Budget concerns and school children were two reasons Craig Clark decided to run for Position 7, the at-large position for the Southern Lyon County school district.
“I’m not much of a campaigner,” Clark said. “... One of the reasons that I decided to run, some of the financial decisions that have been made I didn’t necessarily agree with. You know, you’ve got ideas and sometimes the only way you can get your ideas posed is to become part of it and throw them out on the table.”
Clark specifically mentioned savings that might be had from busing children.
“Looking from the outside-in,” Clark said, “... the way they bus kids around — not that busing ’s not needed — but it seems that there are bus drivers that have to deadhead back a long ways.”
He said he wanted to find ways to save money for the district and benefit the children at the same time, and that he would listen to all sides.
“I’m open-minded and fair,” Clark said. “I’m not a politician by any stretch of the imagination. It just seems like we could be doing better things with the money.”
Clark works in the health physics division at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Plant, where he has been employed since 1989. He attended Neosho Rapids elementary school, graduated from Hartford High School and had continuing education at the Flint Hills Vocational-Technical School.
His two daughters attend school in the Southern district.