2021_YSNElectionGuide

4 H H H 2 021 VOT E R’ S GU I DE H H H Y E L L OW S P R I NG S N EWS have worked for nearly eight years. In addi- tion, I am a certified project management professional, or PMP, and did most of my project management work while employed at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC, now HP) and KPMG Consulting (now BearingPoint). I have worked as an inter- vention specialist for grades K–12 and as an adult educator in career and technical education. I have always enjoyed volunteering in my community, and I especially enjoy the privilege of living, working and serving in the Village of Yellow Springs. In addi- tion to serving on Yellow Springs Village Council, I am president of the Little Art Theatre board of trustees and am on the Greene County Public Library board of trustees (cour t-appointed) and Yellow Springs Development Corporation as a representative from Council. I also serve as a Village representative in the Inclusive and Resilient Yellow Springs and Livable/ Equitable/Age Friendly Partnership. I am also the liaison to the Library Commission, the Human Relations Commission and the Municipal Broadband/Fiber Advisory Committee 1. I believe growth and tourism are inter- related in an interesting way. The question is based on the premise that there can be a balance and that that is possibly the ideal relationship. First, tourism, or our destination economy, is almost a foregone conclusion. Other communities in our immediate area have grown to the point where their character has changed. From a historical perspective, nearly every munici- pality started as a small town and each has grown either according to a particular plan or according to a culture of expansion where the municipality took full advantage of every opportunity for growth. Yellow Springs just happens to be far enough from the major highways that typically attract these growth and expansion opportunities. Yellow Springs has had more autonomy with respect to managing growth and we have maintained our small town appeal. Village residents alone cannot adequately support all of the businesses in town. We can visit statistics that indicate the posi- tive economic impact that tourism has on our local economy. This is a fact of life; we should embrace it and implement smart planning regarding our own growth and economic development. Yellow Springs has implemented “Smart Growth” principles — a way to build towns and neighborhoods that are economi- cally prosperous, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. We should continue to espouse and demonstrate those principles as we move into the future in a mindful manner. There is a community will to embrace the need for more homes, more families and more industry, but we want to be respectful of our local culture in the process. There is a balance between growth and tourism, and these two ideals are not mutu- ally exclusive. Each ideal has its merits, yet left unchecked, either can become poten- tially overwhelming. I would encourage villagers to consider the axiom that Yellow Springs is a place where there can be a balance between the two and that the com- munity is better with the right proportions of both tourist commerce and economic and physical growth. 2. I support the Oberer development and our continuing ef forts to ensure the development considers our many requests that the development reflect our commu- nity values and to not be a typical subur- ban development. I support the work of Yellow Springs Home, Inc., and its focus on af fordable housing and improving the quality of home life for residents in the Village and the Township. There are other ef forts that Council is involved with that are in the very early stages, and not yet ready for release to the public yet. I con- tinue to advocate for considering the use of Village-owned property for larger two- and three-bedroom apartments to support young growing families. I introduced the idea of implementing restraints on transient guest lodging — after my wife, Karen, planted the idea — in an ef fort to control the loss of housing stock from the public long-term rental market. Regarding human infrastructure, I have supported first statewide legisla- tion, then local legislation to make it illegal for property owners to deny housing to potential tenants because of their source of income. Although this can be somewhat controversial from the perspective of some, I strongly believe it is the absolute right thing to do. Additionally, I am a major proponent of adding municipal broadband to the infrastructure conversation, as well as that traditional uses of the term as it pertains to our electrical, water, sewer and storm drainage systems. 3. As I alluded to earlier, municipal broad- band is a big piece of what I would like to see accomplished in the very near future. I also look forward to the changes that the Oberer development will bring. I expect the new families that come to live in the vil- lage and attend Yellow Springs schools will contribute to the vitality of the village. Since I know that everyone cannot buy in the vil- lage, I hope to see the Village government take a leadership role in developing a mod- erately sized apartment complex to support families who want to live here but are not in a position to purchase a home at the time. I also hope to see additional efficiencies in the business operations of the Village team in terms of modernizing the locating, monitoring, and tracking of Village assets. This is largely the work of our amazing Vil- lage staff and I support whatever financial and legislative backing the team needs to continue to be successful. ISSA WALKER My name is Issa Walker, and I am 33 years old. I’m a life- long resident of Yellow Springs and a graduate of Yellow SpringsHighSchool. I received a bache- lor’s degree from Central State Uni- versity and a master’s degree in public health from Wright State University. I’ve worked on and off in the Yellow Springs community, most recently as a personal trainer at the Wellness Center. I am also a hip hop artist, who has appeared on “Sway in Morning” and performed at Gem City Shine, a massive block party benefit hosted by Dave Chappelle following the 2019 mass shooting that occurred in Dayton. My main focus is cultural diversity, youth represen- tation and affordability. 1. Growth of tourism has been a trend over the years. My main concern is attract- ing tourism that celebrates cultural diver- sity. We want quality instead of quantity, bringing in people who further cultivate the culture we hold dear. 2. I’m in favor of taking action, and seeing tangible results. We need to explore options for multifamily housing. I’m also in favor of exploring Section 8 availability in the village. The availability of high- speed internet and community broadband would be a positive village resource for infrastructure. We need to plan now for the growth of our village infrastructure, to be able to match the growing demands. Being a native of this community, I would also like to see opportunities for returning residents, many being people of color who were not able to sustain the cost of living. 3. No response. BOARD OF EDUCATION There are three seats up for election on the Yellow Springs Board of Education. The three highest vote-getters will serve a four-year term. The News asked the can- didates to submit a short biography and respond to the following three questions: 1. What are your feelings on the current open enrollment policy? What, if any, changes would you like to see made? 2. As a board member, what role will you play in ensuring academic excellence and making sure students feel prepared for life after high school? 3. What are your thoughts about the facili- ties levy; and what actions do you foresee taking concerning district facilities (after assuming office in January, if elected), if the levy measure passes, or conversely, fails? DOROTHÉE BOUQUET I am a villager, an educa tor and a parent of both aMills Lawn student and a preschooler, and I am excited to be run- ning for school board this November. While my parents wished for me to take over the family farm in Normandy, I preferred a career in education. Eventu- ally, one of my five siblings heard the call of farming and I was off the hook. I was lucky to grow up in a country where higher education is accessible, even for first-gen- eration students, and I successfully com- pleted a bachelor’s degree in history while working part-time as a year-round camp counselor for the city-run after-school care programs. I tapped into the European stu- dent exchange program and went to study abroad for a year at the Universität Tübin- gen in Germany. I next enrolled in a master’s program at the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg and wrote a thesis about the post-1945 attempts to rehabilitate Alsatian children, who had undergone the Hitlerian youth brainwashing programs during the Second World War. That is where I heard that Purdue University was looking for French native speakers to come to teach in Indiana. Excited to gain more teaching experience and acquire another language, I signed up for the opportunity and eventually stayed to enroll in a doctoral degree in history at Purdue University. I met my spouse, Sammy Saber, there and I secured a position as a senior lecturer to teach history online for Purdue University after earning my Ph.D. in 2012. My dissertation was on the teaching of modern language as an unofficial tool of diplomacy in the interwar era in France and in the United States. We welcomed our first child in 2013 and moved to Yellow Springs with our infant after my spouse accepted a post-doctoral position at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Our second child was born in Yellow Springs in 2017. Since moving to Yellow Springs in 2014, I became a U.S. citizen. This concluded 12 years of being an immigrant taxpayer with little representation in the United States. As a new voter, I took it upon myself to follow our local governments and study local issues. I quickly realized that keeping up with local governing is out of reach for most citizens, and I was happy to share my findings and put my skills to service for others. I want to bring the same energy, attention to detail, listening and communi- cation skills to my position on the school board. This community has nurtured me as I became a citizen and mom, and it’s my time to give back. 1. Open enrollment is a strength of our school district. It allows us to dig deeper into our educational philosophy of project-based learning, or PBL, to market it to other families who don’t live in Yellow Springs but also believe in this educational model. My bird-view observation is that open enrollment provides us with the finan- cial backing we need to follow our own pedagogical goals. It brings roughly over a million dollars into our yearly budget of $10.8 million dollars. At the human level, it allows our kids to not be insulated from the rest of the Miami Valley. It offers us the opportunity to bring more social, cultural and racial diversity to our kids’ school experience, and to make connections with families who live outside of our zip code. Our current open enrollment rate is at 28% and cannot go beyond 30% by board policy and 33% by state law. We have a little room to grow, which I take as an encouragement to dig deeper into our PBL approach. How can we integrate more PBL into our school experience to enrich our children’s school experience, and how can we make more families sign up for our vision? 2. I am an educator in higher education, and I deal every day with nonmajor col- lege students, meaning students who take a course outside of their primary area of interest. Most of my students don’t struggle with the content of my courses. Instead, they struggle with adulting: how to stay organized, how to pace their workload, how to stay healthy, how to deal with life events, how to pay their bills, how to fact-check or how to ask for and accept help. The best way in which we can prepare our local stu- dents for life after high school is to promote more opportunities to learn these life-skills, and I am proud that our school district is fully embracing the value of emotional growth. Fortunately, we have a village full of knowledgeable, passionate and creative people. As a board member, I would be in favor of furthering our mentoring program.