Heil makes plans to file for re-election to school board
Posted on Wednesday, July 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/66975/
Fayetteville Board of Education member Susan Winborn Heil announced Tuesday that she plans to seek re-election to her at-large position on the school board.
Heil has served on the school board since 2001 and said she is ready to serve another five-year term. If re-elected, she would be set to serve 12 years on the school board.
“I think I know what the commitment is,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Two of the upcoming issues the district will face include a potential new high school project and hiring a new superintendent. There is also the potential annexation of the Greenland School District. The Arkansas State Board of Education is expected to vote on that issue at a Monday meeting in Little Rock.
Heil said she has already prepared a petition to file for school board on Friday, when the filing period for school board positions begins. Due to a change in state law, school board candidates have one week to file for election — Friday through July 18.
She estimated that within the 2007-08 school year, she spent 496 hours of volunteer time on school board matters.
While on the board, Heil obtained a Master School Board Member designation, which the Arkansas School Board Association awards to board members who obtain a specific amount of professional development hours.
Heil said she is proud of the strides the district has made to improve technology and incorporate it into the classroom during the past five years. She serves as the regional coordinator for License to Learn, a program that provides technology to academically qualified students.
She said she is also proud of some of the changes the district has made in recent years such as improving teacher salaries, major additions and improvements to district schools, and the construction of Owl Creek School.
Heil worked at IBM for 15 years in Houston; Tulsa, Okla.; and Fayetteville before becoming a stay-at-home mother. She graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1980.
She and her husband, Eric, have three children. Two of them attend the public schools, and their oldest child attends the University of Arkansas.
“With 15 years of corporate experience at IBM in business, finance and technology and seven years as a FPS school board member, I have had and will continue to have a significant impact on the direction of Fayetteville schools,” Heil said in a statement. “Providing time and leadership to our community has been a way of life for three generations of my family. What better way is there to continue that tradition than working with the education of our children?”
Heil’s position is one of two at-large positions on the school board, both of which are up for election this year. The other position came open when board member John Delap resigned last month to return to teaching at Fayetteville High School.
Whoever is elected to Delap’s position will serve three years to fulfill the remaining time left on the term.
Also, the school board is accepting applications to appoint an individual to replace Delap for two months until a person in elected. Interested persons can submit a resume to board President Steve Percival at P.O. Box 849, Fayetteville, AR 72702-0849.
The annual school board election will be held Sept. 16.