BETHALTO - Michael Kirby wants to give back to the community that gave so much to him.
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Kirby, one of nine candidates running for a seat on the Bethalto Community Unit School District #8 Board of Education, shared more about who he is and what he stands for. He noted that he always puts the kids first, and he has done a lot to contribute to the community. He wants to combine these ideals as a member of the school board.
“I feel I have an awful lot to offer, and I feel I can certainly make an impact upon the leadership of our school district,” Kirby said. “I want to be a part of that continued educational and social growth, and I want to do so while representing all the needs of our community and not just a select few.”
Kirby is “lifelong police officer/investigator.” He previously worked as a patrolman for the Bethalto Police Department, then transferred to the Alton Police Department, where he also served as a founding member of the Alton Boys and Girls Club.
Upon returning to Bethalto, he took a job as an investigator for local law firms and became involved in local community service. He joined the Bethalto Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors and previously served on the Policeman Benevolent and Protective Association Executive Board.
But his true “passion” is coaching, and he has volunteered for many years as a coach in the Bethalto district. He worked one-on-one with kids to build their skills and confidence.
“I’ve always been a fan of the children,” he said. “I always took a passion for the little guy, the underdog, and I focus more on getting a win inside of your heart than getting a win on the scoreboard.”
Kirby believes in serving his community. He remembers how the Bethalto community and school district rallied around his family when his dad needed a heart transplant in the 1980s, then considered an experimental procedure. They raised over $250,000 for his father’s surgery, which kept him alive for another two decades.
Now, Kirby wants to give back to the district. He explained that he is mostly concerned about accountability, and he wants to see more checks and balances within the schools.
“I am stressing accountability. I am stressing checks and balances, and I want to include just a common line of common sense amongst the implementation of those issues with accountability,” he said. “I hold tight to my own line of morality. I have a very, very strong backbone…There have been issues in the press in the last couple of years and in the public, where our upper-level administration as well as our school board has been involved in some very tough decisions and tough issues that they face, and in doing my research, I have found out that there’s a high disregard for the common sense application of checks and balances going on within our district.”
Kirby emphasized the importance of serving Bethalto, which he hopes to do as a member of the school board. He encourages people to consider voting for him during the consolidated election on April 1, 2025.
“I really feel I have some really good ideas, some really good plans that can put all of the problems of the past couple years and possibly before then to bed, put them to rest, find out the reasons, take care of the reasons, investigate it, deal with it, and then, more effectively, find out what it’s going to take to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he added. “People should vote for me if, number one, they have a heart for the children. My slogan is kids first. In our community, I always pull for the little guy.”
This is the third in a series of nine articles about the Bethalto Community Unit School District #8 Board of Education candidates.
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