Lingleville voters are choosing between incumbent incumbent School Board member Sonya Koke and challenger Tammy Kellar for Place 1.
The Citizen reached out to both candidates with questions on why they chose to run and plans if elected.
Koke sent the following statement:
My name is Sonya Koke. This will be my second term to serve the Lingleville ISD if elected. My husband Johan and I have a dairy here in Lingleville. It’s a busy life but I won’t change anything. We have 3 daughters and 3 sons, our boys are the younger three. Our two eldest daughters are graduates of Lingleville ISD and attend Texas A&M.
The rest are still in Lingleville, our youngest daughter is a senior this year. Two of our daughters helped bring the first silver and gold state medals for relay track and setting a state record to Linglelville ISD. Like I said before I am the vice president of Lingleville PTO.
We love being part of this small close-knit community. We attend Lingleville Baptist Church, I am the children director there and Johan is a deacon and we are both passionate about mission work. I am also president/member of the Aggie moms club here in Stephenville this my second year to lead and guide this group of moms. I also serve on several committees for the Texas State Farm Bureau,
I am passionate about agriculture. I have had the opportunity to make several trips to Austin to advocate for agriculture and visited with our House Representatives and Senators.
I helped set up the PTO in Lingleville and I am the vice president. I had already put my foot in the door to be an advocate for teachers, parents, and children.
Many times I would hear Lingleville is a small school. This is all they can do for our children, I do not believe thisbecause we are small we can do better because we can be on a more personal level with our students, teachers, and staff. Everyone is an individual, not a number we can cater more to the individual and not have to lack the quality of education in doing so.
We just came out of a difficult year and opened back up to an upside-down world in education.
We have had time to focus on what is important at our school. We might not always agree but we can discuss and hear each other out with respect and still be a united board.
I would like to see the community become more engaged in our school. Not very often do we have community members come to a board meeting. It’s wonderful to see their faces and sometimes we get the privilege to listen to their praise but also their criticism. These things are so helpful for a trustee member and they get to experience the board at work for them.
The word “serve” says it all we are here to assist, contribute.