Posted by Dan Comer on February 26, 2015, 10:21 am
My name is Dan Comer and I am running for school board. I am a lifelong resident of Granite City. I graduated from Granite City High School North in 1982. My parents graduated from Granite City High school. My wife graduated from Granite City High School, all 3 of my children attended Granite City schools (2 graduated, the 3rd will be graduating this spring) AND My grandson attends grade school in Granite City. As you can see, I have very deep roots in this town. I own a business within the school district. I served 3 years in the United States Army and was honorably discharged at the end of my tour. I chose to come back to Granite City after my discharge as I would not want to live anywhere else. I have been involved with the band parents for the better part of 15 years and for the last 2 years I have served as the GCHS Band Parent Association President. I believe being involved with the band parents has been a great experience. They are a well organized organization that works hard for the benefit of our children. We combine student involvement, parental involvement and teacher support to insure that Granite City has a nationally recognized band. I believe you cannot properly educate our youth without these three pieces of the puzzle working together. As the Band Parent Association President, I worked hard with the parents to set up meetings with board members and administrators to stop the cutting of band and sports in the district last year. I believe you cannot have a strong school district without programs such as Welding, Building Trades, Auto mechanics, Theatre, Sports, all of the different clubs and yes, Band. Without these programs our schools suffer and when our schools suffer, we suffer as a community. During my time as Band Parent President, we adopted a line item budget for the organization to insure that everyone involved knows where our money is going. This is a time consuming process and we hope to have it all in place by the end of this school year. We are hopeful that it will help the Band Parent Association keep detailed records of the monies that come in and go out and help with our budgeting. Contrary to popular belief the school district pays for very little of the Marching band program. The Band Parent Association pays for most of the expenses. Any trips that the band takes are totally funded by the kids themselves through fundraisers and parents. I strongly believe that the School district needs a line item budget, and I have been told they are going to do this. If I am elected, I will work hard to insure this happens. I have been a business owner for 15 years and I personally know the hardships of running a business in today's economy. I think there are creative ways to do things to accomplish our objectives. Getting parents more involved, getting local businesses more involved, trying to create programs that are more catered to today's real world are just a few of the things that need to be examined more closely. Doing things the way we have always done them is not a solution. We need people from different backgrounds and different life experiences to come together to make our school and community great. Please remember me on April 7 Dan Comer