Who will fill the seats?: Gainesville school board candidates

These candidates are running  in contested races in county

The residents whose “profiles” appear on this page are running in Ozark County’s five contested races in the April 3 general municipal election. They are seeking seats on school boards in Bakersfield and Gainesville, village boards in Bakersfield and Theodosia, and the mayor’s race in Gainesville.
Seats are also expiring in other school and municipal boards (see related story, page 1), but candidates in those races are running unopposed, and state law allows government boards to bypass elections when the number of candidates and the number of vacancies is the same.
The Ozark County Times sent brief questionnaires to the candidates in the contested races, asking them to limit their responses to a total of 400 words. The questionnaires asked the candidates about their present employment, their skills and life experiences that qualify them for the positions they seek, the greatest challenges facing the organization they hope to represent, the goals they hope to accomplish if elected and any personal information they wanted to share.
The profiles have been edited to fit the newspaper’s format and, where possible, the edited drafts have been approved by the candidates.

Gainesville school board candidates

Derek Alms
Current employment: I co-manage a cattle farm in Ozark County with my in-laws, Stan and Janet Taber. 
Skills and life experience: I am a graduate of Branson High School, and I have a Bachelor of Science degree from College of the Ozarks. I majored in business and physical education. The skills I’ve learned in years of farming include things like problem solving, creative innovation, self-motivation and leadership. I definitely have seen and believe in the value of strong, honest and experienced leadership overseeing a large operation.
Challenges and goals: Funding continues to be a concern/challenge. As far as funding is concerned, it’s important that we’re communicated with and aware of how the school is performing, how we are receiving and using funding, and what is needed to best serve our students. Our facility is another challenge. The reality is that our facility needs updates and improvements to stay anywhere near the standards we want for our students. The school has done a good job with the resources it has had the past few years, and it has managed well. I believe Dr. Hyatt has experience and knowledge to take Gainesville’s facility to the next level, which our teachers and students deserve.  Academics and technology are subjects I want to hear and learn more about. How does our school compare in academic performance? How does our use of technology compare and affect academic performance? What are we currently doing, and what could we add to make our students’ experience more worthwhile at Gainesville (ie: more hands-on trade/vo-tech programs, college readiness programs, more diverse extra-curricular programs)? This is the biggest responsibility we face as a board and a community, to prepare our students to be contributing citizens and to give them realistic opportunities.
Personal: My wife, Susannah, and I have three children, all in the Gainesville School District.

Mason Eslinger    
Current employment: Glazer’s Beer and Beverage
Skills and life experience: I have lived in Gainesville all my life, except when I was attending college. I love this community and want to see it succeed in the future. I have been a crew foreman and have also run a family business. I have gained many skills in these positions. I want to see our kids and our faculty have the best chance to have a successful future.
Biggest challenge facing Gainesville Schools: I think one of the things we are going to have to do is gain community support. The only way you can do that is by gaining some trust back here and there. There is no way you are always gonna make everyone happy, but the goal is to do the best for the students.
What goals do you hope to accomplish? The goals I want to accomplish are making the Gainesville School District the pride and joy of our community and to create great opportunity for the students attending our great school district.
Personal: I have been married to Misti Eslinger for almost eight years. We have 2 wonderful kids: Payton, our daughter, is 5 years old, and our son, Tate, is 3 years old. We enjoy the wonderful life that the Ozarks offer. We love to hunt, fish and serve our Lord.

Billy I. Pippin
Current employment: Certified Public Accountant at Pippin CPA, working in the fields of governmental and non-profit auditing as well as income tax preparation.
Skills and life experiences: I am a 1997 graduate of Gainesville High School and have a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Missouri State University. My 15-year career in public accounting focused on governmental finance, combined with six years of prior board service, has given me some unique qualifications that are an asset to the board.   
Biggest challenge facing Gainesville schools: While the school faces many challenges, I believe there are really two that should be mentioned. The first is increasing program offerings without deficit spending in the long term. I truly believe that increasing vocational programs at the high school level will improve our community as a whole. Kids need to have the opportunity to leave the Gainesville school system with a skill that gives them a chance at obtaining a job at greater than minimum wage. The board and our current administration are currently working toward this obtainable goal, and I expect to see results in the near term. The second challenge is long-term facilities planning. Believe it or not, the “new” elementary building is getting close to 25 years old; the high school is greater than 50 years old. These buildings are at a point where we can spend some money on them now and preserve them for many years to come.   
What goals do you hope to accomplish?  If elected, I have three goals I would focus on: The first is to continue working toward adding vocational programs at the high school level that are sustainable for the long term. Second, I would like to see some facilities renovations that are both responsible and respectful to the taxpayers who provide funding, but at the same time provide a safe environment for students and teachers. My third goal is to continue to work toward improving the social environment of our school as a whole. I believe in today’s world, school leaders cannot turn a blind eye to this and must take a proactive approach in working toward making the school a place where every child feels like an important part of the school community. This is one of the reasons having a diverse program offering and administrators who have a pulse on what is going on in the student community is vitally important.     
Personal: I have been married for 18 years to my wife, Mindy Pippin. We have two fantastic sons, Isaac, 11, and Lyle, 9, who attend Gainesville Elementary School.

David Pointer
Current employment: I founded Pointer Law Office.  I serve as president of Mill Country Title and 340B Advisors, a pharmacy-consulting company.
Skills and life experiences: Having attended Harvard Law School, being married to a math teacher and serving as a lawyer to schools and nonprofit groups, I obtained experience that should be useful to the Gainesville School Board. I have always been very interested in education, particularly rural education. While chairman of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, I helped start the Rural Schools Partnership, which seeks to expand educational opportunities to students in southern Missouri. I served on the SOAR board of directors, helping to expand vo-tech opportunities in our region. I volunteered to teach an after-school class for Gainesville middle school students and have provided academic/college counseling to various Gainesville students.
Biggest challenge facing Gainesville Schools: The Gainesville Schools have many needs, including much-needed repairs and expansions. However, I feel the greatest challenge facing the school involves attracting and retaining highly skilled teachers who can prepare our students to thrive in today’s society.  We also need to help those teachers create a climate where academic success is valued as much as athletic success.
What goals do you hope to accomplish? I have no specific agenda. In fact, I think it is a mistake to set specific tasks to accomplish. Too often prospective board members identify persons they want hired or fired without completely understanding the reasons for past board decisions. That being said, I hope to bring some additional perspective and understanding to the board, allowing it to better serve our kids and community.
Personal: I graduated from Mountain Grove High School, and I am married to Michelle Pointer, my lovely wife of 28 years. Our son Thomas graduated from Gainesville in 2017; our son Ben is currently a sophomore at Gainesville.

Jabet Wade
Current employment: Manager, Pontiac Cove Marina
Skills and life experience: I attended Gainesville Schools from K-12. I graduated from GHS in 1998 and from the University of Missouri in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. For the past two years I have worked part-time as a substitute teacher at Gainesville Elementary during the fall/winter. I am also involved in the Gainesville PTO. I have enjoyed getting to know other parents, teachers, administrators and students at GES and having the opportunity to spend time in many of the classrooms. I have been working at the marina since 2006. I manage employees, plan fund-raising and customer-appreciation events, work within a budget and brainstorm new ideas for ways to improve our business. I think communication is very important in relationships, businesses, communities and school districts. Communication is a big part of my job (both at the marina and in freelance writing). As a board member I would strive to keep the lines of communication open between the school and our community.
Biggest challenge facing Gainesville Schools: It’s an exciting time for our district. The FEMA shelter and other possible renovations to the school are very much needed and will be a huge undertaking for the school board. Safety and security of our students, teachers and faculty is an ongoing concern. Working within a budget can be a challenge. And communication with parents and the community can always be improved upon.
What do you hope to accomplish? I have no agenda other than to serve the school district and community where I was raised and where my children now attend school. I would be happy to serve alongside any of the current board members or the folks running, and I would do so with an open mind and heart and take into consideration how decisions will affect the entire district and our community.
Personal: I’ve been married to my husband, Matt, for almost 15 years. We have two children: Lola (7), a first grader, and Finn (5), a preschooler, both at Gainesville Elementary. I manage Pontiac Cove Marina—a business that has been in my family for more than 50 years—and I am a freelance writer for 417 Magazine. Matt, a land surveyor, owns Ozark Country Land Surveying and currently serves as the Ozark County Surveyor. We live in Pontiac.