Monday's Internet Edition, October 06, 2008.
|
News editor - Place 2 of the Copperas Cove Independent School District has had five candidates file for the May 3 election. The Leader-Press will help its readers learn more about the candidates by publishing the candidates’ answers to questions supplied by The Leader-Press .
The first question given to candidates was “What qualifies you to be a school board trustee?” and was published in last week’s paper.
This week, we asked the candidates “What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing Copperas Cove Independent School District? What aspect of CCISD needs improvement?”
Candidates’ answers appear alphabetically.
Cathy Camp:
The biggest challenge facing CCISD is how to keep taxes from being raised while avoiding personnel cuts. The threat of losing impact aid was a real scare to our district, one that the school board faces every year. It would have been an eight million-dollar loss to the district, one the taxpayers would have felt.
We as a district can no longer afford to depend on the Federal Government from year to year. We need our school district to be in a position where our teachers and their students are not going to be affected when impact aid is lost. I know that currently our teachers and support staff would be the first to feel the loss, and, as a parent myself, this can not be accepted.
Secondly, our teachers need to have a voice when it comes to discussions and decisions that effect them. Every teacher that I have talked to always complains that they can’t give their opinion (for fear of reprisals.) When was this taken away? If our teachers can’t voice what they feel needs to be improved upon in our district, then our children have lost their voice. It is up to us as parents to elect people to our school board who are not afraid to be heard. The teachers and the parents are the ones who should be listened to.
Debra Hardison:
I have talked with Dr. Acker and most of the campus principles. From these conversations, I consider funding to be the biggest challenge facing the CCISD. With the state budget shortfall affecting the district budget, there will have to be some very difficult decisions concerning educational and extracurricular programs.
I believe the CCISD, both at administration and campus level, needs to improve public communication. There have been events in the past few months, such as the hiring of Dr. Rose Cameron, that needed to be more fully explained to the taxpayer. Improved communication would likely eliminate public misperception of CCISD decisions.
Jerry Keys:
I feel that funding is the biggest challenge facing CCISD. Many school districts in Texas are facing budget shortfalls.Austin, Desoto, Irving and many more districts are slashing teaching positions. The school district in Van Horn fired about a third of its teachers last week in anticipation of massive state budget cuts. I hope and pray that this doesn’t happen here.
Our board is already making some hard choices. In February, the board voted to eliminate the Writing to Read program on four of our elementary campuses. We do not have the funds to replace computer hardware and software. There are going to be more of these hard choices in the future and it will be harder to find ways to fund our excellent school district.
When I compare the last two school years, I find that incidents of student drug, alcohol, and tobacco use have declined. Student school violence incidents are down significantly. I say keep up the good work and keep improving in these areas.
D. Lloyd Thomas:
Recent newspaper articles have indicated a possibility of losing federal funding for the school system. This places an even larger emphasis and concern on properly budgeting available funds for meeting requirements such as teaching and having teaching materials available.
This is a task that needs a diverse group of people to give perspective and experience to ways that have worked in the past. As far as I am aware, budget development is one of the most important challenges facing the school district.
Another challenge that is of paramount importance is discipline. Although responsibility for discipline has to be primarily taught in the home, the schools have students for more hours a week than any other entity except the home. Schools can do much to model and teach discipline to each of its students.
This has to be demonstrated by each person affiliated with the school district, from the trustees down to the teachers and admin staff for it to be effective. I have worked programs and raised children which has given me experience in doing this. I also have much education in this area and can assist in ensuring such a concept is reality.
I have not been in direct contact with the Copperas Cove Independent School District for five years, since our youngest child graduated, but have not been aware of any aspect of CCISD needing improvement.
The school has outstanding teachers and administrators supported by competent staff, and they are to be commended and encouraged to continue their stellar performance.
As I become aware of things that need improved, I will work with other Board members to take care of the situation.
Bob Weiss:
The most significant challenge facing Copperas Cove Independent School District is funding. Both state funding and Federal Impact Aid are in jeopardy of being reduced. The state legislature usually addresses educational funding toward the end of the session, which makes it difficult for the district to plan for each new year in a timely manner. With the state budget being trimmed, one can assume funding allocated to education will be reduced; but it is only a guess as to how much funding the district would lose. Although Federal Impact Aid seems to be less of a concern at this time since it was reinstated by the House Budget Committee, receipt of this money is always guarded.
Much of state funding is based on student average daily attendance; therefore, a drop in enrollment will cause an additional reduction of state funds for the district. The new housing units being completed at Fort Hood could be a significant factor in a decline of enrollment. It is difficult to predict how many students might withdraw from the district in time for a comprehensive budget to be approved.Every aspect of managing a school district is impacted by funding.
Some of the areas affected by funding include the following: hiring and retaining qualified personnel; maintaining transportation, buildings, and grounds.; preserving the integrity of existing programs and services that have been successfully implemented.; purchasing needed teaching supplies and materials.; staying current with technology.; implementing new programs and providing money for in-service and training.
When there is a loss of funds, tough decisions must be made. The challenge is in finding innovative ways to operate the district both effectively and efficiently while maximizing student success.
As a citizen of Copperas Cove who is no longer employed by the school district, I believe the aspect of CCISD that needs improvement is better communications with school staff and the public, specifically as it relates to controversial decisions made by the school board.
It is always easier to second-guess decisions made by the school board from the “outside looking in.” I have been guilty of this myself. Decisions made by the board are based on information provided to them.
Since school personnel and the public are not always aware of the information provided to the board, it is human nature to question unpopular decisions. Rationale for making controversial decisions needs to be clearly communicated by providing data, research, and information that influence the decisions.
It is impossible for a school board to make decisions that will be supported by everyone; however questionable/unpopular decisions are better accepted when supportive data is provided. All may not agree with the outcome, but the district will then have fulfilled its responsibility in effectively communicating decisions made by the board.