Two school board members for Seymour Community School Corp. have filed for the chance to retain their seats in the Nov. 8 election.

Art Juergens and Jeff Joray both submitted their declarations of candidacy with the county clerk’s office Wednesday at the Jackson County Courthouse in Brownstown.

The filing period for school board candidates for Seymour, Crothersville and Medora began at 8 a.m. that day.

The deadline to file is noon, Aug. 26.

Brownstown Central Community School Corp. does not have an elected school board and instead members are appointed by the town council and township trustees.

Only three seats on the Seymour board are up for election this year: Jackson Township, which is presently held by Joray, Hamilton Township held by Ken Browning and Seymour City, held by Juergens, who also is board president.

In Crothersville, the District 1 seat held by Trina McClain and District 4 seat held by President Dale Schmelzle are up for election this year. And in Medora, three of the five at-large seats, currently held by president Joe Campbell, Teresa Brewer and Faythe Gill, will be on the ballot.

Joray, who works at the Boys & Girls Club in Seymour, is finishing up his first 4-year term and said he decided to run again because he wants to do more.

“I still have a child in the school system, and I want to be as involved as I can in making sure all kids are getting the education they deserve and the teachers are getting what they need to educate our kids,” he said.

In his time on the board, Joray said he is proud of the work that has been done to add and renovate classroom space at some of the schools, increase special education staffing and upgrade athletic facilities.

But with growing enrollment, he said the board will need to continue to address class size and possibly look at having to redistrict some areas to help with overcrowding.

He also said he would like to see the corporation offer a separate gifted and talented program again, possibly allocating school funds to do so.

“A lot of parents I’ve talked to don’t feel like their children are being challenged enough,” he said.

Juergens, a retired Seymour Community Schools teacher and coach, said he feels there are a lot of projects happening in which he wants to remain involved and changes that are coming for the future.

“We are right in the middle of a lot of things, and I think I’ve been very involved,” he said. “As a board we’ve been very responsible for the taxpayers money.”

He is finishing up his eighth year on the board.

When it comes to all the progress and positive things that have happened in the schools, Juergens said he is proud of what the board has accomplished.

“There are many things as far as curriculum and testing,” he said. “Our grades have been good. We’ve remodeled and are maintaining our buildings and there’s a lot of programs for the kids now that we didn’t have before.”

Juergens said the biggest issues the corporation is going to have to deal with in the next four years is growth and testing.

“We are going to have many more students and testing isn’t going to go away,” he said. “We have got to keep ahead of things.”

He also said he would like to find more ways to keep parents and the community involved in the schools.

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Local school board seats up for election in November

Seymour Community Schools

Jackson Township, presently held by Jeff Joray Hamilton Township, held by Ken Browning

Seymour City, held by Art Juergens

Crothersville Community Schools

District 1, held by Trina McClain

District 4, held by Dale Schmelzle

Medora Community Schools

Three of the five at-large seats, currently held by Joe Campbell, Teresa Brewer and Faythe Gill

The deadline to file is noon Aug. 26.

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