“The last four years I served on the board and I think we came along way – we spent a great deal of time reaching out to the community so they’re aware of the school’s issues and successes.”
On revenue…
“The reality is that every parent in our district is contributing – there is a capacity to reach out to alumni, but the reality is that it would be very little increase to the district… We need to look at things that we can provide, like a preschool program paid for by parents who have their children attend it. We could look at special education and bringing them back to the district if we could provide resources to them.”
On Common Core…
“I’m concerned about teachers being prepared to implement Common Core and also concerned about the technology that we have to support students as they take common core tests. I think there’s a lot of work we’ll have to do in a short amount of time. My other concern is that communities are so focused on test scores… it sets us up for a lot of criticism and judging and a lot of extra work because someone’s decided the sky is falling because of the scores. Common Core is a step in the right direction.”
On overcrowding…
“Right now we have what I would consider a temporary solution. We’ve installed portables… the problem is that enrollment keeps increasing and we’re running out of space to put kids. The reality is every child in the community has a right to the best education we can provide them; we need to look at permanent solutions. There’s a group of individuals investigating North School. It’s the only remaining asset the district has – we have to be focused on that for the near future to decide if that helps provide us with a long-term solution.”
On sustainability…
“Carbon neutrality is an awesome goal, unfortunately it’s not free. I think we can do little things to promote environmental stewardship within our schools like recycling and promoting walk to school programs… The reality is it’s very expensive; when we looked at the new modular classrooms we asked the question of can we look at structures that are green? But we would have been able to afford one structure – we needed six. Do you give up all those for one? You cannot do that. We have the opportunity when looking at a new school to take a look at priorities and if the priorities are towards carbon neutrality. The reality is we’re limited by the resources to be able to do it.”
