Watershed Voice sent out questionnaires to over 30 candidates running for elected school board positions in St. Joseph County and the surrounding area. Leading up to the General Election on November 3, Watershed will publish the questionnaires as it receives them back from the candidates. Rod Detweiler, a candidate for the School Board governing Centreville Public Schools, filled out our questionnaire. These are his answers.
Name: Rod Detweiler
Age: 63
Address: 405 N. Dean, Centreville, MI 49032
Family (optional): Wife, betty, Three grown kids and four grandchildren at the moment.
Background/Bio:
I served as a CEO of a nonprofit organization for over a decade and did a lot of financial work in that capacity. I now serve as one of the pastors of a local Centreville church, having done that for over a decade now.
Does your background include training or work, paid or unpaid, in education? What was that experience? What are some of your successes, and what have been some learning moments?
I have attended numerous seminars and training events over the almost 9 years I’ve served on the Centreville Public Schools board.
Do you now or have you ever had children enrolled in the district where you are running?
No, my kids were all gone from home before we moved to Centreville, having lived north of Sturgis before.
How else do you currently participate, or have you participated in the past, in school district activities?
I go to as many teacher and sporting events as I can, and have a great attendance record for school board, work sessions and committee meetings.
How has your school district handled the pandemic in both the spring and fall of this year? If anything, what would you have done differently?
I think the administration and staff did a great job getting ready for this fall in particular. Having never done anything of this magnitude before I think every school district struggled some to get online learning up and running in the spring.
Outside of the pandemic, what are currently the most important challenges your school district faces? How do you plan to address those challenges?
If the state financing holds, the next biggest challenge, I feel, will be recruiting and keeping the same kind of superior quality teachers and staff that Centreville has always had in this era of very few people going into education at local colleges.
Are there other key points of your platform as a candidate for school board? If so, what are they?
Having served as the Board of Education’s Treasurer for the last three years, I want to continue the great tradition of conservative financial oversight that the district has practiced for as long as I’ve been in the Centreville district.
How does running for the school board fit your broader views and ethics?
I originally was appointed to the school board when someone moved out of the district, and the then-Superintendent called our church to ask if we had anyone interested in being on the school board. Talking with the rest of the leadership team here we decided it was a good investment of my time as our church has a lot of kids in the Centreville Public Schools district from all over the county. Ethically the district has always maintained a conservative mindset and that fits well with my view on ethical issues that come up from time to time.
Why is education important to you?
Because it is one of the most important foundations for our future leaders to build there lives on.
Is there anything else the community should know about you?
I love serving our kids and the community and hope I can continue to be a positive impact on the direction of our district! Our kids are our future, so it bears all of us investing time and energy into our schools!
