Meet the Candidates: Election Day is Tuesday, November 7

The school and city election is scheduled for November 7 and this election cycle we have 2 seats on the school board up for election. There are 3 candidates running for these seats and include incumbents Dave Ball, who is seeking his third term on the board, and Amy Thole who is seeking her first full term after being appointed to fill a vacancy. Jared Seliger, who is running for his first term on the board rounds out the slate of candidates for this election. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about these candidates and be ready to case your vote on November 7! 

Dave Ball, (Incumbent President of the Board) 

Dave is finishing his second term on the Hudson Board of Directors and is excited to be running for a third term and continue to be involved in the great progress the district is making. Originally from Dubuque, Iowa Mr. Ball graduated from Wahlert Catholic High School and served 3 years in the U.S. Army. Post-secondary education includes: Associate of Arts from Kirkwood Community College, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology/Political Science from Mount Mercy University and Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Public Policy from Iowa State University. Dave has worked over 33 years in higher education with 16 of those years spent at Hawkeye Community College as the Director of Admissions, Student Life and Athletics.  Dave is semi-retired and currently teaches adjunct classes at Kirkwood community college and performs consultant services as well.

Dave and his wife Lisa moved to Hudson 14 years ago and have three adult children and 4 grandchildren.

Dave believes equitable and sustainable funding continues to be a challenge and one that doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Integrating technology into the curriculum continues to be a topic schools districts need to stay on top of as well. Dave hopes to continue offering an objective and unique point of view. He has experience working with numerous K-12 schools across the state. His overall vision and agenda for Hudson schools is to support and advocate for our teachers, administrators, and most importantly our students.

Dr. Jared Seliger

Originally from Jesup, Dr. Seliger is a graduate of Don Bosco High School and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Loras College; a certificate in nuclear medicine from the University of Iowa, an MBA from the University of Northern Iowa, and a PdD in Educational Leadership from Iowa State University. He has worked at Allen College in Waterloo where he started as program director in the Nuclear Medicine Technology program. In 2018, he was named President of Allen College.

Dr. Seliger and his wife Miranda have lived in Hudson since 2010 and are raising one daughter, Tenley who is currently in 2nd grade. He is excited to be running for a seat on the school board and is eager to give back to the community. Jared believes our public school system is the catalyst and foundation to success in life and wants to ensure that Tenley and all children in our community continue to receive an exemplary education. He hopes that by serving on the board, he will be a strong advocate for children in Hudson and work to ensure the education they receive is among the best in the state and country.

From a statewide perspective, he believe the greatest challenge to be an ever shrinking pipeline of young people pursuing education as a career. Dr. Seliger points out that Iowa has numerous small, rural districts that can make it difficult to compete for talent. The inability to attract strong teachers to smaller school districts will make it even more difficult to adequately serve the needs of students in those districts. 

On the other hand, he believes the greatest challenge facing the Hudson Community School District is rapid growth. As more students move into the district, the current infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the needs of a growing student population. While he applauds the current expansion and renovation at the high school, he recognizes that continued student growth will create additional infrastructure challenges. 

Amy Lichty Thole (Incumbent)

The daughter of Tom and Christy Lichty, Amy Lichty Thole grew up on a farm outside of Hudson. Amy and her siblings open enrolled to Hudson Schools and graduated in 2008. Amy holds degrees from Hawkeye Community College and the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor's degree in Business Marketing. For the past six years, Amy has been employed at Hawkeye Community College where she serves as the Associate Director of Athletics. 

Amy and her husband Michael Thole have a three year old daughter, Charlotte and a 8 month old son, Eli. She is drawn to board service in Hudson because of the way Hudson shaped her life during her formative years. Amy believes in the quality of education she received at Hudson schools and wants to be engaged and involved in ensuring successful outcomes are accomplished for all Hudson students. Amy also believes strongly in extracurricular activities as it builds community amongst peer students and leadership roles and provides them with exposure to things such as sports, music, drama, FFA, and much more. Amy's current employment sees the value that athletics plays in collaboration with all the skills and knowledge that are accomplished and the relationship to success in the classroom. She hopes to continue sharing her knowledge and expertise in that area with the board. 

As an administrator at a postsecondary institution, Amy recognizes that mental health is one of the greatest challenges facing educators in Iowa. She feels that it is paramount that we do all we can to connect students with services that will enable them to be successful in life. 

At the local level, Amy is interested in helping address the challenges Hudson will face in the near future as district enrollment grows. As class sizes increase, it will be important to ensure that we continue to provide the smaller class sizes that make our school district so appealing. Amy also realizes that it will be important to ensure we have the programming necessary to meet the needs of our growing community, ranging from early childhood education all the way to college and career readiness. She hopes her service to the board will add a solution oriented voice to address the complex issues facing the district while planning for the future. 

Total PK-12 Enrollment at Hudson Tops 900

When considering preschool through twelfth grade enrollment, the district is currently serving 895 students. Factoring in dual enrolled and part time students, enrollment tops 900. For the purposes of this article, our discussion will focus largely on K-12 full time students. This due to the fact that full time K-12 students are the primary driver for budgeting and funding purposes

Our certified enrollment number is up approximately 11 students from last year (footnote 1). Certified enrollment in Iowa public school districts is the sum total of resident students in the school district. The basic calculation is the number of resident students attending in the local district, plus the number of resident students attending another public school district. The BEDS count on the other hand considers students who are served in the school district. The basic calculation here is resident students attending our school district, plus those who are open enrolled into Hudson. In this case, there is a net increase of 15 students over last year from 822 to 837, or a 2% enrollment increase. Our official numbers track very closely to our projection from one year ago, which suggested enrollment would be 839.

The number of students open enrolling out of Hudson has also increased from 60 to 66 with just over half choosing Cedar Falls 34 (footnote 2). However, the number of students open enrolling into online academies is second, with 14 students spread over 3 schools. There are 183 students open enrolling into Hudson, compared to 172 from a year ago. Waterloo continues to lead, with 130 students open enrolling into Hudson, up from 111 a year ago. A new data set to report this year includes resident students taking advantage of the ESA program. Our data suggests 4 students taking advantage of this program (footnote 3). The primary takeaway is that a net positive of 117 students (those open enrolled in minus those open enrolled out) is a very good sign for the district. 

We had 32 students who were enrolled last year but have subsequently transferred out or moved to another school district. This compares to 28 students who moved out last year and would suggest a more transient population of learners. 

Our first-grade class remains the largest at 87 students, compared to 91 one year ago. This 4 section grade level can be attributed to the influx of open enrolled students from one year ago. A deliberate decision was made this year to cap enrollment, not so much due to a perceived ‘space’ issue; our elementary building has the capacity to accommodate the added sections-but personnel limitations. Adding another section of kindergarten for example, would not only have necessitated the addition of another classroom teacher, but would have required additional sections of physical education, music, and art. Iowa is currently experiencing a labor shortage in the education sector and confidence remains low in our ability to hire additional personnel, particularly when some of those personnel would fill part time positions. It is also worth noting that 21 students applied for open enrollment into Hudson and were denied.

Enrollment projections are calculated based on a cohort methodology that uses a five year rolling average to determine kindergarten size. Over the last 5 years, the kindergarten has averaged 64 students; while in the last 10 years it has averaged 59. Based on both residential enrollment growth coupled with open enrollment, a projection of 64 seems to be right particularly since open enrollment from Waterloo is not anticipated to drop off. With this methodology, estimates from prior years are left static since there is no algorithm to accurately predict transfers in or out of the district. If these projections were come to fruition, we will reach our high-water mark of 865 (K-12) in 2029-2030. Previous attempts have been made to account for residential growth, and assuming 1.9 children per household evenly distributed could push K-12 enrollment into the mid 950 range by 2028-2029. However, I would exercise extreme caution when making this assumption and at the same time understand potential enrollment growth could be significant. You can read the full report here. 

Note 1: We use the term 'approximately' because of what are known as 'fractional' students. When it comes to supplementary weighting, preschool students, students who are part time, and students who are served in our English Language Learner Program; these students carry an additional weight factor. 

Note 2: Fifteen percent of students open enrolling into Cedar Falls from Hudson have a physical address of 700 W. Ridgeway, which is a neighborhood on the northern border of our district—geographically located within the city limits of Cedar Falls. 

Note 3: At the writing of this summary, the validity of those participating in the ESA program remains suspect. Those data ‘flow into’ our SRI system from other reporting agencies and there is no real way to determine whether or not all of those students have been captured. It can be anticipated this reporting process will strengthen over time, allowing a more accurate depiction of ESA students.