Bob Magart running for board

1. Could you please give a little bit about your background and why you chose to run for school board?

The son of a miner-logger and farm girl, one of six, second youngest, I started my professional life as a high school teacher. Ten years in that business, history and English, negotiatior on the teacher's side, wrestling coach, and drama rat, I moved on to Educational Sales, within which I represented publishers of books and software. I automated not a few libraries in the states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Traveling long distances and a diminishing ability to stay awake, I was forced to retire to publishing. I've been publishing in newspapers since 2009. From New York, to Alabama to Alaska, I've been published.

Thinking about running for the school board, I've asked residents what they think. It seems a mix. Some say, "We need change." Some say, "Forget about it. You don't have a chance." I've grown used to the idea. Even if I lose, I'll be running for something else in the future. Simply put, "Maybe, I'm crazy." Don't quote me on it!

2. What are the biggest challenges facing our schools and how will you address those?

Thank you for this question. It is important. Rural Montana, rural Western United States, must defend its way of life. Period. The very best from our past can find new focus. Our youth deserve our affection, our persevering, and our prayers. Agriculture knows how to struggle. That is what it has done for hundreds of years. The sense of accomplishment can be rewarded, in and out of school. This sense of accomplishment: it is what I want to assist.

3. What do you think the district is doing well?

Whitehall Schools do celebrate a lot of excellence.

4: How would you like the district to move forward in the future?

Whitehall District 4 and 47 has had a good management team. Curricula can be improved as well as its implementation. However, I simply must admit that as a new person to the community, I have avoided minefields. There are some rivalries in this community that have been grown with deliberate animosity. As a journalist, I protect my sources with deliberate silence. Period. This, also, is what good salesmen and saleswomen do. It should also be said, this is exactly what might improve some teachers. Period.

Let me illustrate this question with a small story about Gary Cooper, Helena native, and actor on the Big Screen. I pick him deliberately because he received praise and cult following largely because of his role in "High Noon." The film runs about one hour and forty-five minutes. It is famous for camera angles and long pan shots where Cooper, dressed in black and white, faces sure death at noon. As I recall, by the time Cooper starred in this film he had acted for the better part of forty years: (I too have been around education for forty years). I love the film. Sometimes you do what you feel you must. It is no different for a first grader, an eighth grader, or a senior.