Citizens for South Western's Future

09/01/2026

Here we go again! Another board member is resigning; Katy Bauer's resignation will be formally accepted at the Sept. 9 meeting. We had excellent people interview last time; I hope we can count on them and more to go through the process this time.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, the country is starting to realize the fear- and ignorance-driven decisions made by our federal, state, and local leaders, including the SW school board, are not good for children or anyone else. Specifically for the school board, our community wants them to keep to the business of education, not personal or political agendas.

Now is the time for us to build a coalition of Democrats, reasonable Republicans, and Independents who will run for school board with the PAC's help. We also need A LOT of people, willing to do the work of campaigning. This page has 555 followers - albeit a few moles and spies - but if even 1/5 of you decided to help us educate the community on the choice it has, we can make a difference.

Stay tuned, and in the meantime, check out the application for the soon-to-be-open position.

A Tradition of Excellence

08/14/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A5fcT6aFf/

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08/14/2026

Not anymore.

08/12/2026

Board meeting tonight.

In other news - I am aware I don't have all the details for this situation, but the general picture is this:

The elementary schools participate in a football program for district students. The games are played on school fields by school students, with school students cheering and their parents coaching. Students who do not live in the district do not participate on these teams. I don't know if the fee for using the fields was assessed to each team/school, or as a league payment. What I do know is that because of the current board's inability to manage the district budget, they are $1,000,000+ in the red. To solve this, they implemented a roughly 60% increase in the fee, with the cost going from @$500 to @$1500. For district families.

From what I understand, and again I don't have all the details or facts (if you have concrete information, please add to this conversation), the involved parents found an alternate field to play on at no cost through a gracious local business. So instead of increasing their revenue on the backs of the taxpayers, the board has now lost the original revenue they were to receive.

The next time the board claims to not want taxpayers to pay more, ask them about this decision. Small minds look for small solutions, but they're not going to solve the budget issue $1000 at a time.

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08/06/2026

HT to Erin for continuing to write-up the meetings. Since I promised to cut down on the sarcasm, I don't have much to say... https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17aAkP3ndd/

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08/03/2026

Committee of the Whole meeting tonight.

07/07/2026

Shoemaker, Lighty, Mooneyhan, and Gelsinger voted for Gelli in the first round, with Gelsinger admitting he didn’t take anything into consideration beyond his comfort level of knowing Gelli.

2nd round: Bauer, Beard, Smith, Shoemaker, Carr voted for Edwin Tharp (not sure of the spelling) who won.

Not at all surprising that neither of the extremely qualified women were nominated…

07/06/2026

Before Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting and candidate interviews, there is a policy meeting at 5:00. One policy being discussed is the selling of space for commercial advertisements, 913.1. Another is 621, a taxpayer’s bill of rights required by the state. Both of these and more can be found at

07/04/2026

July 4th is the perfect day to remember the difference.