Incumbent faces two challengers in Bentonville School Board race

BENTONVILLE -- Three people are competing to represent the School District's Zone 3 in this month's School Board elections.

Grant Lightle, the incumbent, faces challenges by former board member Beth Haney and political newcomer Eric White. The election is Sept. 20. Early voting begins Sept. 13. A runoff election, if necessary, will be Oct. 11.

Zone 3 consists of parts of north and central Bentonville and east Centerton. Only residents of the zone are eligible to vote in the board race.

Haney served on the board from 2000 to 2012. She resigned because her daughter was about to be hired by the district. District policy states immediate family of board members cannot be employed unless the family member was employed before the board member was elected.

The year Haney resigned was the same year the board shifted to zoned seats rather than having all members elected at large.

Lightle was one of five candidates for the new Zone 3 seat in 2012. He won in a runoff election. Haney didn't run that year.

Haney, 59, and her husband, Johnny, have three adult children, all graduates of Bentonville High School. Beth Haney isn't employed, but said she's very involved in her church, serving on the building committee and boards that oversee the church's preschool and child-care services.

"I would say I'm very level. I'm very open to hearing all sides of a matter before drawing a conclusion. I'm known for doing my homework, for being respectful in a meeting. I have a very long-term interest in our students, our schools, our community," she said.

She also has remained involved in the public schools by regularly volunteering at Sugar Creek Elementary School, where she tutors and mentors students.

Haney said she's very knowledgeable about schools and district matters in general. She already has more experience on the board than all but one current member, Travis Riggs.

"I brought in two superintendents during my time," Haney said. "We managed tremendous growth, as the district continues to do. I like the work."

During her last year on the board, Haney supported building a freshman center rather than a second high school to address growth at that level.

"We're not a small town like when I moved here," she said. "But there's still a lot of emotion about it. For as long as we could have reasonably been one (high school), I would have favored that, but the growth indicated we had to do something."

The district opened six schools and passed a millage increase for three others during her time on the board, so Haney is no stranger to dealing with growth.

"I look forward to meeting the challenges of growth," she said.

Haney, when asked if she had any criticism of the job Lightle has done, said she preferred not to criticize other candidates.

White, 47, lived in Bentonville for nine years before moving to Atlanta to work for The Home Depot. He and his family moved back to Bentonville about five years ago.

His wife, Tamara, is a counselor at Ardis Ann Middle School. They have two daughters, including one who's a student in the district.

White played football at Northern Illinois University. He coached football for three years at Sequoyah High School in Cherokee County, Ga.

White is a former police officer who works for Tyco as its Wal-Mart relationship team leader. He said he disagreed with Lightle's proposal last year to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes under the district's anti-discrimination policy.

"(Lightle) said, 'This is probably going to be divisive, but I don't care.' And then it was divisive. And it distracted the board for a period of months," White said.

There were other things the board could have been focused on at the time, such as rezoning, he said.

White said the district should invest more in student advocates to help keep students accountable and on track for graduation. He supports growing Ignite -- a career program for high schoolers that's closely linked with area businesses and industries -- into "something really special" that could incorporate other districts.

White also believes the board should work harder at communicating its mission and vision with the public.

"If you go to the Bentonville schools website and try to look at what the board's mission statement is, you can't find it. You'll see a three-year building plan that's already a year old. It's time to have a 10-year facility plan," White said.

White said he's prepared himself for the board by attending every one of its meetings in 2016.

"Our board needs the capability to lead and engage the community on a single mission. Every year Bentonville produces champions, academically and athletically, and we should make our board up of champions," White said.

Lightle, 45, has worked as a lawyer for Wal-Mart for 11 years. He has two children in the district. He pledged to focus on fiscal discipline, transparency and data-based decision making when he campaigned for the board in 2012, he said.

"I've done that the whole time," Lightle said.

He also promised to get a second high school built. The district at the time was reeling from the defeat of a proposed 6.8-mill tax increase for a high school and other projects. Lightle, after joining the board, supported a much more modest proposal that passed by a wide margin, resulting in the opening of West High School in Centerton last month.

"It's going to continue to encourage growth on the west side of our district. It's going to provide a better educational environment, better extracurricular opportunities for our kids," Lightle said.

He's also proud the board has maintained a healthy fund balance and is opening two more schools next year without asking voters for another millage increase.

Lightle said he doesn't regret bringing up the anti-discrimination policy issue, but he regrets how that discussion proceeded.

"I think the discussion could have been at a higher level. And we could have talked about it within the context of what was on the table, which is, is it OK to discriminate against people for characteristics other than their experience or performance on the job. And it was conflated with a lot of other things, and that's unfortunate. But it's one of those things you move through, and you move on to the other issues," Lightle said.

The board often engages in lengthy discussions over issues big and small, but that's healthy, Lightle said.

"If your position is always, well, you've got to support the administration -- you don't see that in any other organization. Everything that bubbles up through a governance structure in a corporation, there's an idea, it's developed, and it's elevated and it either passes or fails based on its merits. But it gets a hard look," he said.

NW News on 09/04/2016