GREENFIELD – A political newcomer with three young kids in the Greenfield-Central schools is looking to gain a seat on the school board in next months’ general election.
Laurene Lonnemann said she’s been pondering running for a school board seat for about 10 years, ever since her oldest child was a baby.
She’s running against two-term board member Dan Brown for an at-large seat, in the only contested school board race in the district.
“I’m not running because I think anything is broken. I’m running because I want to be a part of continuing to move things forward,” said Lonnemann, who works as a marketing specialist for Elanco in Greenfield.
She said started attending the district’s school board meetings when her youngest child started kindergarten to stay informed on what’s happening in the local schools.
“I just wanted to get a better understanding of how it was run and what goes on. I usually stayed quiet and just listened, but I was surprised that there weren’t other parents there,” she said.
Her son Murray is now a fifth grader at Greenfield Intermediate School while her daughters Suzanne, a second grader, and Lucille, a kindergartner, attend Harris Elementary School.
Her husband Joe Lonnemann is a commercial real estate broker.
Lonnemann said she and her husband have both been impressed with their children’s experience in the Greenfield-Central schools.
“I‘m just thoroughly impressed with our educators and our school corporation and the way that we handle our students and take care of our kids, and I want to be part of that. I think that’s part of our job as community members, to do the work and show up,” she said.
Lonnemann said she first moved to Greenfield 18 years ago for a job, and quickly embraced the city as her home.
“I feel like I connect with a lot of people and a lot of different faces in our community, and the purpose of school board members is to represent that community. I feel like I have a good ability to represent the network that I’ve built within our community,” she said.
Lonnemann said she’s been waiting for the right time to run for the school board, and she feels that time is now.
She first applied to join the school board in 2021 when the board was seeking a replacement for longtime board member Kathy Dowling, who passed away mid-way through her third term after devoting much of her career to teaching and coaching in the Greenfield schools.
Lonnemann said she has the utmost respect for the board selecting Dr. Lori Weaver to fill that spot.
She’s hopeful that this year’s election will prove to be the right time for her to join the board.
Monday night, she and her husband spent “date night” putting up campaign signs throughout the city.
If elected, she hopes to help move the school board towards continued success by instilling a love of learning in students.
“Education isn’t about the stuff they learn but rather about teaching them to love learning,” she said.
Lonnemann’s opponent – Dan Brown – won a seat on the board in 2016 and has served as school board president since 2019.
Brown said he decided to run in 2016 “because I truly wanted the best for our kids, teachers, administration and our community.”
Since joining the board, Brown feels like he’s been able to help make a number of improvements like bumping up teacher pay, increasing the number of School Resource Officers and updating school facilities, like the addition of the high school’s new performing arts center.
“All of these accomplishments took a team of individuals that all work well and hard to get all this done. I’m happy to be a part of that team,” he said.
