Dewayne Kolb said his decision to run for the unexpired term (ending 2024) on the Dublin ISD School Board in the May 7 election stems from a desire to know what’s going on with the district and lend his real world experience in helping make decisions.
“Honestly, you hear a lot of stuff around town about what’s going on [at the school],” Kolb said. “I don’t like hearsay; I want to find out what’s going on for myself.”
In the interest of learning more, Kolb has attended a couple of board meetings and has already seen a couple of votes on which he could have provided insight.
“The last meeting I attended, [board members voted] on the purchase of A/C units,” he recalled. “I’ve got experience in construction.”
The 1999 Breckenridge High School graduate has been involved in construction for several years now, doing work such as designing a hydraulic unit for an oilfield and handling jobs for dairies. His day-to-day operations include a lot of welding, fabrication and mechanic work.
This wasn’t the path in life he initially expected though.
After high school, Kolb attended Cisco Jr. College and Tarleton State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Ag Service and Development.
He worked for the Farm Service Agency in Stephenville before deciding on a change.
He was employed for a while handling the billing and employment for a dairy company and also got some experience building custom homes.
Kolb has been a member of the Dublin Volunteer Fire Department for around 10 years and currently serves as chaplain. He’s also been involved with the Double N Cowboy Church since 2010 and helped out on several teams including the building team.
Kolb said one of his primary goals in running is to make sure Dublin graduates are being prepared for the next step, regardless of what that step is.
“I feel like there may be a transition coming from [students veering away from] college to trade school,” Kolb said. “We’ve done some to prepare for that, but more could be done.”
“The average income in Dublin doesn’t support a college education,” Kolb remarked. “What’s the school doing for kids who aren’t going to college?”
“Let’s train our kids to where they can be productive citizens within the town,” Kolb offered, saying that he’s noticed a lack of drive and work ethic in a portion of the younger generation.
Kolb also feels that the turnover rate of teachers is high and would like to look into why that is happening and what could be done to keep them around.
“When I was in school, we had teachers teaching for two or three generations,” he remembered.
Kolb said he sees a lot of promise in Dublin and Dublin ISD, noting that it is a community that seems to be headed in the right direction and has the potential for growth.
When not working or serving the DVFD or Double N, Dewayne and his wife, Cortney also coach the 8U softball team, the Panthers. Dewayne finds that coaching is starting to get fun now that they’ve laid down fundamentals and expectations.
Dewayne and Cortney have four daughters, Kaitlyn, Karli, Kennedy and Kendall.
As a candidate, Kolb promises dedication and thoughtful decisions.