Five of seven candidates for Karns City Area School District’s board will take seats on the nine-person board following the Nov. 7 election.

The candidates include three incumbents, three former board members and one newcomer.

Current board president Joshua Price, vice president Brenda Ealey and member Tara Hackwelder are running for reelection. Price and Ealey cross-filed, appearing on both the Republican and Democratic tickets. Hackwelder is running as a Democrat.

Three others, Joseph Boltz, Denny Kelly and William Summerville, previously have held positions on the board. Boltz and Summerville cross-filed. Kelly is running as a Republican.

Morgen Mogus, the only potential newcomer for the board, is running in the district for the first time as a Libertarian candidate.

Four-year terms for existing school board members Vance Perry and Matt Bishop are expiring at the end of this year, but neither filed to run for reelection.

Price, a 1998 graduate of Karns City and a resident of Bruin, is president of the board. He has 10 years of experience on the board and works full time as an applications engineer for USA Compression Partners.

Price said he believes his experience and opportunity to learn from board members he has served with qualify him to continue. He also detailed his pride in serving the school district throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was the most stressful time I had ever had on the board, but I feel as a district we navigated the time much better than most districts,” Price said.

Price said he has been proactive in saving district funds for building projects as well as executing a consolidation of elementary schools with as much community input as possible.

Also during his time on the board, Price said he has seen the school become up to date on technology, with the student-to-laptop ratio reaching 1:1 while also gaining hot spots to provide to students who lack adequate internet access. Karns City also partnered with the Seneca Valley School District to create online options for students who want cyberschool.

Price said he is running for another term to see through building projects being undertaken by the district, while ensuring efficiency across all three schools, allowing them to “continue to give the most to our students within our budgetary means.”

Chief among Price’s goals for the district is to broaden choices for students, such as discussing a virtual or in-person JROTC program partnership with the Butler Area School District.

“Every student has their niche. I want to make sure our district has the avenues for them to find it,” Price said.

Price said all buildings in the district are using nonefficient and costly mechanical equipment, and he has been involved in examining how to make changes to improve both the elementary and high school settings.

He also is passionate about the school’s cyberprogram, with aspirations to make this program even better so it can be the best online option for students needing to go in that direction. He said he believes it would benefit students educationally and taxpayers financially.

He said the district utilizes as many grants or government funds as possible to address these issues.

While Price said finding full-time teachers hasn’t been especially difficult for the board while he has held a position, he said they have adjusted pay for substitute positions to make the district more competitive.

Ealey is a lifetime resident of the district, having graduated from East Brady High School. She is a physician assistant working in pediatric medicine at Children’s Community Pediatrics Armstrong, which she has done for more than 20 years. She has taught at Chatham University for the past four years.

She has been on the board for 12 years, currently serving as its vice president. She cites as one of her most important accomplishments that Karns City was one of the first districts in the area to incorporate retired police as part of its school safety plan.

She said her interest in serving on the board comes from her history of working with children and families at Children’s Community Pediatrics.

“Over the years, I have had the opportunity to talk with families about their children’s education and how it relates to their child’s health and well-being. I appreciate bringing this experience to the table when making decisions that affect our students,” Ealey said.

Ealey said her goals for the district are intertwined with the most pressing issues she says are facing the schools. She thinks the board must work together with an open mind to best serve students and taxpayers.

She said she is greatly concerned for student wellness and wants to work with the district’s community partners to address mental health needs, which have increased since the pandemic. She also would like to continue to work with administration, teachers and staff to ensure students have a safe space while at school.

She also thinks fiscal responsibility is a top issue in a district with “decreasing enrollment and a decreasing tax base,” believing they need to make the most of resources they have available.

In terms of the nation’s teacher shortage, she said this district has been “blessed” to have great teachers and paraprofessionals but cited difficulties in filling positions. She would like to see help from the state to fund incentives such as grants or school loan remission for recruitment in smaller districts, such as Karns City.

On top of being heavily involved in the community, Chicora native and resident Hackwelder has a background in social services and education with a bachelor of arts in psychology from Penn State University, a master of arts in sociology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s in education in secondary education from Slippery Rock University. She has experience as a teacher and is a caseworker for Butler County Children & Youth Services.

Hackwelder was appointed to the board in December 2021 to fill a vacancy and serves on several committees as a board member. She is the district’s representative on the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV board. She is proud to have helped closely evaluate curriculum and monitor enforcement of policies that are in the best interest of students to help them “build bright minds and brighter futures.”

Hackwelder chose to return to the board because as a Karns City graduate, she said she has a deep sense of community.

“I love this district, the community, and I am deeply passionate about the students, teachers, staff, and ensuring that we are doing everything that we can as a district for our community and our students,” Hackwelder said.

If returned to the board, she would like to ensure that the district continues to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all students, as well as see continued development of curriculum and more social programming put into place by partnering with community organizations, such as the food banks and social service groups.

She said she believes the board must increase focus on student mental health and overall well-being, both socially and academically. She also thinks the Chicora Elementary building process is necessary but costly, and she wants to make sure it stays on track without cutting costs in other areas or raising taxes. She is passionate about enforcing policies such as anti-bullying.

Hackwelder said if the district can provide training programs designed to prepare professionals from other fields to become substitute teachers to combat the shortage, it needs to do so.

Boltz, of Sugarcreek Township, Armstrong County, is a former board member with just over 10 years of experience as a school director. He served on the board at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV and is a workload coordinator with ASRC Federal Professional Services. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in managerial economics.

All three of his children are Karns City Area graduates.

Boltz said he believes the duties of school director are to govern and oversee, not to interfere and politicize. Marrying the success of the district with the wants and needs of district residents is, in his opinion, paramount. He said he is running because he is a strong supporter of public education.

He claims student success, fiscal responsibility and safety of students and staff are important issues for any school district.

Boltz said fair funding for public schools, common-sense directives from state and federal governments and more positive parent interaction would help the teacher shortage, but it is a problem that is not easily solved.

“My thought is, unfortunately, you have to raise taxes, but we want to make sure, if we do, it's for the right reasons,” Boltz said.

He said he plans to continue the oversight of the budget and the budget process.

“Being on the board previously, I believe I have the experience to look at that information intelligently,” he said.

Kelly, of Fairview Township, is a graduate of Karns City and has a strong passion for the students and their success. He is involved in many community outreaches and is an active church member. He is retired from Dennis C. Kelly Insurance Agency, which he owned and operated for 35 years.

He is a former school board member, having served eight years. While serving, he said, he successfully started the backpack program which provided food for students in need and still is used in the district.

His goals include helping students successfully prepare for their future by helping to monitor curriculum and what is being taught in classrooms.

Kelly said three top issues within the district include cyberbullying, mental health of students and school safety. He would promote more education and policies on such topics and work to create continuing partnerships with community service providers to assist in this area. He also wants to enhance current safety equipment.

Kelly said he believes teachers need to be and feel supported so they will want to stay in their position, and he vows to advocate for the teaching profession and encourage others to join the profession.

Summerville, who is from and lives in Chicora, is not currently on the school board but previously served as a member. He is on the board of the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, and he works as a PMP certified project manager for a Pittsburgh area robotics company.

Summerville has four children in the district and wants to take on a more active role in their education. He is hoping to utilize his project management experience in overseeing construction of the Chicora Elementary School renovation.

He thinks the safety of students and staff is a top issue, believing the district to already possess a great team of officers. He would like to ensure nothing hinders their abilities to safeguard children, in light of the recent threats in other districts. He wants to ensure current projects maintain their timelines and budgets, and he wants to continue upkeep on aging facilities.

Summerville said he believes the way to ease a shortage is to produce more teachers, with the idea of adding AP classes or allowing for college classes geared toward becoming a teacher in the 11th- and 12th-grade years of high school. He said he thinks it might inspire students to pursue teaching as a career.

Morgen Mogus, of Parker Township, graduated from Karns City Area in 2019, and received a degree in business management and economics from Clarion University in 2023. He is the chairman of the Butler County Libertarian Party and is a credit analyst for Farmers National Bank.

Mogus said he wanted to run for school board after seeing the effects that COVID-19 policies had on the district, seeing that he and his classmates were impacted by those policies. He said he would like to prevent lockdown policies from being introduced at the district, because of “the externalities that come from COVID-era policies.”

“Taking into account that if we do have mandates, how is that going to affect the delivery of curriculum, student engagement,” Mogus said. “I want to do everything that I can in 2023 to prevent something like that from happening again.”

Mogus also said he would like to address curriculum in the district in hopes of it having a ripple effect on other elements of the district, such as student safety and extracurricular opportunities. He said he would like to see more life skills taught in classes, which could lead students to options other than college and also increase their educational satisfaction.

“I think we can take it a step further, create internships to help build a student's resume for post-graduation,” Mogus said. “I strongly believe college isn't for everyone. The trades, the workforce, entrepreneurship, small business, these are all incredibly important.”

Mogus said creating more fulfilling educational experiences could reduce violence at schools on a statewide level, and he added that “making the school a ‘gun-free zone’ isn't going to help,” because “if someone wants to hurt others, they'll find different avenues to go about it.”

“My stance on that would be that this is a mental health crisis and stems from unfulfilling experience while in school,” he said. “We need to make students much happier and engaged with this school and have something they care about and creating a culture that makes them feel good.”