By Raphael Maurice

For one school board member, Meridian is home, and that home is diverse and beautiful.

Kristin Kaufman, now in the first year of her second term as a board member in Meridian, has learned a good deal about what’s at stake when decisions are made that directly affect the school, the community, the parents, and the kids. Kaufman has three boys of her own: Cole, Nolan, and Zander, and they’ve all been a part of Meridian. Zander, her oldest, is the head painter at the body shop started by her husband, Brad. Cole, just about to turn 18, has played basketball for Meridian and plans on becoming a PE teacher, hopefully right here. 

And then there’s Nolan, who wants to attend Shawnee as well, but for welding. All three of Kristin’s kids have come up in this community, have seen it grow, and have been touched by decisions often made for and about the school. Kristin also knows what it’s like to have to make a decision, and she is clear headed about what the obligations of being a board member entail: “Sometimes we have to make hard decisions. And being from a small community, some of those decisions can impact a lot of the people that you have to make these decisions about, but  I want to give back to the community and to be somebody that can know the business side of things, so I thought of being on the school board. We still have to know some of the business side of things and help make those business decisions, too.”

It’s good decision making in part that is helping Meridian grow and flourish. Kristin Kaufman sees the fruits of her labor, as well as the work of others that continues to further the school and the community at large. She’s seen the positive changes around her, from school administration to the general growth in the community of Meridian. When asked about these positive changes around her, Kaufman notes, “We finally have administrators who want to stay. And they’re here to care about the kids. I think some in the past were just here just to say, ‘I'm a principal and I have a title,’ or check the box and move on to somewhere else. But I believe now they actually care. And they've actually gotten a lot of the teachers to come in, and they’ve recruited good teachers, and are able to work with the local college to bring in two more dual credit classes for the high school. It's growing.” It’s good to hear this from Kaufman, because she’s not only on the inside of decision making for the school; also, she’s savvy about business and, moreover, loves this place with her all.

While Kristin says there were naysayers regarding her decision to send her kids to Meridian, she knew what was best. Meridian is home to a vast array of folks from different walks of life, and learning that the world is beautifully defined by diversity was something important to Kaufman and her family: “A lot of people always doubted me, because I sent my kids to Meridian. But I love it. I love Meridian, because of the diversity around me. My kids and all the other kids, they're around different people, whether it's their race, their income, their religion. They're able to experience different people, how different people live, how different families cooperate with each other.”

Kristin Kaufman is grateful for the differences around her and her family. She knows that Meridian is preparing its own for the larger world out there, or to continue to prepare them to further and better this special place. Meridian, a supposedly anonymous cornfield school community, is a vibrant place for those who know it and live here; moreover, the greater community is preparing its kids for what lies beyond. Kaufman continues: “When you go out and you go get a job out of high school, or you go to college, you're around more diverse people, and all that. And so our kids have already experienced it here. It's not a big shocker, when they go out to these other communities and to their full time job, and they're able to communicate better with other people that aren't [exactly] like them.”

Whatever the immutable differences there are between us, between almost everyone, there is much more that we have in common than is often talked about. Friction and misunderstandings seem to vanish when we get to know one another, when we expand our sympathies and talk with, and listen to others. Kristin Kaufman, from her role at the family body shop to her role as a school board member, is making a difference here. Rather than flag up those differences between us, she celebrates them here in the community. “We all have our own opinions at the board meetings,” she says. “And it’s good we don’t all think the same.” Kaufman isn’t just saying this. She means it. And as Meridian continues to grow, it’s the harmony in diversity that will carry the day.