By Dave Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dave</a>
The Tonawanda News
May 02, 2008 12:43 am
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Three candidates are vying for three open spots on the Tonawanda City School District’s Board of Education.
They are Joyce Hoffmann Hogenkamp, herself a former School Board member; Elizabeth Olka, a former Tonawanda substitute teacher who was removed from the district’s sub list and subsequently filed a complaint with the state education department; and Klaus Maurer, a former building mechanic who was injured on the job and ultimately released.
Current School Board President Jim Weber and incumbent Joanne Berndt both have decided not to run for re-election, and Daniel Calabrese is not serving out the final year on his term. The elections and vote on the district’s $30.8 million budget will be held from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 20.
The fact that there are three candidates running for three spots does not mean they are all guaranteed to win, District Clerk Pamela Stiegman said. “In the past, write-in candidates have been known to win. For example, in 1996 Joe Miosi was elected as a write-in, defeating Ed Gebera for a seat on the board,” she said.
Hogenkamp served on the School Board up until last July, when she took a year off to work with Clean Up Riverview’s Environment (CURE), a citizens group working on issues regarding the Town of Tonawanda landfill that borders City of Tonawanda homes.
In addition, Hogenkamp’s mother passed away when she was on the board, and Hogenkamp said she had to “get back in the right mindset” before serving again on the School Board.
“I’m running for the kids,” said Hogenkamp, who was educated at Cardinal O’Hara High School and Buffalo State College and has worked 16 years for United Parcel Service. “Their learning, their growth as people — that has to come first. There’s a saying about Tonawanda...on the Kibler School building, ‘Kids enter the school to learn and they leave to serve,’ and I truly believe that.”
Hogenkamp wants to make the School Board a more cohesive unit and be responsive to teachers’ needs, and she is placing an emphasis on the district’s spending.
As a longtime building and maintenance worker, Maurer said his background would be an asset to the School Board. He worked one year with the district as a maintenance mechanic before blowing out a disc in his back while on the job. The injury kept Maurer out of work for more than a year and he was subsequently released.
A Tonawanda High School graduate, Maurer served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including one year in Vietnam, was co-owner of Maurer Bros. Builders and Remodeling, worked for 10 years at the Hyatt Regency as a maintenance mechanic and, finally, was employed at Tonawanda.
“I’ve been in building and maintenance all my life. I own my own business,” Maurer said. “What I see going on, I know is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
He cites the district’s decision to contract for electrical and other maintenance work as a prime example. “It’s not cheaper to contract it out than it is to do it in house,” he said.
Maurer also contends that the district should move its Board of Education offices to Highland School rather than the high school, and shift the Head Start program from Central School to Highland.
Another former employee, Olka says she wants to make a difference by researching and analyzing how the district spends money and how decisions are made.
“In order for me to have any information about the school district, I have to be sitting on the board,” said Olka, who currently is a substitute teacher in the North Tonawanda School District and is a volunteer softball and soccer coach there.
Olka graduated from Tonawanda High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Buffalo State College and a master’s in education from Canisius College. She said her educational background has provided her the tools to analyze data and make sound decisions.
“I’m more of the questioning type,” she said. “I’m hoping to increase accountability and the way to do that is to increase public interest. I want to be able to answer any question somebody has and explain my decision. Hopefully I can help the district, that’s my primary goal — help the kids, parents and taxpayers.”
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
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