I thought the Times article was going to be helpful to our campaign. The Times had a candidate questionnaire with four questions that we both answered. Here are my answers (Lisa) This took me quite some time to do. Almost NONE of this comes across in the article that was published today. So, hopefully, there are enough of you who know the truth. 1. What would you do to ensure students are college- or career-ready when they graduate? GPS needs to send the message that academic success is of utmost importance. Qualified licensed building administrators need to be hired and retained at each level to promote continuity, something GPS has had little of. The administrators need to stick around long enough to get to really know the kids and build up programs. No more” interim” positions pulling people out of retirement for anything—we need to improve climate/morale-nothing will be better for our students! Then and only then will any programs be meaningful and have lasting success. 2. What are the most pressing capital needs facing your school district? When Franklin was closed, the money saved was supposed to go to improving &/or expanding Ready and Wadsworth Elementary. Those improvements were never made and now those schools are feeling the pinch. There is overcrowding of classrooms to deal with. 3. Are there any programs you would try to drop or add? Griffith Public Schools should join the Northwest Indiana Literacy Coalition and Books to Bridge the Region and join in the annual “Time Out for Reading” literacy promotion The current advocacy program at the high school is well-intentioned but seems thrown together and lacking in focus. It needs to be tweaked. One program, well, not so much a program as steps-to-success that GPS needs is a coordinated curriculum k through 12. I would make sure that this was a priority. 4. What would you do to control costs for parents? First, turnover is very costly for a school corporation. We need to make teachers and administrators feel valued and improve communication so as to stop the high turnover rate. GPS should not be a stepping stone for employees to move on. Once upon a time, educators hired in at Griffith would stay until retirement. It needs to get back to that way again. Second, top the wasteful spending in places that do not help the students. When a school’s ranking declines under the leadership of interim principals who are there for a brief period out of retirement, it’s time to ask why the money hasn’t been spent on recruiters seeking qualified, motivated, licensed individuals instead of paying tuition reimbursement for the superintendent and an entirely inopportune time. That doesn’t make sense to do once, but even less sense to do twice when another school’s ranking declines, again with an interim principal, then the taxpayers once again pay for tuition reimbursement for the director of curriculum and instruction. This is wasteful spending that is not a good return on investment. School board members should look at the best allocation of monies to best improve the school. A school with a higher ranking with the state will improve parents’ and the community’s property values. Third, an overall plan needs to be in place. School board members should all be on board with the plan and question anything that deviates from it. If the plan was to switch the field to artificial turf, then why replace the irrigation system that would eventually need to be torn out in a few short years?
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 16:27:47 +0000