Four vie for three seats on Arcadia school board

Four community members will compete for three available seats on the Arcadia school board in the 2023 spring election next Tuesday, April 4.

Incumbents Brian Steinlicht, Dana Conrad and Vicente Moreno are all running for re-election, and Tonya Rebhahn is seeking her first term on the board as well. 

The top two vote-getters will be elected to three-year terms on the board, while the person who receives the third-most votes will serve for one year until April 2024, when the seat will be up for a three-year term again.

This is required by state statutes because Moreno was appointed to fill an open seat in October, which was after the 2022 spring election but prior to the second Tuesday in November.

Conrad is a social worker with the Trempealeau County Department of Human Resources and has been on the board for nine years. She wants the district to be financially responsible while also looking out for students.

“I think the finances and trying to be as fiscally responsible as we can while still meeting the needs of our students and being mindful of the taxpayers and the economic times that we’re in right now,” she said of the biggest issue in the district.

Conrad said she aims to be available for community members. While the district continues to focus on education at the elementary school amid growing concerns over the aging building, Conrad said the board can help by supporting staff.

“I think to be supportive of the staff down there. Our teachers at the elementary school do a fabulous job, we have to make sure that we’re able to give them the tools that they need to continue to provide a quality education, whether that’s through support staff and including support staff pay or other areas.”

Moreno, who works on the assembly line at Ashley Furniture, has taken note of the financial problems related to state funding, and he hopes to continue pushing for more Latino involvement in the community.

“What we’re looking at is the Latino community being a big percentage here in Arcadia, I think we all have to get involved and come up with ideas, find a solution, run programs so that the Latinos are part of the community to try to get them involved,” he said.

Regarding the facilities, Moreno wants families and kids to get more involved in taking care of the current facilities so they can keep them in good shape.

“We will have to look for different ideas to keep the kids and the parents involved to come up with ideas so we don’t have to struggle with the budget,” Moreno said.

Rebhahn is running for school board because she wants to make sure parents are being heard by the board.

“I think always making sure that the parents’ voices are heard and taken into consideration and that whenever you’re making decisions that the first and foremost thing you keep in mind is what is best for the children,” Rebhahn said of a board members’ job.

Rebhahn wants the district to invest more in early literacy and teaching English at a young age to try to improve the number of young bilingual students and put less stress on teachers.

The mindset coach and author said virtual learning is one way the district could save money and work around facility concerns.

“I think utilizing better the virtual space because finding qualified teachers and retaining them in our district is a major problem. … bringing in an aide to help in person with the virtual teaching can help bridge the gap, too.”

Steinlicht works as the technical director of chemistry at Dairyland Laboratories and has been on the Arcadia school board for the last six years. 

Steinlicht is running for re-election because he wants to continue the board’s work on progressing reading and math.

He feels board members should be prepared and communicative with community members. 

As for helping young learners without going to referendum, Steinlicht said the board can continue to focus on hiring and retaining quality teachers to keep education strong.

“The biggest thing is, especially for our demographic, the early language learners, anything we can provide to assist them to get them caught up, that to me is the biggest thing that we can do as a board.”