Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of three Brookings School Board candidate profiles that will appear in The Brookings Register this week.

BROOKINGS – With all the work the Brookings School District faces in the coming years, Brookings School Board candidate Roger DeGroot says he has the necessary experience to help guide the board through the tasks ahead.

DeGroot is part of a three-way race for 2 three-year seats on the board that also includes Deb DeBates and Randy Grimsley. The election is April 10.

The Sioux Falls native started his education career as a teacher in Nebraska for five years. Then he came to the Lennox School District, where he spent 23 years as a K-8 principal and four years as superintendent. After those 27 years, DeGroot served as Brookings School District superintendent for eight years.

Education has continued to be a part of DeGroot’s life. He’s served as an interim superintendent at Big Stone City for a year, and now he has two education-related jobs. He’s been working for an educational consultant firm, which works with school districts to evaluate their facilities and give them suggestions on what they need to do to bring them up to the needs of a 21st century learning environment.

The other job he’s taken on is student teacher observations for Dakota State University, as well as some South Dakota State University students.

These new jobs have reinforced in his mind how fast education evolves these days, “especially the facilities.”

This is visible in all the different options that can be considered for seating: low seating, high seating, comfortable seating and so on.

“They can kind of customize the classrooms to the students and what they’re used to,” DeGroot said. “They have all the modern technologies, too, and they need to have plenty of space to use it. Natural lighting, plenty of space, lots of hands-on learning activities: that’s all part of that 21st century learning environment.”

The Brookings School District has a wonderful reputation, and one that he was proud of when he was superintendent, DeGroot said. The same things that made the district excel have continued, and he wants to continue to help Brookings achieve its best.

“I want to help the board as we move forward on all these challenges to make sure that we keep Brookings in the spotlight and cutting edge,” DeGroot said, adding, “Whenever I took a job, I wanted to make sure it was better before I left. If I get on the school board, I hope that I can work with the other board members and administration and make it so it’s better than when I got on.”

There’s plenty of work for the school board, he knows.

In regard to Brookings students, he said, “We need to make sure our kids are well prepared for whatever they do after (high school). They can go into the military, build houses or go to college or a two-year school. But make sure they’re ready for that, and offer those students a very competitive curriculum within our state.”

The district also needs to be able to recruit and retain the best teachers, which is possible when there is a good salary and a safe and comfortable learning environment where they feel valued.

“I think those are some things I can be a part of,” DeGroot said.

Experience is needed to address the challenges the district is facing, and with more than 40 years of work in education, DeGroot said his knowledge of this district will come in handy.

“I think I bring a little bit of history back on the board with all my knowledge of the budget and the building projects,” DeGroot said.

And in his time as superintendent in Brookings and Lennox, he’s overseen his fair share of building projects, a handy thing as Brookings looks ahead to implementing about $50 million in building projects.

He sees the challenges as being in three categories: the physical side, the academic side and the fiscal side.

The physical challenges the district faces are those facility needs that the $50 million will work to address in the coming years.

“Then you have the academic side with things that are changing so much and rapidly,” he said. That includes new teaching techniques such as mass customized learning that come up.

There’s also the budget problems that have led the district to bring an opt out to a vote.

Opt outs, he said, are a necessary thing in this state with lackluster funding that fails to keep up with inflation. But even though it’s necessary, he said the process taken with this opt out hasn’t been right.

At issue is that there wasn’t time for informing the public and gaining their input before asking for approval of a 10-year, $5.1 million-maximum opt out.

“Two things were a mistake,” he said. “You didn’t go to the public and show them a need, and you just put a plan together and voted on it. That’s one mistake.

“The other mistake is it’s an extremely large opt out for our school district.”

He encouraged people to vote for him on April 10.

“I think I’m the right person at the right time. There are many challenges in front of the district administrators and the board, and I’m well suited to take on those challenges and work with the board and make sure we do what’s best for the district, parents, the community and the kids.”

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.