Monday's Internet Edition, October 06, 2008.
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The second and third questions given to candidates were “What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing Copperas Cove Independent School District? What aspect of CCISD needs improvement?” and was published in last week’s paper.
This week, we asked the candidates “How important are knowledge assessment tests?” Due to a shortage in time and space, we have published the final question “With the state’s budget shortfall, how can CCISD keep its programs intact without raising taxes?” on the Internet. Visit our website at www.leader-press.com to learn more about the candidates.
Candidates’ answers appear alphabetically.
Mary Ann Glass:
The TAAS and the new TAKS tests were put in place to make every school district in the State of Texas accountable to parents and taxpayers. Texas became the leader in the nation with its accountability testing. We have seen more and more CCISD children not only passing, but also making higher than the state average score on the test. The TAAS was made up of reading, writing and math. The new TAKS has added science and social studies. CCISD preliminary TAKS testing shows that CCISD is on the right track. We now also have to comply with President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” federal mandate. Do we teach to the test? Yes, we have no other choice. If we have low performance schools, the Texas Education Agency will take over our schools, and local control is gone. Is there too much testing? Probably, but it does help to find each child’s weaknesses and to see that they get extra attention in these areas. There have always been pros and cons to the state testing, and I still have mixed emotions about too much testing. I do know that we all need to be held accountable, and knowledge assessment tests seem to be the best way education has to accomplish this accountability.
William “Bill” Waltz:
Knowledge assessment tests are one of many tools the education system uses to see how well the student is retaining knowledge for their future. It also shows how well a teacher/mentor teaches their subject matter in the learning environment.
A student when seeking a job will compete with other individuals seeking the same job. They must be able to present themselves to fulfill what the employer is looking for. Education is one way an employer evaluates a perspective employee and how one retains knowledge is I feel another way.
We also asked candidates:
With the state's budget shortfall, how can CCISD keep its programs intact without raising taxes?
Mary Ann Glass:
The State of Texas budget shortfall is the concern of all Texas school districts. CCISD knows that there will be cuts in the new state budget that will affect our district for the next two years. We can overcome the shortfalls with effective and efficient management. The school board started last year with the sunset of every program. Six programs will be looked at each year. We look at the cost, the effectiveness of the program, how many children it affects, is it doing the job we wanted it to do, and is there a better way to accomplish the same thing. The "Writing to Read" program was eliminated at four campuses. They no longer have the hardware to run the program. The person who wrote the program died, and it has never been updated. Therefore, it cannot be used on computers we now all use. This program will eventually be phased out at the other campuses, when we can no longer keep the hardware running. Our curriculum department has been looking for a new program to replace "Writing to Read", but has not been able to find one that compares to the first program.
We must look at new and innovative ways to educate our children. The school board has already voted to have Virtual High School for some of our AP courses at the high school next year. There will be courses that students want to take, that there are not enough students that sign up for each course to be able to afford to make up a class. One of our high school teachers will also be teaching a class for Virtual High School.
Dr. Acker and the school board put a five-year plan in place soon after he was hired. We started looking at the 2003-2004 school year budget two years ago. The Central Administration Office will be revamped, and we have already cut $120,000 from the administration's budget for next year. If any staffing cuts must be made this year, they will come from attrition. It is the intent of the administration and the board that no employees will lose his or her job. The school board has charged the administration to bring them a balanced budget with no new taxes for next year.
William "Bill" Waltz:
All school districts are always going to battle the budget. The federal government is always battling its own budget. There is no cure for this constant aliment.
There is no guarantee that taxes are not going to increase. Again informing the taxpayer of what they will get for their dollar is what they must be kept informed of so that there is no misunderstanding. Bond issues are voted on so the people that vote make the final decision.
CCISD can only do their best with the funds available and use the funds wisely with the best interest and welfare for all the children in the district. The idea is to put the proper amount of funds where it will do the best for the children and the program it was allocated for. The children are the future.