Matt Hall

Matt Hall
44 years old
Candidate for the Mason School Board
Website: Facebook site - Matt Hall for Mason School Board
Contact information: matthallMPSBOE@gmail.com
I have no party affiliation.
The FB page noted above is my candidacy’s only social media site.
1. Serving on the Mason School Board is an opportunity to give back to the Mason Schools and the
community. I have the skills, education, and experience required to ensure the BOE is successful
as it sets goals, policies and priorities for the Mason Schools. As an attorney, I have ample
training and experience to help facilitate the necessary conversations among and between
school administration and the community so that our students have an outstanding educational
experience.
2. I want to ensure that there are clear, consistent policies in place to guide Mason Public Schools
forward as well as promote transparency in the BOE and school administration processes.
3. There are nine candidates for the three open positions and each candidate has their own vision
for Mason. My vision is to build on recent successes, and Mason Public Schools have been
successful on a number of fronts. The Board of Education recently hired a new superintendent,
and this represents a great opportunity to revisit the school’s strategic plan and look to the
future.
4. Mason Schools have been fortunate to have qualified personal managing the budget for a
number of years. The BOE has helped guide those efforts by ensuring budget priorities are
supportive of a strong learning environment. If elected to the BOE, I will continue to advocate
for school administration to work with local elected officials on strengthening the school funding
process.
5. School Choice programs can be beneficial to individual families who utilize that program but I
have concerns that underfunded schools who suffer from those funding shortfalls will be stuck
in a negative cycle as additional funding leaves their District.
6. I do not support the voucher system. Adequately funded public schools are in the interest of the
state and thus the state should ensure that public dollars remain with public schools. Privately
operated schools are not the responsibility of the state.
7. Public schools funding should not be singularly tied to enrollment.
8. Multi part question

a. LGBTQ staff and students deserve a safe environment just like any other member of the
public school. I absolutely do not support school policies unfairly targeting those
individuals.
b. Public schools should ensure that the history curriculum is not limited to a single point
of view. A sound history curriculum is one that presents facts and provides students
opportunity to evaluate the situation from multiple perspectives.
c. A request to remove books or other publications from a public school shelf or library
should be based on, and evaluated by, the book in its entirety and not just a single
passage. There are well established legal tests on what is or is not considered to be
obscene and any such request should be evaluated by those established doctrines.
d. I do not support removal of materials that do not meet the legal definition of obscene.
e. I support the right of a concerned parent or guardian to challenge materials found in the
public schools and to request an evaluation of the appropriateness of that material.
That corresponding evaluation must be on the material in its entirety and not just on a
specific passage, and the evaluation must include the legal test for obscenity.

9. Multi part question
a. I did support the decisions taken by Mason Public Schools, which included a “shut
down” during the initial COVID responses. The Mason BOE was very clear that the Board
was following the recommendation of the Ingham County Health Department – who
was the appropriate decision maker in that instance – when those decisions were made.

b. A budget priority for me, if elected, is to ensure funding for support staff, including
counselors and in class paraprofessionals, to account for additional burdens on students
and staff associated with learning loss from COVID impacts.
c. Yes, I supported the decision to require face masks as part of a return to school
program. Again, the Mason BOE grounded this decision in the Ingham County Health
Departments recommendations, who was the appropriate entity to evaluate the
impacts of COVID transmission and the use of face masks in public schools.
d. I support the COVID vaccine as an effective mitigant to COVID impacts. The data is clear
that the vaccine can reduce impacts associated with a COVID infection.
e. I support the existing vaccination requirements in order to attend public schools. There
is clear data on the effectiveness of these vaccines in reducing significant communicable
diseases such as smallpox and polio. It is in the best interest of the Public Schools that
those diseases remain in check.
f. Public Schools need to evaluate their social and emotional well-being support programs
and make changes if they do not meet current standards. If elected, I will push for
continued funding for school counselors and support staff. Additionally, I will work to
ensure school staff have access to similar programs as students cannot thrive in an
environmental where staff are not emotionally healthy.

10. As noted above, ensuring strong counseling programs as well as social and emotional well being
programs will be a priority. Mason is beginning Series III of a three part bond initiative which,
among other important items, addresses secure entryways at buildings. Continued funding to
address security issues with the infrastructure will be a priority.
11. Multi part question
a. Yes. I trust the election process.

b. If I chose to pay for a recount I would stand by the results.
c. I do not believe Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election. Numerous audits,
recounts and litigation efforts support that result.
d. I do not believe there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election.
There has been no credible evidence of any such fraud.
e. I do not believe in such a claim. There has been no credible evidence of this claim.
f. I do not believe the events of January 6 th was appropriate or justified in any manner.
12. Multi part question
a. No.
b. No.
c. No.
d. No.
e. No.
f. No.
g. No.
h. No.
i. No.
j. No.
k. No.
l. No.
13. My qualifications for the Mason School Board are that I have been active in School and School
Board meetings and committees since 2017. I actively support my children’s involvement in
sports, robotics, Scouts and 4-H and FFA in the Mason community. I have filled a partial term on
the BOE for approximately one year now. I am an attorney and also hold a Professional
Engineering License in Michigan. I have 10+ years experience in representing my employer at
the local, state and federal level discussing new and changing policies, regulations and laws. My
personal involvement, combined with professional experience, education and training make me
an ideal candidate for the Mason Board of Education.