Do you think the current board is dysfunctional?

One candidate thinks the school board looks dsyfunctional. What do you think?

This week, we are focusing on Plainfield School District's election on the blog.

Five candidates - Kevin Kirberg, Tommie Van, William Dargan Jr., Anthony Scala and Greg Nichols are hoping to unseat incumbents Roger Bonuchi and Dave Obrzut. School board President Stuart Bledsoe is not running for re-election.

What was the main issue that made you want to run for school board?

KIRBERG: I value education as the greatest opportunity for all to become successful in life. I feel my skills are uniquely suited to serving District 202 as a school board member and it is time in my life to transition from the other work I have done in District 202 to serving on the school board.

SCALA: We need a fresh look at our financials and we need a person to make the hard decisions and stand by them. Also we need to bring this district back to being one - not a school or color but a district.

DARGAN : I don't know that there is one specific issue. I was asked to consider running by several of the administrators and teachers at Plainfield High School- Central Campus. I began to look a little more closely at how the board, administration and all interact and believe that I can make a positive impact on the process. Our main goal should be to provide an atmosphere where we develop our kids to the best of their abilities to enable them to succeed before, during and after their high school years and in some cases we have lost sight of that. I believe that with my business knowledge and ability to listen, gather the facts and make sound decisions based on those facts will enable me to bring some stability and cohesiveness to the existing board.

NICHOLS: The declining readiness of our kids in the world outside of Plainfield concerns me more and more. I hear stories about students that graduate from Plainfield and then are ineligible to get into different universities because they don't have the required number of credits. I have heard of multiple kids telling their parents to get siblings out of Plainfield schools as our lack of rigor in the curriculum left them ill-prepared for college. I work with my younger children and see with my own eyes that the curriculum being taught was a moving target. I do not want children to be part of an experiment. I really believe we need to backup from the accountability fad and the focus on driving all decisions with hard data. We need to realize and accept that a diverse group of children does not fit into a bell curve and therefore cannot be fairly assessed using tests that assume they do. The poor assumptions used to derive our (the state's) assessment tools leave the kids on both ends of the spectrum out in the cold.

BONUCHI: I've been an elected member of the District 202 Board of Education for the past six years. I would like to be re-elected to complete some projects that I started as well as see the district through the current financial crisis. I've been involved in District 202 Band Boosters since 1993 and been very close to teachers, students, parents, and administrators for many years. After my son Tony graduated from Plainfield High School-Central Campus in 1997, I felt a need to do something of value beyond my job and family. The Board of Education has proven to be a good fit for me. I've learned a great deal and have contributed in many facets of Board service.


VAN: I relocated to Plainfield about six years ago from Florissant, Mo. where I was actively involved in the school district. I was president of Parent Teachers Group at Commons Lane Elementary School and before relocating I was in line to be elected to Ferguson Florrisant School District Board.

OBRZUT: My motivation to serve on the Board of Education is not driven by any single issue or agenda. I relocated my family to this area and deliberately purchased a home in District 202 because of its outstanding reputation. As we settled into our new home, I developed a strong interest in community service which led me to teach religious education classes and coach youth football and baseball. Eventually I turned my attention to serving the school district as both a means of giving back to the district which has provided so much to my children, and also to demonstrate to my own children as well as the young people I coach, the high value I place on public education.

What do you think needs to be done in the district that is not being done now?

KIRBERG: We need to focus on working collaboratively together with all stakeholders: parents, teachers, staff, administrators, alumni, school board members, and the community. This will make us stronger and lead to the best decisions possible for our kids. We should find ways to involve and utilize the skills and contributions of families and community members who want to give back to the District 202. We also should identify opportunities to provide as much information and education/training opportunities for individuals who are interested in stepping up and becoming involved in supporting school district activities and the decision-making process. We also must make sure we identify all opportunities to provide each student the individualized support they need for success in this era of budget constraints and cuts.

SCALA: We need to look at different avenues of funding, look at different programs that we can afford, to replace the ones we cut.

DARGAN: I think we need to show the community, administration, board and students that we can all work together to collectively do what is best for the students of the district both now and in the future. Unfortunately, I believe there is a dysfunctional appearance to the workings of the board and the administration that is raising some skepticism in what is really trying to be accomplished. We all need to work together, with the resources available, to continue to see the year over year improvement in the education process.

NICHOLS: I believe that the fiscal condition of the district needs to be treated as an absolute emergency. I do not detect a maximized sense of urgency or emergency in this regard.

I believe we concentrate efforts far too heavily on bilingual English Language Learners (ELL) programs with all-day programs, extremely low teacher/student ratios and after-school programs that have sapped resources and provided questionable success. I believe we are depriving children of the requirement to mingle and learn with the rest of the student population, leaving them to their own mini-societies. There are alternatives such as Structured English Immersion (SEI) which show far more promising results for ELL students. English communication skills are the single most important skill set we can teach to a child. This branch of our district has been left relatively untouched through cost saving adjustments to-date. I believe these programs need to be examined and re-evaluated.

I believe we need to focus very seriously on adopting more technology-oriented approaches to teaching. Tablet computing (iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc.) is becoming more accepted and we could certainly find some ways to implement that into our district, potentially saving huge sums of money in the process. We do very well in managing relationships with technology providers, but I feel our curriculum needs to incorporate technology in a much larger way.

BONUCHI: As a board in conjunction with the administration, we are looking at every avenue to keep the high standard of education that we are committed to providing to our students. This goes well beyond job cuts. We are looking at every financial aspect and we are trying to find as many ways as possible to address the financial crisis without directly affecting students or staff. No rock has been left unturned and I will continue to work for the best solution for students, staff and the community.

VAN: Creating an environment that the primary focus would be for our children and one agenda that focus on how do we stabilize our district. In the next few months we will be confronted with issues regarding our budget that requires that we make decisions that not only will benefit us now but what impact our decisions today will have on the future of the district.

OBRZUT: Over the course of the past five years great strides have been made in the areas of student achievement, school improvement, curriculum development, response to intervention, diversity awareness and training, just to name a few. As we prepare to enter strategic planning this spring for the purpose of setting the course for the next five years, I believe a long-term financial plan which clearly articulates the priorities of the board, while at the same time positions us to make the very difficult decisions tied to our district's deficit would be in my opinion our greatest need.

For Tuesday: What are your two main goals to get accomplished if you get on the board?