Brent Garner, 47,
insurance agent
104 Glenview Drive

Brent Garner says the issue of school consolidation should have been settled in the 1990s when repeated efforts to close schools were shelved after intense public criticism.

Garner, an insurance salesman, said children at crowded elementary schools in west Lawrence should be bused to underused schools on the east side before anyone talks about mothballing schools.

He said there appeared to be something “sinister” about the school board’s work with an Overland Park consulting firm on the proposed $59 million bond issue for school construction.

Signing up Lawrence architecture firms to work on bond projects even though no public vote has taken place smells like “vote-buying with public money,” Garner said.

Garner, father of a child with disabilities, gives the district bad grades on its treatment of children with disabilities.

“We are dumbfounded by the almost universally adversarial attitude by district senior management toward students with disabilities,” he said.

Garner moved to Lawrence in 1988 to teach Air Force ROTC at Kansas University. Of his six children, three attend Lawrence schools. They attend Centennial School, West Junior High School and Free State High School.

He is one of two candidates prosecuted for criminal offenses in Douglas County District Court. He served five days in jail after pleading no contest to charges he detained four juveniles involved in a 1996 school-yard fight with his children.

Samuel Gould, 42,
newspaper employee,
3810 W. 14th Court

Samuel Gould is an unusual school board candidate because he makes no secret he is willing to be drubbed at the ballot box.

“It doesn’t matter if I get elected or not,” he said. “If the community doesn’t feel I’m the person they want … that’s OK.”

More important than winning, he said, is defeating the $59 million bond proposal for school construction, blocking elementary school consolidation, and raising taxes to pump money into teacher salaries and promoting magnet schools.

Gould, 42, is a mailroom employee at the Journal-World. He filed for school board, but he said he would quit after his arrest record was disclosed. He changed his mind and is on Tuesday’s primary ballot.

Gould’s wife is a special-education teacher at Broken Arrow School. Her two children from a previous marriage attend Southwest Junior High School and Free State High School. His three children from a previous marriage live in Pennsylvania.

“The bond issue is uncreative, irresponsible — a quick fix in a financially devastating time,” Gould said. “It benefits the most affluent areas of Lawrence while taking away from the least.”

He supports replacing South Junior High School and expanding Lawrence Alternative High School.

He was arrested last May in separate incidents for driving under the influence, domestic battery and violating a court protective order. He pleaded no contest to breaking the court order and was placed on one-year probation.

Cille King, 55,
apartment manager
1905 Countryside Lane

Cille King is convinced one is the loneliest number on the Lawrence school board.

The board recently voted to close East Heights, Centennial and Riverside schools and place before voters a $59 million bond issue for school construction. The votes were 6-1 in favor, with Jack Davidson voting “no.”

King said it would be distressing to get elected only to replace Davidson as the lone voice of dissent on facility issues. But, she said, if all goes well in Tuesday’s primary election and the April 1 general election, a new majority will rule the board. King wants to fill the open seats with consolidation and bond-issue foes.

“There are at least four (candidates) with similar views and strong backgrounds who perhaps can turn around the district’s view of where the facilities and education ought to go,” King said.

King, 55, is an apartment manager who has worked in the state architect’s office and as a travel agent. She has college degrees in human development and architecture. She moved to Lawrence in 1965, has a son at Free State High School and a daughter at Central Junior High School. In 1999, King captured 2,653 votes in the school board election, but she finished sixth among seven candidates.

King said the next board should develop a substitute bond proposal large enough to replace South Junior High School, expand Lawrence Alternative High School and address safety, maintenance and classroom deficiencies at school buildings throughout the district.