April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
School board members face easy re-election
But behind both is their love for Hope schools and students.
Rose, who was elected to his first four-year term in 2008, and Wilson, who was elected to his first four-year term in 2012, are unopposed in Tuesday's General Election. That fact alone guarantees the public servants will be re-elected when votes are tallied -- and that the FRHC school board after the first of year will look exactly as it does today, with the same leaders making decisions for the corporation.
Prior to 2008, Rose had never given much thought to running for a political office. But he said his support of the school referendum project and the encouragement of former school board members Tom Miller and Bill Lentz convinced him.
School officials entered into a voter-approved overhaul of their buildings in 2010, when a more than $19 million bond issue enabled the construction of a 90,000-square-foot addition between Hope Elementary and Hauser Jr./Sr. High School. The merger created a single campus that centralized northern Bartholomew County's public educational facilities along State Road 9, south of downtown Hope.
Fast forward to 2016. Rose said the decision to run again was not easy, considering how he had become busier in his job and didn't have as much free time to dedicate to the school corporation. But the fact that no one else expressed interest in running in his place convinced him that he couldn't leave just when the board, voters, teachers, faculty, students and citizens needed him the most.
Wilson credited his decision to run for the board four years ago to seeing a need in the community and heeding a friend's encouragement. His decision to seek re-election, he said, was rooted in his his belief that he could contribute more now than ever before.
He explained that he spent much of his first term attending seminars and otherwise gaining knowledge about how school systems and public education work. Four years later, he feels like he's ready to put that knowledge to use.
Not that Rose and Wilson haven't already done and seen a lot.
Both said their proudest moment on the board was to participate in sweeping technology improvements that saw pretty much every student in the school corporation gain access to a privately assigned I-Pad computer tablet.
"I feel like it motivates them to achieve," Wilson said.
Rose agreed.
"It gives us an edge in education," he said.[[In-content Ad]]
