WAITE PARK — District 742 is facing rising enrollment, significant student needs and mounting financial pressures. On Tuesday night, Oct. 6, six candidates competing for three school board seats offered different ideas for how to respond.
Heather Weems, the board’s only incumbent seeking reelection, is running for a second four-year term. Al Dahlgren, who previously served on the board, is also seeking a seat. The other candidates are Sonia Eizenhoefer, Robert Galler Jr., Vincent Miles and Steven Schiller.
The three seats include those held by Weems, Zachary Dorholt and Natalie Copeland. Dorholt is running for
while Copeland did not file for reelection. The six candidates participated in a 90-minute forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of the St. Cloud Area at the District Administration Office in Waite Park.
The candidates seek to join a board overseeing 10,232 students, according to
Minnesota Department of Education
data from February 2026. About 23.5% of students are English learners, 24.9% receive
services and 66.7% qualify under the federal free- and reduced-price lunch measure used to gauge student need.
Those needs come with significant costs. District 742’s
2026-27 budget totals about $194 million,
an increase of roughly 8%, with enrollment about 200 students higher than expected. The district also is continuing projects funded through its $65 million facilities referendum.
Those pressures shaped much of Tuesday night’s discussion.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Enrollment & Boundaries: Candidates discussed redrawing elementary attendance boundaries to balance building capacity, with Al Dahlgren prioritizing retaining St. Cloud resident students and Vincent Miles highlighting east-side growth considerations.
- Facilities & Consolidation: District maintenance efforts were widely praised, though candidates highlighted aging facilities like Lincoln Elementary and Steven Schiller raised potential future building consolidation.
- Special Education Funding Gap: Facing a $194 million budget, candidates addressed a roughly $13 million unfunded special education deficit and urged state funding formula reform.
- Teacher Support: Candidates focused on competitive pay, manageable class sizes, reduced burnout, and partnerships with local universities—with Heather Weems emphasizing staff empowerment and Robert Galler Jr. advocating for educator support.
- Transgender Athletes: Heather Weems, Robert Galler Jr., Vincent Miles, and Steven Schiller supported allowing transgender students to play on teams matching their gender identity, while Sonia Eizenhoefer and Al Dahlgren opposed transgender girls in girls’ sports, citing fairness and legal interpretations.
- School Safety: Candidates broadly rejected arming teachers, favoring dedicated law enforcement, preventive measures, and keeping educators focused on instruction.
- Housing Instability: With hundreds of students experiencing housing instability, candidates debated the district’s role, with Sonia Eizenhoefer pointing to existing district services and others advocating for wraparound support and social workers.
The candidates offered different priorities for the district, but several returned to a common theme: ensuring students have access to a strong education while managing limited resources.
Dahlgren pointed to enrollment as an important measure of the district’s health, emphasizing that retaining local families is vital.
“We need to see continued growth in enrollment, and I’d really like to see us keep more of the kids, more of the resident students from St. Cloud in St. Cloud schools,” Dahlgren said.
Weems highlighted the district’s broad public responsibility and the importance of establishing safe environments and strong coursework.
“We have a responsibility to educate all students, regardless of background,” Weems said.
Galler said that responsibility includes ensuring that students with varying academic and personal requirements can access necessary programs and services.
“There’s many students with many different needs. Having access for all is really important,” Galler said, adding that classroom success relies on supporting staff. “Teachers provide comfort for people who are struggling. They provide insight. They provide new ideas.”
Eizenhoefer focused on academic outcomes, curriculum standards, and structured assessment.
“Quality education, academically and socially, assessment of learning needs to be evaluated,” Eizenhoefer said.
Miles advocated for an open approach focused on board leadership and listening to stakeholders rather than coming in with a set agenda.
“In order to have an effective and strong district, it starts at the board, and that trickles down,” Miles said. “I’m not going to approach this whole process with an agenda that’s very rigid. I’m going to approach it with open eyes … and a willingness to listen.”
called for greater community involvement and organizational transparency.
“This is your district; this is your children,” Schiller said. “As a community, we need to be more involved in how we run our district.”
Enrollment growth is creating challenges for district facilities and school boundaries. District 742 has been redrawing elementary attendance boundaries — some untouched since the 1990s — to balance overcrowding, underused facilities, housing shifts, and specialized program access.
Weems supported the
as a strategic way to balance enrollment across schools. Dahlgren pointed to Lincoln Elementary as an example of space limitations, noting it is on “such a small lot” and may eventually require building a replacement elementary school on the east side.
Miles urged the board to keep growth on the east side in mind when evaluating junior high and elementary capacity. Schiller suggested the district must remain open to difficult discussions about efficiency, stating that board members should consider whether “upgrades are necessary, or do we need to start looking at building new buildings and consolidating some of these elementary schools?”
Galler and Eizenhoefer emphasized preserving access to programs as boundaries shift.
District 742’s 2026-27 budget includes about $194 million in revenues and expenditures, with an unrestricted general fund balance of about $18.5 million. The candidates discussed how to balance employee compensation with other operational costs.
Dahlgren argued that compensation must remain competitive.
“The easiest answer to how do you recruit and retain more or better people… is you pay them better,” Dahlgren said, while acknowledging funding limits.
Weems outlined a four-part strategy for workforce management: “Hire good people, empower them to do their jobs, remove obstacles, and then have a cycle of accountability.”
Galler emphasized leveraging regional higher education connections, while Eizenhoefer stressed professional development and feedback from principals. Schiller suggested district marketing and proper compensation for educators who pursue extra training.
“Recruiting is marketing… we need to do a great marketing job as to why teachers should come here,” Schiller said.
Special education funding gaps drew significant attention. Dahlgren cited a roughly $13 million shortfall between special education expenditures and government aid.
“That 13 million dollars comes out of the general fund, and it affects other programs,” Dahlgren noted.
A 2023 Minnesota Public Radio report identified District 742 as among the state’s most underfunded, receiving about 66% of estimated needed aid due to state funding formulas impacting areas with higher student need. District finance director Amy Skaalerud previously noted during a school board meeting that local contributions are necessary because state and federal aid falls short.
Candidates agreed state formula adjustments are needed. Weems cautioned against mandates without state backing: “We need to continue with the Legislature to discourage unfunded mandates … when they come with new mandates, they need to ensure that they are putting the money behind it as well.”
Transgender sports question
The clearest ideological divide emerged over whether transgender students should be permitted to play on sports teams aligning with their gender identity.
Weems, Galler, Miles, and Schiller supported inclusion.
“I think we need to support students, keep them engaged, and give them as many opportunities as possible,” Weems said.
Galler cautioned against exclusion. “I think we don’t do any service by trying to exclude people,” he said.
Schiller advocated accepting students for who they are, while Miles encouraged focusing on the core value of athletics.
“I think we need to push for inclusivity in all things,” Miles said. “The other one I also hear from a lot of people is about safety. They feel like it’s going to be some type of risk or challenge for an individual having somebody else in the locker room or wherever, and I feel like that’s completely made up. We don’t have evidence that supports that.”
Eizenhoefer and Dahlgren opposed allowing transgender girls in girls’ sports.
“I have a real easy, simple answer, and it would just be no,” Eizenhoefer said. “I do not think that they should participate just because it’s not fair.”
Dahlgren cited legal and constitutional factors: “When you have a conflict between the state law and the federal law, the federal law reigns supreme through the supremacy clause in the Constitution. I took an oath to the Constitution, so I’m going to say no.”
Candidates reject arming teachers
Candidates expressed broad consensus when asked if teachers or staff should carry firearms in high schools. Most opposed the idea, though Dahlgren noted he was open to trained personnel under strict parameters.
“It doesn’t necessarily scare me with the right amount of training,” Dahlgren said, though he noted a preference for law enforcement. “I’d prefer to see more law enforcement in the schools.”
Weems, Galler, Eizenhoefer, Miles, and Schiller opposed arming educators.
“Guns in schools, I think, is really a bad idea,” Schiller said.
Galler stressed role separation.
“Teachers are trained to be teachers, work with students,” Galler said. “If there’s an issue of safety, we should address it, but we should not do it by arming our teachers.”
Miles agreed, “We should not be putting that on our educators.”
With over 360 District 742 students identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2025-26 school year—and district estimates projecting up to 400 to 500 eligible under federal McKinney-Vento guidelines — candidates discussed district responsibility.
Galler noted that unaddressed basic needs hinder learning. Weems pointed to district partnerships, grant-funded wraparound services, and supply programs. Miles advocated for expanding support staff.
“I hope at some point in time we can simply give our superintendent this ability to hire every single social worker that exists that might be able to help move this needle,” Miles said.
Schiller noted that missing basics damage self-worth.
“When a child doesn’t have sleep, food, clothes, school supplies … their self-worth is damaged,” Schiller said. “So providing them all of those resources is huge.”
Eizenhoefer encouraged connecting families to existing services, while Dahlgren clarified the district’s boundary.
“It’s really identifying the students and providing them with the basics,” Dahlgren said. “I don’t think that it’s the school district’s job to house students or to house families out of our buckets of funding.”
Three seats, six candidates
The Nov. 3 general election will determine which three candidates earn seats on the District 742 Board of Education.
To confirm voter registration, review sample ballots, or locate polling resources, voters can visit the
Minnesota Secretary of State Voter Portal
or the
