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This is an in depth, online interview I conducted with Dr. Kelly Kohls on her platform and expectations for her newly elected position on the Springboro School Board. Her overwhelming majority of 4,000 + votes that swept her into office was won mostly on principle based on a strong fiscally responsible platform to improve the board’s decisions on a multitude of levels to keep the SCS viable and soluble.

I conducted this interview in the waning days of Dec. 2009 prior to her swearing in on Jan 12th. It was done online over a 2-day period and one email to complete. In advance, I want to thank Dr. Kohls for taking the time out of her busy schedule to cover the ground on a number of topics that we discussed herein this exchange. - Sonny Thomas

Sonny Thomas: We're here with Dr. Kelly Kohls who recently won a huge election in her favor to the Springboro School Board. Hello Kelly!

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Hello Sonny, how are you today?

Sonny Thomas: Quite good in fact. I hope Santa was good to you this year! Lol

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Well, Santa makes an appearance here.  However, we focus our family on the reason we celebrate this holiday, the birth of Jesus.  It is important to us that our family understands it is not about gifting but about the gifts of faith, giving to others and loyalty.

Sonny Thomas: Tell us a little about your background prior to running for your position on the school board.

Dr. Kelly Kohls: I don't know which part of my background is most important in the eyes of the readers, but I will list the most important to me.  I am a mother of five children that keep me focused on: what is best for them in their world, the vast number of lessons that I have to teach them everyday, and to stay the course.  The children, others and mine, are the reason that I decided to enter the political world outside of my expertise and sometimes comfort.

Sonny Thomas: So what made you seriously decide to push for the option of running? Was it just the overall policies of the district that made you think some things needed fresh ideas, or did an incident make you more aware of some deficiencies in the system?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: A combination of events compelled me into action. I have had a fascination with agriculture all of my life and therefore went to The University of Nebraska for a B.S., M. S. and Ph.D. in Human Nutrition.  I taught at three different higher education institutions followed by 15 years of teaching through individual, small group, and large group formats in my nutrition private practice.  Education is the key to improving our environment, from the individual to the vastness of the world.  Education is my responsibility to my children.  We chose to live in Springboro so that we could stay in an agricultural community and access a high quality education.  For five years we have enjoyed high quality education but have also been stressed by the continuous levy votes.


Sonny Thomas: Do you feel that the school curriculums are adequate these days?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: The events that led my candidacy was simply that I was concerned with the current course the district was taking. The district web site publishes a report that indicated that when compared to 20 other similar districts our administration was paid on average more than other districts. I was simply curious at that point so I looked at many other resources, i.e. on the Ohio Department of Education web site, on our own district web site and county auditors' office. I started to share the information I found with others and some of them came to me and stated that they recognized and respected my willingness to look into things. I try very hard to make conclusions based on the facts and outcome. Yes, we have an excellent school district but is it because we have more money than other districts?  My reoccurring questions and the relentless plea for more school district levy money simply lead me to desire involvement to get to the answers. The big question still looming is, do we need more money to yield an excellent education? So far, I see no reason for the need for more money to educate our students.  I cannot in good continents ask for more money from our economically strapped over taxed community. I have found that 44% of Ohio schools have an excellent rated school district and many of them offer that education for less per pupil than we do.

Sonny Thomas: So you do feel there's some fiscal abuse within the system?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: I have more homework to do before I could conclude that the current and five year forecast represents a fiscally responsible philosophy. There are several decisions that I would have made differently.  One very large fiscal decision made by our district that I am opposed to is the construction of a facility on our campus that we do not get to use for 20+ years.  This building is a for profit (physicians offices) medical building that sits between our junior high school and high school.  The contract to build and then lease this very large, three story building on our campus was made without consulting even one member of our community.  The decision to enter into this contract (an 11 million dollar building that we hold the mortgage to) was made by the few people in administration and the board.  This happens to be another reason that I ran for school board.  As I see it, our community owns that land my children attend classes at those buildings five days per week and now we have a lot of adult traffic on our campuses that really should have no business on these campuses. I still do not see the benefit to the construction of this building.  We did not need it now or in the foreseeable future of 20+ years.  Shouldn't we all have been consulted before they signed off the rights to school (community) property, put my children and all others at greater risk and put our debt ratio into a fiscal risk category?  The answer is absolutely!!!  Who gives the right to spend us into eternity?  This is a trend we all see at all levels of government.  We have to get involved, step up and say NO, do not do it.

Sonny Thomas: So how did you come to this conclusion? Did you look under the rug to see where the ‘financial dust bunnies’ were being swept or did others enlighten you on the ‘goings on’?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Many of the details to change have been communicated to me via several sources and resources.  My philosophy differs from most politicians in that I do not think I have all the answers.  I have a lot of questions that I pose to this very involved, very educated community.  First, our district had a performance audit done last summer by the state auditors office.  In the report of the audit there are several statements that our district needs to write a clear forecasting formula and that the formulation of that formula should require involvement from the board of education.  This statement told me that the auditors could not understand the forecast or the means by which it was made.  Likewise, I have many, many questions about this forecast that shows our district’s financial demise in two years.

Sonny Thomas: What do you propose to do about it?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Common sense solutions. Our district is not unique. Many districts are facing shortfalls if the past ways of spending are not corrected.  Correction factors have effected all of us in home values, income, retirements, and benefits.  The district financial forecast should reflect this correction, the fact that it projects spending five years out, the financial glory days of past, simply proves the disconnect between the people and the people who serve the people.


Sonny Thomas: So do you think you're having any impact since your election already prior to your swearing in?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Definitely, The value of being an inquisitive, direct and vocal community member has begun to pay off.  OK, some use other terminology for those attributes.  Again, there are many community members who have come forward to assist in decision making with my candidacy and who have forged the path of my board contributions.  We, the community have concluded that communication within this district has to change.  I have forwarded that philosophy to the administration and we are now forming a communications committee.  The mission of this committee is to be formed at the first few meetings, but will include guidelines on what and how that community communications will be conducted.  A few months prior to the election and after the election, yet, prior to my swearing in, we have witnessed change and decisions that I believe, reflect the incoming change of governance.  I have a reputation for being uninhibited to speak my mind.  I have repeatedly stated that I will not be hushed by " politically correct" rhetoric.  I am and will continue to speak for this community.

Sonny Thomas: So do you feel that the media has destroyed the ideals of America that have made us great?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Teaching morality is a formidable task given the negative influences our children have in their environment.  The media seems to orient the "news" to Hollywood and not reality.  What is the purpose of three Hollywood stories on network "News" for every one real life, educational, moral, loyal stories of our population.  There is a dumbing down of our youth.  It is therefore, up to us to teach all of these and to turn off the TV, don't buy the papers and of course turn over the tabloids in the checkout lines.  There are more immoral sources of information than respectful sources.  Frustration about bad behavior being portrayed as acceptable, everyday, and normal has desensitized our youth to what reality is, while simultaneously outraging our common sense and down to earth population.  We have been portrayed to other nations and to our youth as selfish, self centered and immoral.  That does not represent our past, present or future.  Reality is, that following the Ten Commandments and the laws that came from them are what makes us civil human beings.  They are what makes us compassionate towards others.  They tell us that it is wrong to take from others without permission, that is stealing, no matter what the reason (unless they have broken the laws that were written to support the Ten Commandments).  The Ten Commandments should be above the doors to all government offices. Whomever states that religion and politics are separate are simply blind.  Religion and politics go hand in hand.  They must guide this country back to its greatness.  It all starts with teaching the children about our founding fathers, our history, and our loyalty to that history and protection of that foundation.


Sonny Thomas: Personally, I do not have a problem with having the Ten Commandments being placed in a court of law. The most appropriate venue for it actually. I feel, whether you believe in the origin or not, they are one of the first laws to be put in stone as well as the Romans using the Law of the Twelve Tables to set a standard and written testament of where law should begin. Too bad neither example had a listing on ‘thou shalt not overspend what you bring forth’.  An inherent flaw I would propose.

Dr. Kelly Kohls: I believe that this district is similar to most others in that the residents that fund it have found themselves less able to continue the level of funding without questions.  In the past I have always believed that if the school district asked for more money through a levy they must need it.  I have always voted yes.  I have been a no voter for the last 4 levy votes here in Springboro for many reasons.  To summarize, I voted no because I did not trust how money was being spent.  I was always surprised to see the huge numbers of voters that agreed with me.  When this community sees very large construction projects, including a helipad on the school property without any communication about it prior to signing the contract, it does not appear to need my opinion or my money.  When the five year forecast shows an 8.8% increase in the next year for salaries and an 11.5% increase forecasted for the following year, it again appears that the district does not need my money to educate but that the levy is for employee pay.  While employees pay is very high on the priority list it appears to be more important to our district than the safe transportation of our students to and from school.  To cut busing before holding pay raises and benefits down makes us all question motives.

Sonny Thomas: I have asked many questions as to why there’s not an adequate sidewalk system for our children to be able to safely walk to school. Not to mention from one housing plat to another. I often walked to school a majority of my education years. Why are there no monies set aside from the city as well as the schools for such a common sense approach to solving that dilemma? They seem to spend money on trivial items that are superfluous. Such as the marble floors in the high school.

Dr. Kelly Kohls: I have been asking many questions for financial records from our district.  None of the files that I have requested are confidential, they are all public information.  There are three categories of expenditures on our five-year forecast that need a detailed investigation.  The personnel services include a very large increase each year, the Employees Retirement/Insurance Benefits increases by 1.1 million each year for 450 full time employees and our Purchased Services are out of line with other schools of this size.  These are a few of the categories of questions that this community has.  All three of these are related to employee pay and benefits and are not related to classroom supplies, classroom sizes, transportation or extracurricular activities, all of which were cut or manipulated to save money.  To be fair, many in our district have had a pay freeze while others have had up to 10% pay raise.  The average pay increase across the district was close to approx. 2.2%

Sonny Thomas: With that of a good rate of a pay for teachers and overall budget, you would think the schools would be totally up to par in covering the basics. If not, would you support home schooling as a primary if not a supplementary form of education then?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: I support home schooling and have often thought of trying it.  I respect and admire the commitment that parents make to educate their children themselves.  I am an educator and am not sure I could do it.  I believe that it offers the best education possibilities if done with passion, patients and persistence. Every parent that I know that chooses this form of education does so with great pride and love of education and their children. 

Sonny Thomas: For as we know the school systems would never dream about ever venturing in the realms of a classical education in the slightest, much less going back to the 3 'R's. Seems to always be a center left agenda and teaching revisionist history. What are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: We must get back to teaching American history.  Our textbooks have leaned away from American history and have avoided installation of and in some cases oppress American pride and loyalty.  Our manufacturing history is nothing less than impressive, yet one history textbook gave the foreign history of auto manufacturing and omitted the American history of Auto making even though the USA was the first to invent the automobile.  A deliberate attempt to omit our greatest achievements, who would allow this?  Shame on them.

Sonny Thomas: It amazes me how every textbook will say that the American Civil War was all about slavery. But yet never mentions anything about the oppression of an industrial North on the agrarian South! It was more about State's Rights more than anything else!

Dr. Kelly Kohls: History books rarely mention that Catholics were tortured and persecuted for assisting slaves. Omitting that many people in this country did the right thing and took great risks doing it.


Sonny Thomas: So, as a member of the board, what are your primary and secondary goals you'd like to cover on your first term?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: My first goal as a Springboro School Board member is to completely understand the budget and five year forecast that shows us in a financial deficit in two years and to ask the hard questions.  For example; after four failed levy votes isn't it time to go back to the drawing board and look for further cuts and stop asking the community for more money they do not believe we need?  My goal is to keep our hands out of the taxpayer pockets unless we need it to effectively educate our children.  My current level of understanding indicates that we do not have a financial emergency and if we do I'll ask the taxpayers.  I will not vote for putting a levy vote on the May ballot.  I have far too many questions and the district has a long road to improve, communication, policy review, policy enforcement, and employee compensation.  Sometimes when I ask questions the answer I get is, "that is what other schools do".  If other schools are fiscally irresponsible should we follow?  This community is too smart to follow that philosophy.  We are not lemmings.  We will do what is fiscally responsible to educate our fine community students.  I have indicated to our district personnel that we need to become a humble district and not an arrogant one.  We need community input.  We need to repeat the message, “Thank you Springboro for giving us the substrate we need to achieve an excellent school district and we take our responsibility very seriously”.  Let us know how we can provide you with more assistance with your student and educating our community.

Sonny Thomas: I think they've answered with electing you with a landslide margin!

Dr. Kelly Kohls: It was a very stressful evening on November 3, 2009.  I, of course, did not know how the community would vote.  That day, Springboro had 5,000+ voters and 4,600+ voted for me.  I do not know all of these people that voted for me but can safely assume that the message was that we needed a strong willed, direct, educator as an addition to the current school board.  When I was initially contacted by a community member to run for school board he told me that my neighbor recommended me.  She told him that while she would not call me a friend (we did not agree on a few things) she respected my willingness to communicate and felt that I was strong enough to rise to the challenges of this district.  Another person told me that to win “they have to like you” so to smile a lot and dress nice.  While I agree with those things, I felt strongly that my community was not a shallow community and would appreciate a truthful candidate and that even if they did not like the message they would respect the messenger.  I found that to be true through the votes on Nov. 3.

Sonny Thomas: I think they got the message!


Dr. Kelly Kohls: The message that I am referring to above is that we are an imperfect district that has several things to work on.  I have mentioned many things that we need to work on in my web site.

Sonny Thomas: Are there any other ideas that you wish to cover?


Dr. Kelly Kohls:  Dayton Daily News and the Springboro Education Association (teachers union) both endorsed the other candidates. There were four candidates for three positions and so the teachers’ union and the Dayton Daily News basically told the voters who not to vote for. And wow did that backfire on them. I really think that not getting these endorsements actually won me votes. I was told before the election that no candidate has ever won without a DDN endorsement. The teachers’ union never endorsed a candidate prior to this election. Why start now?  What pressure were they under to take that risk? 

Sonny Thomas: And what does that say, overall?

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Well let’s look at this in two ways:

1. Newspapers have no business making endorsements. Isn't a News Paper supposed to report the "News"  why are they trying to make the "News" with endorsements if their goal is balanced reporting? Well, as we all have come to the conclusion newspapers have lost their ability to uneducate the public. Americans are achieving an education the hard way through reality. Reality is that when we buy foreign made goods from countries that do not buy what we make; we have an economy like we have today. As newspapers do not tell Americans that reality, they eventually figure it out, I can hope. Americans must buy what we make and not buy what other countries make unless we do not carry a trade deficit with that country. Americans, look up Trade Deficit see who not to buy from, in other words, who does not buy what we make.

2. Unions have lost the power they once enjoyed. While a necessary part of this nation's progress they have outlived the economy.  Members of the UAW told me a few years ago, that NAFTA was going to kill the manufacturing industries in this country.  At that time, I thought they were exaggerating.  Now, I think, why weren't they or we, able to stop it?


Sonny Thomas: Unions have, for the most part, outlived their usefulness. They have demanded so much from the parent companies that they seem to forget every thing they ask for turns into a markup in overhead cost, which in turn is a tax. So, they have to tag that onto the final sticker price. So in the long run, they are asking themselves, as well as the rest of us, to pay more so that they might have a little more posh lifestyle. A decent car should not cost 25 to 40% higher than a standard markup price!


Dr. Kelly Kohls: Most unions today have made huge concessions; even so, our economy is in a low but reversible place.  It is really up to us, in a grass roots effort we need to think before we spend.  What does the label say?  Only one choice improves our economy, Made in USA, the others take from it. 

Even though many portions of the media like to make our news for us and keep us in the dark about the real issues, the community of Springboro is very educated, involved and cares about their children’s education so, they made their vote in November  based on those characteristics.  I think the message was that a conservative educator and a mom of five kids in the district will be able to determine whether expenditures are being made for “education” or not.  I have repeatedly said that “I want my education tax dollars to be spent on education and nothing else”.  That is exactly what the community has said by voting me in.  Thank You Springboro, I’ll do my best.

Sonny Thomas: Thank you for speaking your thoughts with us today, Kelly.

Dr. Kelly Kohls: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and what you’re doing with the Springboro Tea Party.