SPRINGDALE -- A School Board member is seeking her third term in next week's election, but she'll have to get past a challenger who believes the board needs a "shake-up."
Donald Tippett and incumbent Michelle McCaslin Cook are running for the Springdale School Board's at-large, Position 2 seat. The winner receives a five-year term.
The election is May 9, with early voting starting Tuesday. At-large board members represent the entire School District.
Cook, 50, was first elected in 2013. She was board president during the covid-19 crisis from 2020-22.
"I've been on the board for 10 years," Cook said. "I don't believe that my time is done. I feel like I've just now gotten open lines of communications with our families and our teachers. I believe being on the board gives me an opportunity to be their voice. I may not always agree with them. But by listening, I feel like I can see a bigger picture of what's needed and not just what's right in front of me."
Tippett, 58, is an attorney making his first bid for a political office.
"They kind of roll over and let the professionals take over," Tippett said of the School Board. "It just needs a shake-up. The board is just very incestuous. They're all congratulating each other and now it's this person's time to be president. It just needs some new blood. It needs people that are willing to shake things up a little bit."
Cook said she received an alternative special education teaching certification from St. Thomas University and worked for a private and a public school while living in Houston for four years. Since returning to Northwest Arkansas, Cook said she's been a stay-at-home mother and helped her husband operate their rental business, Cook and Cook Properties.
Tippett's resume includes military experience from 1987-2005, with deployments in Desert Storm, Haiti and Kosovo, he said.
The LEARNS Act, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' signature legislation that overhauled education in the state, became law in March. The act features $50,000 minimum salaries for starting teachers and a phased-in universal state-funded private school education account/voucher program. The act also encourages traditional school districts to partner with open-enrollment charter schools to operate low-performing traditional schools and repeals the decades-old Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.
"There's a lot of discretion," Tippett said. "They give leeway for decisions but don't define specific criteria they want the administrator to actually utilize. If you draw some legislation, you need to put your rear end on the line: This is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to do it. Now go and do it."
The omnibus bill was approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Sanders amid questions about long-term funding and regulations that have yet to be determined.
"I don't know that we're really going to know what works and what doesn't until we get the rules and regulations back," Cook said. "Whether it's Springdale or south Arkansas, I think our job as districts is to reassure our teachers and families that we are going to run everything the way it's been run until we get more information. We're going to keep going, and we're going to make sure they're taken care of. I think that's all we can do until we get more information."
Cook said her experience on the board is pivotal and she's learned to see the big picture and work within the system.
"I have more time to visit schools because I work from home," Cook said. "We have our own business, so I can make my own hours."
Tippett said he wants Springdale's stakeholders to know they can be more involved.
"I would love for the public to have more access," Tippett said. "I know they're on Zoom and YouTube. But they need to seek what the people want. They need to allow more local access to the meetings and to be able to actually talk in the meetings. That way, they can really garner more support."
School board members are unpaid volunteers.
Michelle Cook
Age: 50
Residency: Springdale School District for 45 years.
Occupation: Helps run family business, Cook and Cook Properties.
Education: Degree in marketing and business administration, University of Arkansas.
Political experience: Springdale School Board, 2013 to present.
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Donald Tippett
Age: 58
Residency: Springdale School District for 19 years.
Occupation: Attorney.
Education: Master of arts in public administration, University of Arkansas.
Political experience: None.