Pending Budget Crises and more

The current recession, dwindling tax revenue, rising costs and Springfield’s $13 billion deficit, has placed District 65 on course to a fiscal crisis. On September 29, 2010 District 65 had projected a four year deficit at 8.4 million. On February 14, 2011, District 65 revised its deficit projections and it now stands at $30 million over the next four years, despite that the deficit projections include the maximum real estate tax increases as allowed under the tax cap.  The pending District 65 financial crisis will undoubtedly effect the quality of the education in District 65 unless we get hold of the costs.

As a School Board member I would advocate for the mobilization of ”citizen seminars” to harness  the collective expertise of our community to generate some bold and fresh ideas to lower District 65’s costs and overhead.  We spend nearly $15,000 per student which is more than adequate to provide a quality education for our children.  Also any new District 65 budget should include a tax impact statement on how much the new budget will impact the individual tax payer.  As a School Board member I will work to balance the budget by lowering costs to avoid raising property taxes.

The failure of Springfield to take on the pension and wages issues regarding Public Employee Unions has passed the buck down to the school boards and local city councils. No matter how much we reduce the cost side of the budget, 83% of the budget is comprised of wages and benefits.   The ability to balance the budget hinges upon the School Board’s ability to hold the line against District 65 IEA’s demands for higher wages and benefits while reducing the administration’s overhead.  I would advocate that the School Board should look to set up preliminary meeting with District 65 IEA to gauge the tenor of the negotiations.  The School Board should also set up town hall meetings with the parents to discover what issues they want to have negotiated in the District 65 IEA contract. 

Besides the budgetary concerns, I support the following issues:

·         Consolidate District 65 and 202 not just for cost savings, but to have a continuity of programs, policy and assessment from K-12 grades.

·         A new elementary school should be built in the 5^th Ward.  We need to provide these children with a neighborhood school that should be a KIPP like charter school.

·         The McKay Scholarship, a voucher program that would allow parents the choice to place their special needs child in either a private or public school.

·         Use the MAP/Explore test as the benchmark for District 65 to measure student academic progress.

MAP/Budget/McKay Scholarship

Before we can prepare our students for college or career readiness, District 65 must adopt the EXPLORE test to accurately measure all of our student’s academic progress.  Identifying where District 65 is falling short academically, is the first step to solving the problem.  As opined in the Evanston Roundtable, the SAT-10 to measure college readiness was not supported by any study or independent research and that those percentiles substantially overstate the percent of eighth-graders who were on track to meeting college readiness as measured by Act’s benchmarks. 

With the precarious financial position of Springfield, the number one priority for the School Board is the continued vigilance on balancing the school budget so our tax dollars are more effectively directed toward the classroom and academic excellence and not directed to the District 65’s bureaucracy.  I will advocate for having taxpayer workshops to provide ideas to the School Board and District 65 on ways to cut costs and trim the budget. I will also advocate that a performance or forensic audit of the school budget be conducted every 5 years to identify budgetary waste.

However, a major part of maintaining a balanced school budget is negotiating a 2012 Teacher Union contract that accurately reflects the budgetary constraints and the recent recessionary pressures that the District 65 may face in the coming years.  So, too, the School Board needs to negotiate with the Teacher’s Union for a longer school day and a longer school year.

Though I support returning an elementary school to the Fifth ward, the referendum is not comprehensive enough.   The referendum should state a broader plan in returning District 65 to a neighborhood school system by building a new school in the Fifth ward and realigning the magnet schools to become neighborhood schools.  I realize that this will require greater capital improvements to retro-fit many of our schools in the district to make this transition, but the time is overdue to rebuild and strengthen Evanston’s neighborhoods, get kids off buses, and set long lasting and common sense school boundaries in the district now and in the future.

Lastly, I would like to advocate for parents with special need children the McKay Scholarship, a voucher program that would allow parents the choice to place their special needs child in either a private or public school.

My Background

I graduated from DePauw University earning a B.A. in History then to Indiana University School of Law receiving my J.D.  After graduation, I had the privilege of working for the Illinois Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division leaving the AG office after four years to join a small general practice firm.

My family made me an offer I could not refuse and I left the practice of law full time to work for the family printing business, Kubin-Nicholson, where I was an account manager, corporate counsel and member of the Board of Directors, a position I held for over 17 years.  Later, I worked for two internet start-up companies as both an attorney and in business development.  Currently, I am contract attorney for Axiom in ediscovery litigation services. 

I have been blessed with 4 children.  I have a daughter who is a junior at ETHS, a son at the Easter Seal School in Chicago for Autism, a daughter in 8^th grade at Chute and a son in 4^th grade at King Lab.

I served on the St. Athanasius School Board in 2001.  I was a member of the Constitutional Rights Foundation that taught Constitutional principles to middle school students in Chicago.