Q: With the disintegration of the American family, schools are being asked to take on child-rearing and social service duties that far over-reach their traditional educational responsibilities. Should schools, continually plagued by
shortages of funds, continue to accept these duties?
A: I do not feel that we as a school system can refuse these duties. Schools are now the communities that are first impacted by the disintegration of the family and community structures.
Our pre-kindergarten specialists attest to the need for earlier and earlier intervention with families. Within the year, each new mother will receive a videotape focusing on parenting skills before she leaves the hospital. But we cannot let our efforts stop here.
Eighty percent of our prison population are school dropouts, costing us $20,000 to $30,000 each year as opposed to our current expenditure of $3,220 per student per year in Alachua County. As a society, we need to examine our priorities. It's either pay now or pay later.
Q: A related question is whether schools should teach values that may be largely absent from today's homes or society in general. Do you believe schools should play this role? If so, please specify the
values you believe children should be taught.
A: Yes, there is a set of universally accepted values that children must learn. I feel strongly that there is a distinct set of values that are so fundamental they dissolve borders, transcend races and outlast cultural tradition. They underlie a moral presence that, in my opinion, is shared by all humanity. These include love, truthfulness, fairness, freedom, unity, tolerance and responsibility. A set of values unifies as a society. They are best taught, not in isolation, but as an integral part of the academic curriculum.
Q: Last school year, a controversy over the math program at Fort Clarke Middle School raised the question of the proper role and power of school advisory councils. More recently, prominent local lawmakers said they wanted to boost the council's power legislatively. In your opinion, how much policy or fiscal decision-making power should the councils have, and why?
A: Alachua County School Board
policy states that the advisory councils serve in an advisory capacity to the principal. I feel positive enough about this process to believe that, over time, with appropriate in-service training and adequate education, the problems of our early experience will diminish. The overriding issue in this whole process revolves around the provision of adequate resources which can empower this voluntary involvement process. Don't ask me, as a volunteer SAC member, to involve myself in a time-consuming process that could be meaningless without resources to carry out my ideas.
Q: Tension between excellence and equality has long been a fixture of American society. Lately, this tension has been expressed in an educational debate over whether schools should encourage cooperation and equity or competition and excellence. Which side do you come down on and why?
A: We must educate ourselves to understand that cooperation in learning does not exclude excellence and to question excellence that is bas
ed solely on competition. Our goals must be to provide equitable opportunities and challenges for all students. Those opportunities must be based on the needs and strengths of each individual student and always presented with the challenge of the next step. At each level of the educational process, the influences of cooperation and competition should serve to motivate students to meet the expectation that we have for them. For example, competition at the elementary level should always be competition with oneself -- a motivation to always try to do better the next time.
Q: What is the single most important thing you would like to accomplish in four years as a school board member?
A: I have a strong desire to create an atmosphere of community respect and support for our school system. As a board member, I would do everything I could to improve communication with the public. A more user-friendly atmosphere at board meetings is needed and is certainly possible to achieve. A more cooperative relationship with our legislative delegation is a must.
For the money we receive from Tallahassee and our tax-base problem (we rank 58th out of 67 counties in per pupil allocation), Alachua County has a good school system. The credit goes to the dedicated staff, supportive parents and a concerned community. Now I want to bring these elements together in a spirit of cooperation for the benefit of our kids. If this could be accomplished, I would have achieved my major goal for seeking this public office.
Click for data on opponent: Virginia Zele
For a story about this race, click on Sun Story
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