(Updated to correct date of election)

Five people hope they'll among those picked on Tuesday, May 3rd, to fill two seats on the Kalamazoo School Board. Veteran trustees Liz Henderson and Eric Breisach are not seeking new terms. Their replacements and the rest of the board will face a number of big challenges in the year ahead, as WMUK's Andy Robins reports:

Looming state budget cuts have cast a pall over school board elections around the state and Kalamazoo is not an exception. The Kalamazoo district stands to lose more than $11 million and possibly much more if Governor Rick Snyder's K-12 budget is approved by lawmakers. Kalamazoo School Board hopeful Demarra Gardner is an independent mental health care consultant and therapist. She says Kalamazoo will have to make hard decisions. But Gardner hopes to spare classroom programs as much as possible:

[Gardner] "Um, which is going to be really, really difficult because we've already talked about, um, and I've heard from attending the education forums that KPS has hosted that class sizes are going to be increased and services are going to be cut related to the arts and physical education and things of that nature. So, first and foremost, I would look at things that do not have a direct impact on students."

Gardner is the director and co-founder of the National Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools program. Fellow candidate Jennifer Pollard agrees that impending budget cuts will hurt the Kalamazoo Public Schools:

[Pollard] "Now we're down into the meat of things and that's why these cuts will be the most difficult. I think we need to look at consolidating some resources countywide if we can and that might be the next step we have to take. We need to look at everything that is non-instructional first. I know that has already been looked at but we need to look at it better with a more fine-tooth comb."

Pollard says she entered the race because she feels that it's important that at least some members of the school board have kids in school. The other three candidates running also say that the Kalamazoo School system will face major challenges finding ways to cope with reductions in state support. Jennie Hill says it's clear that KPS will have to cut its budget even further. However Hill says she would defer to those she calls the "experts" - the district's staff - to find the areas that could be trimmed. But despite the financial issues, Hill says the district must find ways to help students that go beyond the Kalamazoo Promise college scholarship program:

[Hill] "I think that we could do more to help them find the proper classes to take, to pin-point their interests, to prep them for life after high school as in, perhaps finding - I want everyone to be college-ready and able to fill out the college application. However, sometimes college isn't for everyone."

Hill is a registered nurse at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo and has been a volunteer in the school system for 15 years. Lissette Mira-Amaya has lived in the Kalamazoo area since the 1980's after leaving her native Nicaragua to study at Western Michigan University. She's a mental health professional in private practice. Mira-Amaya also says more should be done to help all KPS students take advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise. She says the district especially needs to focus on high drop-out rates among Latino and African-American students:

[Mira-Amaya] "It sounds like that may be something that costs money. But at the same time, it is costly not to have children graduate. That's really the cost to our communities: children who are not graduating and then, what happens to their lives? All kids should have the basic education to be able to successfully work and me a part of the greater community and be productive."

The fifth Kalamazoo School Board candidate has previous political exposure. Mark Totten ran, and lost, in the 2010 Democratic primary in the 20th State Senate District. The law professor at Michigan State University went on to work for Democrat Jocelyn Benson's unsuccessful run for Michigan Secretary of State. Totten says the budget cuts proposed in Lansing are five times larger than any previous reductions. With all the "low-hanging fruit" gone, he says none of the options to deal with that are easy. But Totten says he wants to set up a "Kalamazoo Partnership" including community and business leaders to help find solutions and guarantee access to the Kalamazoo Promise. Totten says his idea is modeled on the "Strive Together" project in Cincinnati:

[Totten] "They started this in 2006, a very similar program, and over the last five years they have seen their drop-out rate drop by 11 percent. They've seen the number of students locally who enroll in local colleges, uh, they've seen the graduation rate among those students increase by 10 percent: quite dramatic changes. And I think if there's any community that has the commitment to education and the resources to be able to come together in a deliberate, organized fashion to do that, it's this community."

Voters in the Kalamazoo School District will pick two candidates Tuesday, May 3rd, to serve two four-year terms on the Board of Education.