The forum included candidates from all elections in The Woodlands area, including Montgomery County Justice of the Peace Precinct 3, Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District and The Woodlands Township board of directors in addition to TISD and CISD boards of trustees.
Mike Midler, candidate for CISD board of trustees Position 1, said his close friend lost a daughter, who was a CISD student, to a fentanyl overdose.
“It's just heartbreaking to go through that. I can't imagine going through it 30 times, and that's how many teenagers between 14 and 23 we have lost in Montgomery County to fentanyl. That's a lot of needless deaths,” Midler said.
Many candidates advocated for increased education for students regarding drug overdoses.
“I think the best way is to let the kids know what the real risks are,” TISD Position 3 candidate Jennifer Kratky said. “If you take a pill and you don't know where it came from, this is a risk that you're taking—a real risk of instant death.”
CISD Position 2 candidate Melissa Dungan said when her husband was an administrator in the district, she saw a lack of discipline in schools when it came to drugs.
“I think in order to discourage our children from bringing these drugs, ... we have policies in place where the discipline at school needs to happen so that there is harsher punishment for these kids so they are not encouraged to bring these drugs to school,” she said.
Physician and CISD parent Serafin Farias, a candidate for Position 1, said he often sees children in the emergency room who are dealing with self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“I'm all for the expansion of resources for these kids that have mental health issues. Same thing with fentanyl—the way we deal with the fentanyl problem is that we educate the kids on how dangerous these pills are that are out there,” he said.
CISD Position 1 candidate Evan Berlin said in addition to giving parents resources to have conversations about drugs with their children, districts need to ensure teachers have those resources as well.
“There are 39% of our students in the district that are at risk.” Berlin said. “Some students go home to an empty house. ... It is critically important that as a district, our teachers are trained on signs of mental health, symptoms of drug abuse so that we can identify early, mitigate quickly and save a life.”
Joseph Ferguson, a former assistant principal in TISD and candidate for Position 1 on the board of trustees, said he believes students turn to drugs as a way to self-medicate.
“There's some other mental health issues going on,” Ferguson said. “I think if we can focus on mental health, not only will it help alleviate people from self-medicating, but other issues such as violence in the schools and those things.”
CISD’s drug prevention program, Hidden in Plain Sight, includes regular presentations for parents to attend to learn about youth drug use. CISD Position 1 candidate Ashley Fehrle said few parents show up to the presentations.
“It is a problem in educating, and I think it does go back to mental health. They’re medicating—self-medicating,” Fehrle said.
CISD Position 2 incumbent Ray Sanders, is a licensed professional counselor in addition to serving on the board. Part of his work on the board, he said, has been in working to bring more counselors to the district.
“We can't do therapy in school,” Sanders said. “But what we can do is try to teach children and young adults how to deal with their emotions in a positive way rather than these negative ways, such as using drugs.”
Candidates also expressed their desire to maintain transparency between the district and the community.
“Part of the role of school board has to serve as a bridge between the parents and the district between the community and the district,” TISD Position 1 candidate Jim Engelke said. “We can always do a better job and as a board member, I would make sure that our communications are open and clear and transparent and the parents have access to meetings and everything that's going on in the district.”
TISD Position 3 candidate Brandon Batchelor said more dialogue and communication will help the district succeed.
“The teachers to release their burdens so they can teach, the administrators to release their burden so they can coach and guide those teachers and make our campuses that much more safe, that much more inviting and that much more clear for everyone,” he said.
CISD Position 1 candidate Tiffany Baumann Nelson said she has heard from parents that they feel things are being hidden from them.
“We want to make sure that we're being good stewards of our money, giving full transparency to our parents and we're putting parents in the driver's seat with their own children's education,” she said.
The general election will be held Nov. 8. Full candidate profiles can be found on the Community Impact website.
