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 What's your position on the proposed referendum?I'm in favor of keeping our schools funded adequately and educating our children. That said, Question 1 simply is a "Do-Over"-maintaining funding levels where they were prior to the latest budget reduction done by the state. A 2.9% increase for 2 years vs 6.9% inflation is insufficient revenue to maintain current class sizes. For example, last year I wrote a check to the state for $2,157 for school taxes. The state in turn wrote a check to District 833 for $309 for the 1998 referendum to reduce class sizes. This year I'll write a check for $1104 for school taxes, but the state won't be sending any 1998 referendum monies. To keep things the same as before I'd write an additional check for $309. (estimates based on $250,00 tax value of a home)- My total school tax would be only $1413 vs $2157. Question 2 is additional funding at the school site itself-designated for additional class size reductions and/or individual student attention and remedial help. IF the district has measures in place to see a return on this investment then I am willing to support it. If not, we should return it to the taxpayer. What issue concerns you the most?How do we educate our children without destroying the family budget? No parent or teacher wants to have their student do without, but can we afford everything? Being able to balance the needs of a society for educating the next generation within the realities of our own budgets is critical. How do we balance a high school system geared towards college preparation with students who might want to be mechanics, paralegals, restaurant managers or police officers? How do you feel about standardized testing and holding teachers accountable for the results?Testing gives us a benchmark but may not be an indicator of learning if all efforts are aimed at passing the tests. We can learn from the private sector that performance based incentives get results. I support the guidelines pushed forward by President Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" education initiative: · (1) accountability for results; (2) local control and flexibility; (3) expanded parental choice; and (4) effective and successful programs. How would you address K-12 funding?Open book management where everyone can see what is mandated by the government vs desired by the community. If we want to keep our property values increasing but tax burden low we must get the most bang for our buck and test scores high- We need to attract commercial real estate to help broaden our tax base and keep up w/ inflation. I strongly oppose un-funded mandates. Discuss your platform of Performance, Personal Responsibility and Family Budgets First.Performance means well crafted and thoughtful standards that explain in plain language exactly what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each grade. They should set clear expectations so that teachers, parents, and communities can all understand what should occur in the classroom. Families can and must participate in setting these standards. Once they are in place, families should ask their children's schools to lay out clearly what the standards are and what each child should be learning. Personal responsibility means that as individuals one must live by a personal code of conduct. Parents must take responsibility that the student is not solely educated at school and learning continues in the home. Students need to respect their teachers and each other and give their best effort, not just get by. Teachers need to demand excellence from their students and parents. Families should encourage and challenge children to learn more every day. If a child fails at a task, don't make excuses-make a plan for accomplishing the task and work toward it together. Insist on high standards from your child, your child's school, and yourself. Family budgets first simply states that the more spending the school districts require, the less money families will have to spend on their own priorities. A board member needs to remember that District 833 has little commercial real estate to soften the impact on homeowners. What do you think about School Uniforms?As I understand the site based management system for the district, it's up to each individual school to make that decision. If it would improve the performance of my children in school then I would wholeheartedly support it. What do you think about 4 period high school?According to the site surveys of Park and Woodbury HS, upwards of 80% of the respondents are in favor of the 4 period day. However, there has to be some consistency and repetition for certain subjects like math, languages and music. It does a student no good to get his language requirement completed by his sophomore or mid junior year and then be expected to pass a competency exam for college 18 months later. I think we need to challenge the principals to devise a way to "split" a period so that a student can take Spanish and band along with 3 periods of core courses. What's your position regarding costly programs like Reading Recovery?Let's go back to the core platform- Performance and personal responsibility. If we are regularly testing students using the latest science based methods, then we should be able to identify and help those students who aren't up to state standards. Being able to catch and correct the problem early not only allows the student the chance to keep pace with his peers but also allows the regular teacher to not neglect the rest of the class. It's likely that the cost of making sure no child is left behind by the third grade is a good return for the community, but you have to balance that with the issue of evaluating teacher performance. One would think that the more teachers improve, the need for more spending on these recovery programs would diminish, allowing for improved pay and benefits for the teachers. What's your position on school transportation?Is it the district's responsibility to get students to school? In today's mobile society it's all a factor of cost, safety and convenience. It's the parent's personal responsibility to make sure the student gets to and from school. Families need to be given the choice of whether to pay for the convenience and security of bus transportation or not. Thanks for visiting. Drew McMillen  Authorized by Friends of Drew McMillen |
