The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) Board of Trustees governs and sets policy for 3,000 employees and transportation and food service departments, athletics and more.
This November, three seats are contested and up for re-election. There’s one At-Large seat open, and two District 2 seats, held by Dave Hollingsworth and School Board President Mike Duckworth.
The other District Two candidates are Lindsey Patterson and Ken Colbert, who will be covered separately in an upcoming story.
Duckworth has served for 26 years, non-consecutively. He said he’s running again because he enjoys the work of this elected body.
“I think I've been around schools long enough to where I have a true understanding of what it takes,” he said. “The other thing that we do that I think is one of the most important things is we hire a superintendent, and when we hire a superintendent, we hire them to run the schools …”
The board hired Darla Hoover, who started July of 2025. Hoover was a longtime employee, serving as Chief of Schools and Instructional Core, and the first female superintendent.
If reelected, Duckworth wants to look at the EVSC bussing districts, and facilities and technology policies. He’s proud of the construction of the new footbridge over US-41 at Bosse High School, and work on athletics facilities.
“We have improved our facilities greatly, and that's a work in progress that we have to continue to do.”
David Hollingsworth is the other incumbent. Hollingsworth is a retired iron worker who also drove school buses part time. He’s seeking a third term at least partially — to keep enhancing his work on the PTA, where he serves as President.
“It gives me incredible range,” he said. “It gives me the ability to talk to people, any person, students, faculty, bus drivers, custodians, just about anyone, and I can go into any building.”
Hollingsworth said he and his spouse have won awards from the PTA. If re-elected, the former ironworker in him wants to focus on safety.
“Safety is extremely important; it's paramount to me. I want to see reading scores go up even higher. We've achieved some of our goals, and that's great. We need to get better.”
Both Hollingsworth and Duckworth are registered Republicans. Both opted to run as non-partisans to leave the politics out of the school board.
Mike Duckworth interview transcript
AI generated, from longer multi-topic interview; lightly edited
Timothy Jagielo: First of all, How many times have you run for the school board, how long have you been on the school board?
Mike Duckworth: Non-consecutive, I've been on 26 years. I've run, I believe, seven times, and one each time. I stepped off for two years to take a city position, and the mayor had asked me not to stay on.
Jagielo: Do you want to talk a little bit about your background? You talked about being a police officer.
Duckworth: I retired from the sheriff's department in 1997. I went to work for two United States senators, Senator Richard Lugar and Dan Coats. I was their local representative for a while. I was the director of transportation and services for the city of Evansville, and I worked as the water superintendent for a while. So, I've had a multitude of government positions, and don't get me wrong, I understand there's politics attached to that, and as I've said, I've not tried to hide the fact that I was the Republican chairman and a member of the Republican party, I just think it needs to be separated.
But in addition to that, I was the commissioner of Little League and worked in Little League baseball for 35 years, so I've worked around student-related issues for a long time in my life, and I feel like my heart's in the right place, and I will continue to do all I can to help the young people and the families of our community.
Jagielo: Why are you running again?
Duckworth: I'm running because number one, I enjoy it, I enjoy doing what I think helps the community with what expertise I have, and the years of experience, and in being on a board that governs and sets policy for, you know, 22,000 students and 3000 employees, and, you know, transportation department, a food service department, all kinds of athletics and arts, and I think I've been around schools long enough to where I have a true understanding of what it takes.
The other thing that we do that I think is one of the most important things is we hire a superintendent, and when we hire a superintendent, we hire them to run the schools — I'm not one that micromanages. I add my thoughts, my thinking on how things should go, but we hire that superintendent to do that. And then you should let them do it. If you think they've done something wrong, you meet with them and talk to them. If you don't, then you help them, and I think you help them any way that you can, but I really believe that it's a slippery slope, bringing politics into it, because what comes with politics, many times, not every time, but many times, are agendas, and we don't need far right or far left agenda on that school board, we need someone that cares about governing schools and making sure that it's the best school district possible that we can have, and that's what I've tried to do.
Jagielo: Do you have any priorities coming into this term?
Duckworth: We've tackled things like, of course, school safety, and that's a main priority, and working hand in hand with the city police and the county police, that's that's a high priority. I would also say, we are looking at our facilities, I think we do need to look at the possibility of redistricting and understanding what it means to relook at how our bussing takes place, you know. I'm not a proponent to put kids on a bus at 6o'clock in the morning when it's dark and bringing them back home at 5o'clock when it's dark. You know, I think that's that's dangerous.
I want to look at our technology policies. The governor just came out and made the decision for all of us to remove cell phones from the schools, and you know, I know they can be a distraction, but there are people that have other thoughts about that. I want to hear what those are, but you know, the state has dictated some of those things, so we would adhere to their policies and their conditions and their laws, but it's a number of things like that.
Now, locally, we've got things like our arts programs and our athletic programs, and we are being inundated with ideas and rulings from the state that we have to sift through to make sure that we remain, even though we're a corporation of 22,000 students and 3,000 employees, that we have a comfortable school, a school that's safe, a school that is based on academics and learning, and provides the best possible future for our students.
Jagielo: Do you want to mention any accomplishments that you're proud of from recent work?
Duckworth: Well, it took me 23 years, but I was a very adamant proponent of the overpass for the students at Bosse (High School), and it again, I don't want to double talk here, but it, that had a lot of politics involved with it, and but it was the right kind of politics, we had a Democratic city council that gave a million dollars, we had a Republican state administration that got heavily involved through INDOT, and so it was, it was political entities working together, that's the kind of politics we need, and that'll help students, that’ll help budgets more than just saying ‘I want to be on because I'm an R or a D, and I'm going to carry this this agenda.’
But in addition to the overpass at Bosse, I would say that our athletic facilities have been an accomplishment by turfing those, you know, we own Bosse Field, and and there's no secret out, but we're probably going to end up turfing it, so it can be a multi-use facility. We have improved our facilities greatly, and that's a work in progress that we have to continue to do. We're doing a study on that as well, because we want to make sure that we spend our dollars appropriately, so there's been a lot of changes, there's been changes in in superintendents, there's been changes in our approach to education and making sure our students can read by the by the third grade, and so there's just a lot of moving parts to it, and it takes serious, it takes people that care and that come to it with the right agenda, and I don't think that should be a political agenda.
Jagielo: (Starting this year) you have to choose Republican, Democrat, independent, or nonpartisan. Why did you choose to run as nonpartisan?
Duckworth: Well, I always have, and personally I'm going to go back to when there used to be an appointed school board, probably 30 years or so ago, and the community decided that they wanted to elect the members of the school board. Once they did that, it was not an appointment by a judge or a council or anything, it was whoever ran that qualified was voted on, and I like that concept, because our schools represent about a third of a billion dollar budget, and those taxpayer funds are very important, and I think that you need to be representative of your district and of your community, I think you need to have a history of working to and for the schools, and of course, I believe I have that.
Jagielo: One of the things that I guess were brought up is the idea of whether candidates can be independently-minded if they file with a party — do you feel there's a risk of them being less independent if they actually file with one of the parties?
Duckworth: Well, that depends on the candidate and the office holder themselves. But I will tell you this: in the event that you are elected with a political tag and you have to leave office, whether you are ill or you decide to move out of town, or whatever the case may be — the political party, the precinct committee people, select your replacement. If you are nonpartisan, then the school board, the school institution selects it and I think that's really the way it ought to be because those folks are more familiar with the workings of the schools, and I think that helps keep the politics out of it.
David Hollingsworth interview transcription
AI generated and lightly edited
Timothy Jagielo: tell me a little bit about yourself and why you're writing again.
David Hollingsworth: I'm a builder. I'm a grassroots kind of guy, a blue collar guy. I'm a retired ironworker, and I also got a job with EVSC driving a school bus, and I want to continue serving on the school board so that I can continue working with the PTA. The PTA can could do it. I could do PTA without a school board seat, but it gives me incredible range. It gives me the ability to talk to people, any person, students, faculty, bus drivers, custodians, just about anyone, and I can go into any building. So I got incredible range being a school board member, and in that way, I can serve the PTA on the PTA much better.
Jagielo: Do you want to tell me a little bit about your time on the board when you started and some of the things you accomplished?
Hollingsworth: Absolutely, I started on the board two terms ago. This would be my third term when I'm elected. The last two year two terms, I've been area council PTA president and vice president. My wife Janet and I have won the President's Award. We worked together on much of our PTA involvement, and I've been a member of 13 PTAs last year, and I'm sure I'll be somewhere around that this year, and I was the year before that, and the year before that.
Jagielo: do you want to talk about some of the things you've accomplished?
Hollingsworth: Sure. During that time, my wife and I, Janet, have won the president's award from the PTA. We've also won the lifetime. I've won the lifetime achievement award from the PTA, and I think that's maybe one of the the best things that I've done is that I've been able to reach out to parents and teachers and do those things that a school board member I think should be able to do and do.
Jagielo: Do you want to talk about your first priorities if you're reelected?
Hollingsworth: My first priority is safety. I was an iron worker. Those are the guys that walked the beams way up in the air, and I saw a lot of people get hurt due to lack of safety. Safety is extremely important; it's paramount to me. I want to see reading scores go up even higher. We've achieved some of our goals, and that's great. We need to get better, and we will. Some of the things that I'd like to also see get done is I'd like to keep doing the PTA work that I've done. The PTA is the largest child advocacy group in the United States. We are local here in Vanderburgh County. We are also state and we are also national. So we have a big range. We can talk to legislators. We can talk to congressmen, senators. I really like my PTA involvement.
Jagielo: So this this is a less slightly less contested spot. Still, they can choose two, and there are four candidates. Why should somebody vote for you?
Hollingsworth: Because I'm a hard worker, I'm honest, I'm sincere. I promise to work hard as I have in the past. will continue doing what I've done. My record speaks for itself. If you want to know what an incumbent's going to do, look at what they have done.
Jagielo: You're part of the Republican Party of Vanderburgh County.
Hollingsworth: I am a registered Republican. I lean Republican. That is correct.
Jagielo: So the question is just why not run as a Republican? Why choose to run non-partisan?
Hollingsworth: Well, first of all, and I'm going to say I'm sure you've heard this before — we need to keep politics out of our schools. What I am and who I am has got a lot to do with what I do every day. I believe in both parties. I think both parties have really good points, and I want to consider both of them. I don't want to be labeled Or laned into one party or another. I'll be loyal to the children, to the parents, to the teachers, to the bus drivers, the administrators, the bus attendants, the custodians, everybody.