a pathway to bring it to fruition. I’ve learned how to effectively communicate the district’s vision and needs to the parents and stakeholders of the district. I know education jargon. I understand, have built, and followed a school budget.
As an administrator in the district, I prepared budgets for my two federal programs. As a superintendent, I analyzed revenues, student growth and allocations to help prepare an appropriate budget that provided the curriculum, programs, salaries, services, and growth of a district.
I’ve written school policy, handbooks, school calendars and negotiated agreements. I’ve managed student discipline, personnel decisions, and legal issues. I’ve worked with architects for new construction projects and additions to existing school structures. I’ve led successful opt-out drives to impose an excess levy above current tax limitations. I’ve created five-year capital improvement plans to help districts prepare for future needs. I’ve managed a fleet of buses and other school vehicles. I’ve had years of experience sitting at a board table as a superintendent and working cooperatively with board members. I fully understand the role of a board member and if elected, would simply be changing seats at the table.
What are the biggest issues you see facing the Sioux Falls School District today?
The first issue is engagement — to encourage our students, families and community to be engaged in our district and our children’s education. We need to engage our students and families in children’s learning. We need to engage our community in the opportunity for partnerships and support. We need to engage all stakeholders in the vision of our district.
The second issue is prioritizing safety for the well-being of students and staff. We need to ensure that we are doing everything possible to create buildings and learning environments that are safe for our students and staff to be in every day. The board must provide safe environments for students to learn, staff members to work, and for teachers to teach. I pledge to strive to create safe spaces for education and to oppose violence, including bullying, and unwelcoming schools.
The third issue is maintaining excellence by building a culture of excellence in all aspects of the district: academics, student opportunities, facilities, programs, and environments. As board members, we need to ensure that we live by the district motto of educating and preparing students to succeed in a changing world and the goal of creating a best-in-the-nation district.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected, and how do you plan to do so?
I hope to make progress with the issues I have identified – engagement, safety, and excellence.
I’d like to start at the building level and work with principals and other school leaders on engaging parents and neighbors in the schools, and in our students’ education. Engagement begins with the families and grows out from there. Identifying other areas of need and the people and businesses who could step up would be highly impactful for our students.
I believe one of the first steps with safety is to work with the district and building-level administrators, and gather data concerning safety issues in our schools and other buildings. I will visit our schools and observe the climate, and visit with staff and administration to see what support they would need from the board members in the form of policy, the discipline matrix, or programming.
I’ve been a student advocate my entire educational career and will continue to advocate for our students and their activities and programs. The one area that I will strongly work to address is academics. Although I know that learning is much more than a test score, we have some language arts and math scores that need our immediate attention. We need to talk with our teachers and instructional staff to find out what support or tools we can give them to help them with students who have fallen behind or are not at grade level in the core areas of reading/language arts, science, and math. We need to work with principals and grade level specialists to see where the gaps are that we need to address. We can’t afford to let any child fall through the cracks.
Stuart Willett
Stuart Willett, 65, has worked as a substitute teacher in the Sioux Falls School District since 2022. Before that, he taught science in New York City public schools for 15 years, and taught English as a second language in Taiwanese schools for several years.
Willett said he’s also involved with many schools and families as a member of Central Church Downtown, with his work in the Gideon’s ministry, and service at the Banquet and Faith Temple. His professional background also includes working for Wang computers, and working as a stockbroker.
What made you decide to run?
I’ve grown to care deeply about our community and I wanted to get involved. Given my long and diverse experience as an educator, I felt I could be most impactful helping the schools. I’ve seen firsthand how public schools have declined in large cities like New York. I’ve also seen how wonderful Sioux Falls Schools are, and I’d like to do what I can to help keep them great and become the best in the nation. My decision to run was solidified by encouragement received from parents and teachers who supported my ideas on increasing teachers’ freedom to teach and grow professionally, representing all families (public, private, and homeschool), and evaluating taxpayer return on investment.
What do you think you can bring to the board that hasn’t been seen before? What sets you apart?
Navigating educational bureaucracy, merciful teaching strategies, strategy for practical implementation of teaching advice, motivating students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, a diverse educational background that informs advice for Sioux Falls schools, a framework for incorporating Krashen's input hypothesis of language acquisition, and applied business and analytical skills.
What are the biggest issues you see facing the Sioux Falls School District today?
The foremost concern revolves around artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications on future careers. What steps should schools take to equip students for this shift, ensuring they are well-prepared for the evolving job landscape? Another significant challenge is the influence of AI on misinformation and manipulation. How can we build up students' critical thinking skills to safeguard them from emerging threats such as deepfakes and other manipulative tools in an AI-driven environment?
What do you hope to accomplish if elected, and how do you plan to do so?
I propose that the solution to the most critical issues facing students and the district as a whole involves the active involvement of our highly effective teachers across all grade levels as the standard bearers for the school system.
My primary focus will be on identifying these highly effective teachers by utilizing data from standardized exams, gauging the improvement students experience in each teacher's class. I am confident in my ability to develop tools for this analysis and anticipate identifying approximately 10% of teachers in any given school who exhibit highly effective results.
Once identified, I intend to collaborate closely with these teachers, involving them in our professional development. The highly effective teachers in each grade level will be training their colleagues. I will consult with these same teachers to assess the school budget, seeking input on the most impactful use of funds for our schools.
Additionally, I plan to engage them in crafting a forward-thinking curriculum that incorporates AI education for students, anticipating the challenges, and equipping them to think critically so that they might be able to stand against manipulation by deepfakes and platforms like TikTok that are intent on brainwashing kids.
Furthermore, I aim to liberate teachers and principals from the influence of national organizations like the National Education Association that have them bound up. These organizations act as thieves trying to plunder the school system by seeking control of the school board. I heard of a seventh grade teacher telling her unhappy students, “I don’t like this either, but the district requires it,” referring to the social-emotional learning curriculum.
I intend to question why we have to abide by the agendas of organizations like the NEA and to evaluate if those interests add any value to our students. I will also be a voice for all the teachers who want to say something, but are fearful of speaking out.
Pat Starr
Pat Starr, 55, is a parent of three students who grew up in or are still in schools in the Sioux Falls School District: Avery, 22, a senior at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio; Angela, 16, a sophomore at Washington High School; and Alinia, 12, a fifth grader at St. Lambert Elementary School, which is actually part of the Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools system. He said he’s also had foster children in the district over the years.
What made you decide to run?
My wife and I chose to be part of Sioux Falls 36 years ago. We chose Sioux Falls for the family we were planning, and because of its strong educational system, both public and private. We have watched the school systems plan for the future with facilities, curriculum, and activities for all. The Sioux Falls schools have led the region in scholastics and athletics. We have been proud of the accomplishments of all students.
But as we look into the future, we see challenges on the horizon. The Sioux Falls school board needs people to serve who have experience in the past, but most importantly, have a vision for a strong future for all.
What do you think you can bring to the board that hasn’t been seen before? What sets you apart?
Serving on the Sioux Falls City Council for the past 8 years has taught me a great deal about issues and successes in our town. Being part of the council required research into issues and solutions. I am a strong supporter of the needs of our schools and students. The school district is growing right along with the city, and my experience will open more communication between the schools and city.
The most important lesson I have learned is that residents want to be heard. Many times, I have met with people in their homes, offices or neighborhoods. I have brought bureaucrats together with constituents to find amicable solutions.
Not once while serving on the council did I vote for a tax increase. In fact, several times I led the charge to cut property taxes. I also authored an ordinance that lowered property taxes for the elderly and disabled. It is possible to do more with less.
What are the biggest issues you see facing the Sioux Falls School District today?
Openness, transparency and financial responsibility — doing more without raising taxes.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected, and how do you plan to do so?
We can do more without raising local taxes. We can provide the best education system in the country. I believe the secret to success is working together. That means the board, administration, teachers and taxpayers. We will need to be open and transparent about the district's actions so that we can build an incredible future for our students.
Bobbie Tibbetts
Bobbie Tibbetts, 40, and her husband Luke have two children: Will and Ryan, who are in eighth and seventh grades at Patrick Henry Middle School, respectively.
Tibbetts, a commercial real estate professional, mentors a student through Lutheran Social Services and co-leads a group of eighth grade girls at George McGovern Middle School, helping open their minds to potential career options, identify their strengths, build confidence and envision a future where they thrive in their work and life, she said.
What made you decide to run?
We have two children in public schools, so I have a vested interest in ensuring that the school system provides the best education and opportunities possible for my children and all students. The decisions made at the board level directly impact my family. I will put forth the time and effort required to dig in on important issues to help reach the best decisions.
What do you think you can bring to the board that hasn’t been seen before? What sets you apart?
I bring a fresh perspective. I am committed to fostering collaboration, transparency, and accountability within the board, while always prioritizing the best interests of our students and the community.
What are the biggest issues you see facing the Sioux Falls School District today?
Among the biggest issues facing the Sioux Falls School District today include the growing class sizes and safety concerns, effectively allocating resources, retaining and recruiting teachers, and addressing behavioral health issues among students.
With an increasing student population, maintaining manageable class sizes becomes crucial for effective teaching and learning. Additionally, ensuring a safe and secure learning environment is paramount to student success and well-being.
As the district grows and aging facilities require more maintenance, it’s essential to allocate resources effectively to meet the needs of students while also maintaining fiscal responsibility.
Retaining experienced teachers and attracting new talent is vital for maintaining educational quality. Addressing factors such as competitive salaries and supportive working environments can help in retaining and recruiting high-quality educators.
Providing adequate support services can enhance students’ overall academic and personal development and can equip teachers with knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively manage classroom dynamics and support students' needs.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected, and how do you plan to do so?
Transparency, outcomes, and accountability. If elected to the Sioux Falls school board, my focus will be on leveraging my unique skill set to drive transparency and effectiveness within our current processes and to drive change to deliver better outcomes. By challenging the status quo, we can ensure that our decisions are driven by a commitment to excellence and a dedication to the well-being of our students, families, and community.
I believe that my leadership abilities will enable me to ask the tough questions and advocate for ideas and solutions that can better address the evolving needs of our schools. As our community and school system continues to grow and become more diverse, we have a duty to continue to provide a safe learning environment.
Through effective governance, we can create a school system that not only meets the needs of today, but also prepares our students for the challenges of tomorrow. When we prioritize excellence and accountability, we all win – students, families, educators, and the community as a whole!
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Q&A: 5 candidates in the race for Sioux Falls school board
