The Pella Community School District will have two seats open in the September 8th school board elections.

District Two Board Member Gary Coppock was initially appointed to the board in 2013 to finish a two-year term of an outgoing member, and is now seeking reelection. Coppock says the district faces many challenges in the coming years, and says he’d use some of his problem-solving experience he’s gained while working for Vermeer to try and come up with solutions.

“I’m involved in a lot of continuous improvement and problem solving and leadership development,” Coppock says, “and I think that as issues come up, I can bring a perspective that will help us work through those to get to good solutions and have some constructive discussions.

He says there are many issues beyond the budget that the board will have to deal with in the next two years.

“I think the pressures with maintaining high test scores, the different programs that the state is requiring, and different positions that the school district has had to add–all of those things create a little bit of tension that we have to work through,” Coppock says.

“Basically, we’re here to educate our children, and we’ve got great teachers who just want to teach, and so the challenge is how to allow those things to happen while still meeting the requirements that are coming from the state, and also continuing to maintain the high level of performance of the school district.”

We have more with Coppock about his candidacy on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.