Hamilton Southeastern Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Kegley used Wednesday night’s school board meeting to thank the volunteers behind the district’s successful funding referendum. Voters approved it with 58% of the vote.
Kegley singled out Laura Cole, who chaired the Advance HSE political action committee, along with the committee chairs she recruited over the summer.
Kegley said he contacted Cole because she had been active in the district’s 2023 referendum effort.
“She came into my office, and she sat down, and anyone that knows Laura won’t be shocked. She said, ‘What do you need from me?’” Kegley said. “I knew I was in.”
Cole agreed to lead the PAC. During public comment at the board’s June meeting, she asked members to put the question on the ballot and assured them the community would rally behind it.
“As usual, she was not wrong,” Kegley said. “Our community has always come alongside our schools.”
Kegley said the result was no accident. He credited Cole and the team she built, as well as the volunteers who made calls, knocked on doors, wrote postcards and worked the polls. He also noted that many volunteers’ spouses deserved recognition alongside them.
“This team showed up, and the volunteers that followed showed up in a big way,” Kegley said.
He thanked them on behalf of the district’s employees, the community and its students. He closed with a joke: with any luck, the district won’t have to talk about referendums for a while, hopefully 8 years.
Cole told the board she sent out a call for help right after Kegley asked her to lead the effort. She reached her own network and people well beyond it.
“There’s Republicans, there’s Democrats, there’s parents, there’s grandparents, there’s retired teachers, there are school board candidates,” Cole said. “There are so many people that just showed up because they knew how important this funding was.”
She called the campaign a chance to build bridges in the community.
“I hope that this really helps us to move forward as a community and that we all just see how good we can be and how much good we can do when we all work together,” Cole said.
Cole said one of the things she appreciated most was the support from this fall’s school board candidates. The PAC could not help their campaigns in any way, but all but two of the candidates still pitched in. They staffed tables, worked football games, handed out flyers, donated or came to events.
“I just think it’s really incredible what they did,” Cole said. She noted that some of those candidates were at the meeting.
Cole called the campaign “a herculean effort.” She said she hopes the district won’t need another referendum for eight years, when her own children will be out of school. But she made a promise to the board.
“You have my yes vote in eight years if we have to do that,” Cole said. She added that she hopes the community can now turn its attention to coming together and doing what is best for the district’s teachers and students.