Mark Rooker runs for District 3 BOE spot
Editor's note: In the April 1 general election, Hillsboro area voters will elect four people to serve on the USD 410 board of education. Positions are up in districts one, two, three, and seven.
For the remainder of the month, articles will highlight these candidates.
Mark Rooker, a Hillsboro native, is running for the District 3 seat of the Durham-Hillsboro-Lehigh board of education. That seat is currently held by Cal Jost, who is not running for office again. Rooker is running unopposed.
Rooker says he is a "lifetime member" of Hillsboro. For the past five years he's been working as director of information systems at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado. His wife, Shelly, works for Hillsboro State Bank, and they have two children: Tiffany, in sixth grade, and Brandon, in third grade.
Rooker has been a member of the Hillsboro Elementary School site council for four years, with one year spent as chair. But this is his first time running for public office. He wants to serve his community and school on the BOE, he said.
Rooker's experience on the site council should help him adapt to the BOE role, he said. He's already gotten to know how the system works "behind the scenes" through the council.
Hillsboro has an excellent school system, from its teachers to the community that supports it, Rooker said.
The greatest challenge Rooker sees for the school board is funding — how the school district can balance its budget in the face of state cuts.
"That's going to be by far the biggest issue," he said.
Rooker doesn't have any specific ideas right now of how to help the district in its financial crisis, but he says it's important to listen to the opinions of parents and community members and base decisions on their viewpoints.
A good school board member would always make time to listen to parents as well as people who work for the school system — to listen to their needs and evaluate those needs, he said.
On the issue of consolidation, Rooker sees good points and bad points on either side of the issue, he said. He's neither for nor against it.
More research needs to be done to see how consolidation would directly affect USD 410, he said, in addition to looking at examples of consolidation to see its benefits and downfalls.
