School board candidates attend LWV forum

Published 5:22 pm Wednesday, May 2, 2007

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Five of six Dowagiac Board of Education candidates participated Tuesday night in the League of Women Voters forum in the Union High School media center.
At stake May 8 are two four-year terms and the remainder of Greg Ferrier's school board seat through June 30, 2009.
Michelle Charles, 37, of 57250 Wilbur Hill Road, was appointed in October and squares off against former mayoral candidate Howard Hall, 45, of 207 W. Division St.
Incumbents President Randy Cuthbert, 54, of 54501 Griffis Road, Cassopolis, and Vice President Sherry File, 50, of 57808 M-62 West, Cassopolis, are challenged by Tonia (Allard) Hoy, 23, of 307 New York Ave., and William Leonard, 43, of 405 Green St.
Leonard, who did not attend the forum, finished third in 2005 behind Ferrier and Susan Miller.
Ferrier had been appointed to the seat after seven-year member Tina Haggin moved to Grand Blanc.
File was first appointed to the board in October 1998 to finish Robert Cripe's term.
Cuthbert, seeking his fourth term, joined the school board in 1995 and has been president since 1998.
He and his wife, Debbie, have three grown children.
His nephew, Andrew, is co-valedictorian of the Class of 2007 with Michael Kasper.
Cuthbert graduated from Eau Claire High School and obtained an electronic technician degree from United Electronic Institute in Grand Rapids.
"I used it two years," he said, "but I loved farming, which I've been doing since '73."
Besides raising hogs and corn, he's a businessman.
"We're going through rougher times now," he said in his two-minute closing summation. "It was a privilege to work with the community and get the new middle school millage passed" in November 2001. "The board has worked together with the administration to do positive things for our students. That's the biggest reason I want to stay. I think the most important thing are the kids in our district and doing whatever's best for them. I don't like to cut people's jobs, but when 85 percent of your budget is salaries and benefits and the state cuts your income, you've got to look at employees. That's the hardest part. Unless you've got a growing enrollment – and we have not. Our biggest problem is the Legislature not funding public education. I think I have the knowledge and ability to help the district through these economic times."
Hall said he attended Benton Harbor High School and studied recreation at Ferris State University. "I have a long history of working with at-risk youth. I'm a summer camp director. I also do leadership training and team building with schools and corporate groups, playing games to improve communication skills. I also do an anti-bullying program. I decided to run for school board because I think they need more people who actually have children in the district." He has a son and a daughter.
Hall said, "One thing the school district has done, time and time again, is to continue to say state funding has gone down. But according to their boundary study, while state funding is down, property tax revenue from local sources was higher in 2006. I'm sure you've heard there's going to be a $125 cut per child next year. That's speculation. Our governor's trying to get a little leeway to get a budget passed. They're already planning on money not being here that they don't know if it's going to be here or not. We really won't know until a budget passes in Lansing."
The Candy Corner owner said to suggestions that the community needs to get more involved in school board, "Dowagiac residents don't feel comfortable coming to meetings because things happen so fast they don't know what's going on. I requested a copy of your packet to be left out in the open and they refused. In fact, they hired an attorney to see that it wasn't. You're not going to get attendance and people to get involved if you keep all this information hidden. When I win this seat, it's going to be open. You can't ask questions if you don't know what they're doing."
Charles, a Dowagiac graduate, attended Southwestern Michigan College and attained early childhood certification. The mother of four runs Lighthouse Christian Childcare Center, serving 75 families. Three attend school in the system, with one yet to start.
"I love that Dowagiac is small and everybody knows everybody. That is a drawback in some things because they know every negative, too," she said. "I've been on the board four months, so I'm a rookie. I have not been involved in planning the harder decisions. I thought I was just going to come be a voice as a mom and a pro-active community member who could help the system go in some different areas. I'm a real advocate for customer service. Sometimes I felt lost as a parent, not knowing which avenue to go if I needed information or was unhappy with a certain issue. That was my goal – making that knowledge available to everybody. I've enjoyed it. I've also not liked it. There have been some tough issues."
"I decided to get involved to actually have the knowledge of what is going on in my schools and in my children's classes," Charles said. "You can have a voice, but unless you're willing to do something about it, it doesn't do a whole lot of good. I'm learned a lot – very slowly – because there's a lot to learn, but I'm excited about the opportunity to continue."
Hoy, a mother of five, has a preschooler in the system. Her mother is a bus driver. She attended school in Dowagiac and "I love this system. It's fantastic. The teachers are wonderful. My goals are to look at all aspects of the budgeting. I think closing down a school will help get us by for a little time until contracts run out on administrators, then cut there."
Hoy attends Brown Mackie College, studying criminal justice to become a paralegal.
"I don't believe the school board is open whatsoever," Hoy said. "I believe it is kept secret. If I'm elected, when someone has a question, I will find the answer. Everybody has a right to know where your tax dollars that you have earned are going … or if somebody has a cell phone who should not and it's getting paid by our tax dollars."
"I want to get the community, parents and employees more involved in our school board," Hoy said.
File attended Edwardsburg High School, Kalamazoo College and graduated from the University of Michigan. The registered nurse obtained her master's degree from Indiana University in Indianapolis as a nurse practitioner. She specializes in hematology oncology at Oncology Care Associates in St. Joseph.
"I want to run again," File said, "because I feel it's important to have some continuity. Board governance is just starting to happen and I'd like to see that through to help the board remain accountable for what it does."
File has a son at Hillsdale College, a son who is graduating and a daughter who will be a junior.
"There's a learning curve that's involved" in school board service, File knows. "There's a lot of information to learn about how the board works. One thing I found is that the board itself doesn't have goals. Goals are set for teachers and administrators. I think it's important for the board to develop goals and to communicate to the public what those goals are, and then to have a way to measure. I think some people perceive that it's a closed system, but in actuality it's not so much that it's a closed system" as citizens are uncertain about how to access information they desire.
"Board governance policies would improve parent and student – customer – satisfaction," File said.
Q. Do you support privatization of custodians, food service personnel and bus drivers, and why? How would you save money for the school system by doing something other than privatization?
Charles: "I am not for privatizing and people in our community losing jobs. On the other hand, I'm not for running a deficit budget. My position is we're in negotiations and if we can come to positive terms, no, we wouldn't privatize. I definitely don't want to privatize buses at all. The food system's already privatized. As far as custodians, I'm listening to the options. I haven't said yes, I haven't said no. My hopes are we don't have to, but I don't know.
Hoy: "No, I'm not for privatization. I do believe that budgeting should start at the top, where there's more money available for salaries."
File: "The board is looking at every aspect of how to save money. Ideally, privatization wouldn't occur. I don't think anybody on the board really wants to do that. However, we do need to look at every aspect, the whole picture. I hope from negotiations there can be an agreement so that we don't have to privatize. That remains to be seen."
Cuthbert: "I've never wanted privatization, but the last four years the district has faced a deficit budget. The board a year ago directed the administration that we wanted a balanced budget in two years. To do that, we have to look at every avenue, and one of the avenues is privatization. We do know what we can save, plus we have teachers retiring we won't be replacing. We've reduced two administrators in the last several years – one principal (Lincoln) and one in the central office, so we have been cutting all different areas. I don't want to privatize, but we might be forced to."
Hall: "Absolutely not. There are many other ways money can be saved. Health care. The average administrator makes over $90,000 a year. They're talking about privatizing custodians. Five of the eight schools, the expense for a custodian is $27,000. How much money are you going to save by prioritizing? Unless people can see what the proposals are and compare them to what they're spending now, we don't have any idea. If you have to pay $267 to keep track of where your tax dollars are going and to see if privatization is good, that's not the way to go."
Q. In this day of schools of choice, home schooling, charter schools and parochial schools, what do you think should be done to promote the Dowagiac Union School District?
Hoy: "Better board members would help show our district cares. Most people I know who went to home schooling had a problem with our system. I think the problem is somebody is not listening to what their problem is. I don't want people to leave our district."
File: "To promote schools of choice, have buildings that are attractive and in working order. That's one of the reasons we pushed to have a new middle school built" that opened in the fall of 2005. "Curriculum, of course, is very important and we do updates regularly to make sure we're teaching children things they need to be taught, according to what the state is telling us, then to make sure students are learning as demonstrated through scores. It's important to have the data and to analyze the data so people looking at coming into the district will have that information available to them. It's important that we focus on public relations within our community to help parents and students feel this is a place that's going to work with them to achieve the best education that they can."
Cuthbert: "It's a lot different than when we went to school. We didn't have that choice. If you lived in Dowagiac, you went to Dowagiac schools. We are responsible to the citizens of the district to provide their students a good education. That is what the majority of parents are looking for when they look at schools of choice – what another school system has to offer that their system doesn't have. Our goal as a district has been to present ourself as a positive district providing the services our community wants. We thought the new middle school would help a lot by showing neighboring districts that Dowagiac takes education seriously."
Hall: "Dowagiac is actually speaking for itself. I'm very pleased with the education that both my children have gotten. The boundary study said to make Dowagiac better, collaborate with the community. All stakeholders must be given the opportunity for input. Bring together parents, the Board of Education, students, the community at large and the staff. Right now, those things are not being done. All the decisions are being made by the administration and the school board. The boundary study gave fantastic advice. If it's followed, I think you will see Dowagiac's enrollment grow. The key thing is you have to bring everyone together."
Charles: "This is one of the areas I have been most interested in – customer satisfaction. I feel our community and our parents don't strive for knowledge of what is going on in the school district. Since I've been on the board I've been to two work sessions that were made available through newsletters and the media. I was quite shocked at the lack of participation. To make available the information and knowledge of what is out there I think is one of our biggest areas. You get dissatisfaction, but not how to fix it. That goes along with Sherry's board governance. There should be policies and procedures when I'm unhappy of what do I do? When people are looking at other schools, I think it's because they're unhappy and they don't know how to fix their problem. If we can validate concerns, we'll have a happier district and happier employees."
Q. Do you think Dowagiac schools have an adequate security plan in place? And does the district have or need a program designed to reduce bullying behavior?
File: "The administration worked hard on developing that. Acute events have brought this problem into the limelight, so every school district has developed policies and procedures. Last year we partnered with a school on the other side of the state which had a program to help mentor kids against bullying. It was a very successful day, according to the students involved. That's just one of many."
Cuthbert: "Tragedies have forced school districts to look at those seriously. We have taken lots of steps and have procedures in place. The district has for several years had in-services with teachers on how to react to bullying."
Hall: "I'm not privy to information on security, but as far as natural disasters, Dowagiac schools have been fortunate to get the SERT (Student Emergency Response Team) program involved, so we have many high school students trained to handle emergencies. They know how to give first aid and how to rescue people in a smoky environment. I see the new junior high as a safety issue. There's one way in and one way out. In the future, I'd like to see the second road added. As for bullying, I went to a conference in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and learned about a 24-hour curriculum from the Tiger Woods Foundation. They do community service, which it's important for students to put back into their communities. They can ask for a $5,000 grant for summer camp or to buy a new instrument."
Charles: "I know when I try to go to schools, there's only one door unlocked. I feel comfortable with that. They have come home with bullying programs, but I won't be 100-percent satisfied unless it's gone. My position is that we continue to always look for ways to improve the bullying situation because it's still there. It's not gone. It's recognized and people are aware of it and addressing it. I think it's wonderful that we're not ignoring it, but safety is still a major issue that needs to be addressed. My second grader was excited about the lockdown they did, so I knew it was done in a way that was safe and comfortable and not scary. I was happy about that." She shares Hall's concern about access to Dowagiac Middle School. "I have a seventh grader there and I would feel very frantic if I couldn't get out to him. I think that road should be a top priority."
Hoy: "Besides all doors being locked but one, there are security cameras. I would like to know what else we're doing, but I don't know because I haven't had an opportunity to review the documents the board or administrators have. Thank goodness, I haven't had to experience bullying yet. My son's only in preschool."
Q. What are your views on utilization of district schools presently and what, if any, changes would you recommend?
"What we're looking at here," moderator Charlotte Omohundro said, "is the need to close one of the four elementaries if you have declining enrollment."
Cuthbert: "We're currently in the process of the boundary study. It started last fall. We involved community members, parents, board members, teachers and staff and we're looking at the whole district to see where we could save some money as far as closing an elementary building. No decision has been made. if we can better utilize the buildings we've got by closing one, then that would be one area we'll probably be looking at a year from now."
Hall: "Enrollment is down, but not as much as you might think. Between '05-'06 and '06-'07, eight schools gained students. Total enrollment is down less than 50 from last year. From there on out, they're just speculating. A chart in the boundary study shows growth in the city from more students coming in. Dowagiac schools have gone up and down. If a school is closed, I've been told the teachers will just move into another building. You won't lose any jobs, but you will save a great deal of money in maintenance, electric and things like that, taking away from, possibly, the need to privatize."
Charles: "We won't know what's out there until we ask the questions and do the boundary study to see where we're at. I'm not for closing a school if it means increased class sizes and interferes with education. But if we can utilize more of our facilities that are not being used, and we can save money on a building versus people, I think that's a positive. I know people get comfortable with their school and change is hard, so you also have to not do it quickly. By doing a process and taking a long time, you help with the anxiety, fear and apprehension that are out there when you do change. I'm glad we're looking at all areas."
Hoy: "I know this sounds kind of harsh, but to me, closing a school is a benefit. When it comes to the budget, we need to find ways. Closing a school would bring more money toward the budget, then looking at administrators' salaries also is a great idea. There's a school out in Twin Lakes (Kincheloe) that is low in students. Them coming to the other three schools is a good idea. Class sizes will not be increased because the other teachers will have jobs still. I'm for closing a school to help our budget. You'll save on electricity bills, heat bills, food, gas from driving out there. It will help."
File: "There's inequality in terms of classroom sizes. Some buildings the classrooms are quite small. In other buildings, in the same grade, for instance, other classroom sizes are quite large. That was a motivating factor in looking into how we can solve this problem of inequality. Consolidation of schools could solve that problem by bringing the same grades into the same buildings for more equal classroom sizes. Saving money is another reason for studying the problem."
Q. Two years ago, administrators and secretaries – 47 people in all – changed insurance carriers with a guaranteed savings in the first year alone of $220,000. During the initial year, those individuals were surveyed and it was determined that the coverage and service were every bit as good as with their previous plan with MESSA. If a similar situation was presented to custodians and transportation staff, would you support that?
Hall: "I can't begin to answer that because I don't know what kind of coverage or benefits they have. It may look good on paper by saving money, but do they have the same deductible and keep the same physicians they have now? A lot of that comes into play. If you go with a company that's going to cost less money, chances are you're going to get less coverage."
Charles: "Switching insurance is an option in negotiations. Health care is a huge cost, and if they can save in that area and still get good coverage, there would be a huge benefit. I'm all for that."
Hoy: "Yes, I would, but I don't think it should just be transportation, custodians or maintenance. I believe it should also be presented to teachers and principals, also. But if it costs more to go to the doctor or your deductible, I don't believe that's going to help you save money whatsoever."
File: "I would be supportive of other employees of the school district taking that type of plan. I work in health care. Any kind of plan potentially you are told most of the time which physicians you can see, including MESSA. There are potential cost savings to the school district. I believe there are also potential savings to the employees themselves. Teachers do pay out of pocket some of the cost of their insurance already. It would be a personal savings to them."
Cuthbert: "That same plan has been offered to teachers and support staff during negotiations – not only this past year, but in the last two or three years. They've not taken it back to their membership to even let them look at it, from our understanding. We as a board would welcome that with open arms if they looked at it. We think it would be as good coverage and wouldn't cost them anymore."