Voters in the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school district will choose two school board members from among four candidates in the Nov. 7 election. The winners will serve four-year terms on the five-member board.
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Voters are also approving a 0.6 mill Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Parks Levy with 53% of voters in favor and 47% of voters against, according to partial, unofficial results.
School Board
Kevin Price is the only incumbent in the race, as David Carpenter is not seeking re-election. The other three candidates are Anne Pryor, Brian Kronenberger and Kassi Kipling.
** Kassi Kipling said her top three priorities are building trust with the community and district employees, continuing academic and extracurricular excellence, and finding balance among the district’s stakeholders — the school board, superintendent, staff, and community.
Kipling says on issues of trust, she will include educators in major decisions and trust them in their areas of expertise, and for the community, she will be committed to transparency, providing details and explanations before votes. On balance of power, she said she would work to ensure board members “stay in their own lane.” About excellence, she talked about creating an environment that will recruit and retain top teachers through a culture of respect.
Kipling said she is Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Branch Chief Engineer. She is involved in the Ohio Fusion Soccer Club as a youth team manager, and with the Greene County Democratic Party as a precinct captain.
** Brian Kronenberger’s top three priorities are transparency through greater discussions by board members at meetings, “reigning in the hot button topics that have no bearing on our district,” and being a voice for everyone.
He says he would push for fewer executive session meetings and more back-and-forth discussions between citizens and the school board. But he said “fear-based or politically charged policies should not be on the agenda.” Kronenberger said the most important thing to him was “making sure that the majorities and the minorities all feel included, welcomed, and heard in our great school district.”
Kronenberger is a contractor for Defense Logistics Agency and is involved with Bellbrook Band Boosters.
** Kevin Price, a school board member since 2020, said his top three priorities are keeping the focus on education, keeping staff and students physically safe, and keeping up the financial responsibility. He says he will accomplish this by ensuring that the strategic plan of the district and its policies are focused on education first.
Price said he will oppose efforts to introduce policies and practices that are not required by law that would distract the district from the fundamental responsibility of educating children. He says his military career gives him an eye for safety as he currently serves on the district’s Safety Committee and Active Shooter Response Implementation Committee. He also plans to work with the treasurer and superintendent on fiscal responsibility.
Price works at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. He has been a member of the Bellbrook Sugarcreek school board since 2020 and is a high school student mentor with Dayton Foundation College Promise Program.
** Anne Pryor said her top three priorities are to learn from teachers, staff, and administration about the obstacles facing the school system; to unify the school community; and to protect schools from “infiltrating political agendas.”
To do this, she says she will listen and learn as much as possible, make decisions based on facts and logic and make sure the school is transparent. Pryor said she would listen respectfully to everyone on all sides of an issue and carefully consider their input. She also said she would “work to protect our schools from infiltrating political agendas. I will be the brick wall standing between our school libraries and pornographic books.”
Pryor said she runs two businesses from home, Mommy Genius, LLC and Dr. Annie’s Experiments (she cited a Ph.D. in biochemistry). She said she served as food pantry manager of the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Community Support Center during the pandemic.
Parks Levy
Bellbrook and Sugarcreek Twp. residents are being asked to approve a 0.6 mill “replacement and increase” tax levy for 10 years to maintain community parks.
This levy would replace an expiring 0.4-mill levy for the Bellbrook Sugarcreek Park District, originally approved by voters in 1993 and last renewed in 2013.
This levy will provide operational funding of approximately $420,000 per year for a 10-year period, approximately $200,000 more than the 0.4 mill levy, said parks executive director Jeff Stewart, and will go toward all the normal operations of the park district.
This includes improvements and maintenance of playgrounds, hiking trails and paths, shelters and athletic fields, park staff, developing new parks and trail systems, conservation of natural resources, and programs.
The levy will cost approximately $21 per year for each $100,000 of appraised home value, about $10 more than the previous iteration of the levy.
The Bellbrook Sugarcreek Park District was created by residents in 1970, and today manages over 700 acres of parkland.
The districts’ operational funds also serve as local matches for state and national grants for park improvement projects, land acquisition, and programs, Stewart said, adding that the parks district has secured $3.2 million in grants in the last seven years.
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