Bradley Elementary School District 61 Board seats new member

BRADLEY – A new member was sworn in to serve his first term on the Bradley Elementary School District 61 Board during a special meeting this past week.

Ryan Barrie ran unopposed for a four-year term in the April 1 consolidated election. He takes the place of Mary Fisher, who did not run for another term.

Fisher had been on the board for 10 years.

“It was hard to not rerun, but I had some work things going on, which didn’t end up happening, but it was too late to throw my hat back in the ring,” Fisher said at her last board meeting. “It’s time for somebody else to do it for a little bit. I travel for work, so I’m gone a lot. So it was just something that I unfortunately had to step aside. I’ll miss it. I do like doing it.”

Two longtime incumbents, Phil Trudeau and Mark Hasemeyer, also ran unopposed and retained their seats on the seven-member board.

During its reorganization meeting, the board voted to maintain its same officers, with Terrie Golwitzer as president, Trudeau as vice president and Dan Whalen as secretary.

Barrie, a commercial loan officer for Peoples Bank, has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America, the Knights of Columbus and other volunteer organizations. This is his first elected office.

He grew up in Bradley, attended Bradley schools and has two children currently attending the elementary district.

“I have a long time of working with the school on the personal side,” he said. “So I thought, why not see what I can do to help make the school even better for everybody else?”

Barrie said he wanted to be on the board because he believes in the importance of education as well as being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

He also wanted to give back to the schools that he felt had given a lot to him.

“I have kids in the school, and it’s my way of helping make sure all the kids succeed, not just my own,” he said. “I just want to make sure all the kids have a good educational background and can be good, positive people in society and make good citizens out of them.”

He said he hopes his financial background can be an asset to help the board make fiscally responsible decisions.

Additionally, Barrie noted that he is not afraid to ask questions to make sure things are being done correctly.

“If we can provide the same if not better education for the same cost to the taxpaying body, then that’s what we’d really like to do,” he said.