Ord Talk

1. Why are you running for the school board?

I have a number of reasons for running for the school board. I have three children in the Ord Public School system and want to ensure a quality education for them. I have seen a number of students through the years come into my office after starting college and express feelings of incompetence at not being able to complete the goals they started out to achieve. I have counseled children who have fallen through the cracks of Ord Schools because of being new to the community, not having a "name", or not fitting into a mold. These children need an advocate on the school board. While I have not lived here for generations, I bring a wider view, having studied in three different states and at the doctorate level. I bring leadership, having been the president of my senior medical class and having served as chief resident in residency.2. What is your vision for the Ord Public School System over the next five years? What are your specific plans to get there? As an owner who started a local business without economic development assistance (public tax monies) I can help keep our school system solvent. As one with eleven years post high school education, I am pro education, and offer the same drive to see students excel and achieve their visions. Ord Public Schools needs to develop niche marketing that attracts students from the surrounding areas. 3. In your opinion, what can be done to better utilize and improve the technology and how we use it in our schools? As I noted at the May 2008 candidates forum, the Ord School District needs to embrace the technology age and purchase laptops for students. 21 schools in Nebraska provide students with laptops, including Sargent. We need to be on the cutting edge, not the lagging edge. My office has been paperless for four years; our students need to learn similar techniques so that they can stay on top of their career choices. 4. How do you see the balance between core academics and extra curricular activities? The core curriculum is the foundation to any education. The balance in education must lean heavily to the basics. The extracurricular activities are the window dressing. There must be the fundamentals first that are solidly learned and understood thoroughly enough that they can be applied to many different circumstances. Teachers have started using the term ‘co-curricular' to refer to these enhancing activities. They are not of equal value; important, but not equal. 5. What should be done with the remote learning centers? The remote learning centers (formerly Class 1's) should not only stay open but allow more students to option out to them. Students from other districts have applied to attend the remote learning centers but were turned away by the Ord school board. That was turning away money from the Ord school district. The learning centers were required to use the same convenience foods as the Ord schools instead of cheaper alternatives such as mashed potatoes from.....potatoes. Paying a principal over $10,000 in addition to his current salary to come and check on each school for a few minutes a week is inefficient, unnecessary, disproportionate to the effort expended, and underscores how your current school board abuses their budgetary authority. 6. How do you plan to pay for building improvements? When you wait for a crisis to motivate for improvements, it always costs more. This school board has known of needed improvement for over five years according to school board minutes. It purposely put necessary repairs aside to force a bond issue in which a gym could be attached. This is the ultimate pork barrel and puts even Congress to shame. If they felt a gym was truly needed, repairs should have been done in a timely manner that would not have been as costly. This would have allowed for savings in the special building fund. Mr. Kroger has repeated stated that it is impossible to save for such projects. A survey of superintendents of Nebraska schools shows this to not be true. Other schools have saved toward projects. A school board that is free spending with tax dollars wants everything now. This is the same attitude that lead to massive foreclosures and the current economic crisis. In school bond meetings, pro bond citizens have remarked repeatedly how our ancestors sacrificially voted during the depression for the 1928 building. Contrary to this revisionist view, the bond passed at the height of the roaring twenties. The stock market fell 33% the next year , in 1929. This past month the stock market has fallen 42%. 7. What are your thoughts on a possible future bond issue? Bond issues have a place but are not a substitute for planning, preparing and saving. Allowing a building to fall into greater disrepair in order to force a bond is irresponsible and inexcusable. Since I have attended numerous school bond meetings as well as attending the vast majority of the monthly school board meetings, I have witnessed this happening, unfortunately, right here. Other schools in Nebraska have saved and paid for heating & cooling updates. There is a limit to the number of bond issues one county can support at one time. I am concerned at the extravagance of the proposed plans. For instance, it wasn't enough for a proposed chemistry lab to solve safety issues, the new chemistry lab was to include lab desks with hydraulic motors for student convenience. Not one of your school board members questioned the necessity of this extravagance. Having been a chemistry major at a competitive college, having done research at a major medical facility, and having studied chemistry at the doctorate level, I can assure you that none of these institutions had such luxurious accommodations. I personally taught chemistry and advanced chemistry in a kitchen/dining room. It is not the facilities that give the excellence in education. It is the people involved, the motivation of the student, and the goals for future accomplishments. 8. Are the academic standards now in place sufficient to prepare our students for the future? The academic standards currently in place are adequate for some. Some standards, however, are being given greater value than they are worth. For instance, in the past Calculus has been touted as being an AP (advanced placement) class with college credit. In fact, only half the book was completed and the test prepped for so it could be passed. The material was not mastered. Those attempting to pass on into the second Calculus class in college could not do so. AP classes become an empty credit if you can not continue the sequential class. All college credits are not equal. College credit for a high school class is basically equivalent to a credit at the community college level. I do believe that in our school system preparatory classes within Ag Vocational and Speech/Drama prepare students to succeed in their future endeavors.