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Stephen Hoofer
From Ballotpedia
This page was last updated during the official's most recent election or appointment. Please contact us with any updates.
Stephen Hoofer is an at-large member of the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township school board in Indiana. He assumed office on January 1, 2025. His current term ends on January 1, 2029.
Hoofer ran for election for an at-large seat of the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township school board in Indiana. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Hoofer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Stephen Hoofer was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He earned a high school diploma from South Spencer High School, a bachelor's degree from Purdue University in 1993, and a bachelor's degree from Crossroads Bible College in 2009. His career experience includes working in information technology.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Metropolitan School District of Pike Township, Indiana, elections (2024)
General election
General election for Metropolitan School District of Pike Township school board At-large (4 seats)
Incumbent Angela Barnes, Toni Wilson, incumbent Nichole Kelley, and Stephen Hoofer defeated incumbent Matt Hopp in the general election for Metropolitan School District of Pike Township school board At-large on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Angela Barnes (Nonpartisan)  | 24.3 | 17,919 |
| ✔ |  | Toni Wilson (Nonpartisan) | 22.6 | 16,668 |
| ✔ |  | Nichole Kelley (Nonpartisan) | 20.0 | 14,734 |
| ✔ |  | Stephen Hoofer (Nonpartisan) | 17.7 | 13,062 |
 | Matt Hopp (Nonpartisan) | 15.5 | 11,417 | |
| Total votes: 73,800 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hoofer in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Stephen Hoofer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hoofer's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My wife, Martie, and I have been married for 29 years. Martie taught at Guion Creek Middle School for over 10 years, and I have coached softball at Guion since 2018. Professionally, I have worked at Sallie Mae for 27 years and am currently a Director of Data Governance. We have 2 adult children who grew up in Pike, where we’ve lived for over 23 years.
- Every student should have the opportunity to be successful. This starts with smaller class sizes. Even if we can’t reduce the size of classes, we can make them effectively smaller by staffing and training additional Instructional Assistants. Staffing IA’s is much less expensive than staffing teachers, and with proper training, they can be extremely impactful to the success of our students. We also need to offer increased STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum. There are amazing job opportunities out there for our students, and it’s our responsibility to make sure they are prepared. Finally we need to continue to build our Career Center ensure we are giving our students every opportunity to be successful.
- We need to show our teachers they are valued. We’ve come a long way since the contentious negotiations of 2021, but we can still do more. Yes, we need to pay our teachers a competitive wage, at or near the top of our surrounding districts. But we also need to ensure teachers know they are appreciated. We need to hold school administrators accountable for treating teachers with respect and doing the little things to show they are appreciated. To identify issues early, we should work with a respected outside organization to survey our teachers the same way companies survey their employees. Then we need to act based on those results.
- We need to our parents are heard. I was a parent like many of you. I respected the professional teachers who poured into my kids, but I also wanted to be heard. We need to do a much better job of surveying our community to find out what concerns parents have. By better understanding concerns of the parents, we can ensure Pike is the choice for parents make for their child’s education.
1. School funding
2. Letting teachers teach without obstacles
2. Letting teachers teach without obstacles
I look up to my Dad. He is the hardest working and kindest person I've ever met. I can't imagine a better example to follow and strive to live up to.
The And Campaign
https://andcampaign.org/
Integrity. We've slowly seen this erode when it comes to our elected officials. Even if we disagree on issues and policy, we must operate with integrity so we can work together for the betterment of our community.
I am an extrovert and love talking to people. I also have a pretty even personality and don't get worked up easily. I think these 2 traits will serve me well and allow me to hear from people in the community, even if they are upset about something.
I also am very analytically minded. I don't make decisions based on emotion, I want facts. If I ever don't believe I've been given enough facts to make an informed decision, I will push back and request more data until I am comfortable.
I also am very analytically minded. I don't make decisions based on emotion, I want facts. If I ever don't believe I've been given enough facts to make an informed decision, I will push back and request more data until I am comfortable.
The school board is responsible for policy. School board members are not the administrators of the school. We must put in place good policies that sets our administrators, teachers, and students up for success.
I also believe school board members are responsible for representing the school system well. Whether someone stops us to talk at a football game, back to school night, or in the grocery store, we owe it to the community to listen and represent our school with dignity.
I also believe school board members are responsible for representing the school system well. Whether someone stops us to talk at a football game, back to school night, or in the grocery store, we owe it to the community to listen and represent our school with dignity.
I would like to leave a legacy at Pike Schools as someone who loved the students, teachers, and entire Pike community and made every decision to enhance the educational opportunities and success for every student.
I remember my fourth grade math teacher walking into class to tell us President Reagan had been shot.
My first job was mowing lawns in the small town where I grew up from middle school through most of high school.
Colin Powell's Autobiography, "My American Journey." I think it should be required reading for anyone in leadership.
Bobby McFerrin's, "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
It came up in a playlist while my wife and I were driving around and now I can't get it out of my head.
It came up in a playlist while my wife and I were driving around and now I can't get it out of my head.
I've always been overly critical of myself. When I was younger, this often caused me to doubt myself and as a result, I probably missed out on some good opportunities. I'm still self critical, but I don't allow it to hold me back like it once did.
The primary job is setting policy that enables the administrators, teachers, and students to be safe and successful.
Every person living in MSD Pike Township.
The most beautiful thing about Pike Township is its diversity, which encompasses every metric by which diversity is measured: race, ethnicity, wealth, citizenship, and immigrant status.
The first way I would support the diverse needs in Pike is by recognizing them and letting them inform every decision I make. I would ensure the budget allows adequate funding for teaching our ELL students and our Special Education population. I will vote for curriculum that does not shy away from our past and shows how our future is stronger when we work together. When someone comes to me with a concern from perspective different than mine, I will listen to understand their perspective and ensure their needs are being met.
The first way I would support the diverse needs in Pike is by recognizing them and letting them inform every decision I make. I would ensure the budget allows adequate funding for teaching our ELL students and our Special Education population. I will vote for curriculum that does not shy away from our past and shows how our future is stronger when we work together. When someone comes to me with a concern from perspective different than mine, I will listen to understand their perspective and ensure their needs are being met.
First, I will keep my website up and monitor my email regularly, always responding to every email I receive.
As for organizations, I will work with the Pike Classroom Teachers' Association and the Pike Parent Network. I would also love to attend HOA meetings, and I would love to find a way to get plugged into the apartment complexes in Pike.
Good teaching pushes, and it knows how far to push each individual student. But good teaching does more than that. Good teaching has a snack available for students who don't have adequate food at home. Good teaching sits with a student and listens to their struggles and offers advice from a different perspective. Good teaching is sometimes that teacher you didn't like when you were in their class, but years later you see the value they added to your life. Good teaching is almost never designed by politicians.
As for measurement, we have to depend on test scores as a significant metric. But, I would love to see us do anonymous surveys of students at various points through out the year and then at the end of each semester. I would love to see how students rate their teachers, especially by the end of their time in the class. This wouldn't be something to tie to a teacher's salary, but I do I think we could learn a lot from this data.
As for measurement, we have to depend on test scores as a significant metric. But, I would love to see us do anonymous surveys of students at various points through out the year and then at the end of each semester. I would love to see how students rate their teachers, especially by the end of their time in the class. This wouldn't be something to tie to a teacher's salary, but I do I think we could learn a lot from this data.
We can always expand our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) curriculum. Certainly learning how to utilize and how to teach AI responsibly will be very important.
I also think we need to recognize college is not the right answer for every student. I will always support expanding our Career Center to give students more opportunities to learn skill they can take into the workforce.
I also think we need to recognize college is not the right answer for every student. I will always support expanding our Career Center to give students more opportunities to learn skill they can take into the workforce.
Pike just passed a referendum, which was crucial for ensuring adequate funding. The State of Indiana keeps doing everything it can to funnel money away from public schools, and particularly urban public schools. The laws around school funding are complex, and additional funding streams are limited. One of the best things we can do is educate our communities on the realities of school funding and let that be part of the decision making process when they cast their votes for other elected officials around the state.
Our kids deserve the right to feel safe at school. Students also deserve to go to school without passing a security check point every morning. Finally, teachers are teachers, not trained law enforcement officers.
First, we need to ensure we have well trained counselors available on-site. We also need to encourage our faculty and staff to take the vacation and sick time they have earned. Teachers are notorious for not taking days off, mostly because of a lack of substitute teachers. We need to do everything possible to ensure our teachers can take a vacation day without feeling like they are abandoning their students or putting an extra burden on the other teachers in the school.
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogie in it.
We need to work with educators to develop solid policies on when and how students and educators can use AI.
My ideal learning environment is one designed to meet the individual needs of the students. When my wife was a teacher at Pike, we built her classroom with flexible, alternative seating. We added lamps and made it a comfortable place for students to read and write. Some subjects don't lend themselves to that level of flexibility, but the teachers can still work to find a way to meet the individual needs of the students.
I honestly think the school board handled it very well. I did not envy the school board members who were having to make decisions unlike any that had been made before. Obviously when looking back, it is easy to see some decisions could have been different, but the school system was operating with the knowledge they had at the time, not the knowledge we now have 4 years later.
The one thing I do think could have been handled better would have been to treat our teachers as professionals and not require them to come into the classroom to teach their students remotely. That sent the wrong message to our teachers, and it's a message we need to never send again.
The one thing I do think could have been handled better would have been to treat our teachers as professionals and not require them to come into the classroom to teach their students remotely. That sent the wrong message to our teachers, and it's a message we need to never send again.
To start with, I already have a great relationship with the head of the Pike Parent Network. I will continue to work with her to stay available to our parents. In addition to this, my email will be public, and I promise to always respond. I plan on being at as many events, including school open houses, as possible. I'm an extrovert, so meeting people is something I enjoy I will also be open to ideas I haven't thought of yet that would allow me to build relationships with parents.
My preferred strategy is build from within. We need to be pouring into our current staff to ensure they are ready for the next role and step up that is available. I also want to see us target Pike grads who are pursuing education as a career. Finally, when we exhaust those avenues, then let's go get the best talent out there and show them why they should call Pike home.
It is critical to be transparent with all government spending. The public entrusts us with their tax dollars, and they have a right to know how those dollars are being spent. The government should absolutely be held accountable for how finances are handled.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Metropolitan School District of Pike Township school board At-large |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 19, 2024
