WCS School Board Candidates Share Views During Forum
October 31, 2018 at 4:59 p.m.
WCS School Board Candidates Share Views During Forum
By David [email protected]
Michael Coon, Wendy Fairchild and Keith Manuel brought up the matter as they answered six prepared questions in the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center. They also replied to a couple of questions from an audience member.
The first question: How should teacher performance be measured? What are some of the challenges inherit in evaluating teachers, and how should the district balance using evaluations for accountability in helping teachers improve?
Coon responded, “The aspect of trying to grade teachers across not only within a grade level but across grade levels, across school systems, given the different dynamics of families that they deal with incoming, what the kids are dealing with as they come into school, I think it’s tremendously difficult to evaluate across the spectrum. I do think there’s ways to create standardized tests from the beginning of the school year toward later on in the school year so you can grade progress of those individuals.”
Manuel said teacher performance is really hard to gauge “because you’ve got to see where kids start to where they finish. Kids in this school district are going to perform probably a little bit different from this one over here. And a lot of that goes back to where they’re coming from before they go to school.”
Making kids better is the goal, he said. “I think all teachers are in it to make kids better, so as far as trying to compensate them, I think teachers should make six figures. It’s not in the budget, but they should. It’s a very hard job. So we’ve got to find a way to compensate them that’s not based around a number or letter, but how much the children have improved over the course of the year,” Manuel said.
Fairchild said each child is so different from the other “that we can’t expect everybody to come out of the assembly line the same.” She said children should be evaluated at the beginning of the school year, and as they show growth throughout the school year, teachers can “feel like they’ve won there, that they’re moving a child forward with their education.” She said teacher compensation could be based on those “wins” and that it also should come from loyalty and dedication to the job. She agreed with Manuel that teachers should be making six figures but it wasn’t in the cards.
“I definitely think that they should be able to depend on a wage that will support them paying back their student loans, buying a car, raising a family. That’s not even possible with what we start paying them, and they have no opportunity to move forward with that,” Fairchild said.
The second question moderator and Times-Union general manager Gary Gerard asked was, “What specific steps would you take, as a school board member, to improve transparency and make school district information more widely available?”
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Manuel said sometimes people think they’re doing a good job putting out information – and it’s out there – but it’s hard to find. “The school corporation does a good job of posting on our webpage. That’s great, but a lot of people aren’t computer-friendly, and a lot of people pay taxes and are interested in what we do.”
Fairchild said the school corporation’s website could use a lot of attention. She said she can’t always find what she’s looking for when she visits the website, though she admitted she’s not a very “technological” person. Along with that improvement, she also suggested more articles in the newspaper. “Just more information,” she said.
Coon said there’s a reasonable amount of information available before and after school board meetings. He said he was less concerned with information being released after board meetings as opposed to the board gathering information before meetings so members know what’s going on in the minds of the public.
Asked what the district’s greatest capital needs are, Fairchild said the first thing that comes to mind is “filling the needs in each of the buildings with some support staff.”
Coon said not being on the school board yet, he’s not privy to all the discussions going on but he’s aware the high school and Lakeview Middle School need renovations.
Manuel agreed wtih Coon and Fairchild, adding he was concerned more with support staff.
The next question was, “In your past professional experience, what criteria have you used to make decisions about hiring people, retaining goods and services, and how will you use these criteria to make decisions as a school board?”
Coon said he has significant experience hiring people. He served on the YMCA board that hired Chad Zaucha as its director. He said he assumes people are going to be able to do the job, but he’s looking for the passion, work ethic, personal drive and motivation to get the job done.
Manuel said at least professionally, he tries to find people who are smarter than he. “You want someone in the room with fresh ideas, who are self-contained, who can take something and go with it and finish it and complete it the right way,” he said, as well as a person who is well-rounded.
Fairchild said in her hairdressing business, she looks for someone who has a servant’s heart. She said she likes to grow her own employees, and if you nurture loyalty that’s what you’ll get in return.
Retired Judge Duane Huffer was the only member of the audience who asked questions.
His first was, “Are you in favor of retaining the existing school board attorney who is not a resident of our county, who is not a taxpayer of our school district, who is not a Warsaw High School graduate, when we have more than 30 attorneys within the Warsaw School District, at least eight of whom are Warsaw graduates?”
Coon said the board should have a policy to guide a decision like that. If there’s not, there should be a policy that the attorney should be either a resident or taxpayer of the area.
Manuel said he thought it should be someone from the community, but he understands both sides of it.
Fairchild said that issue was completely off her radar and she would have to explore the policy.
Huffer’s other question was, “Do you think it’s equitable to the taxpayers of the city of Warsaw that we provide five school resource officers to the Warsaw School System and are only compensated by the school system for 1½ of the school resource officers?”
Manuel said, “You’re talking about safety of children, safety of staff. Things can get crazy, so I see extremes there.” He said he wants his children and their friends to be safe. The tax dollars are going toward the safety of everyone at the school district.
Fairchild said she’d need to see the budget and what has been to agreed to, but maybe the school district needs to renegotiate. “But you’re part of the community, just like everybody in the school is part of the community, so, yes, it is the responsibility of community members to help pay for the safety of your community. And a vast majority of your community spend time on the campuses of the public school system, which supports your community. You’re not losing, you’re winning, because of the care and the safety that’s being given by the Warsaw Police Department,” she said.
Coon responded, “I’m not going to dance on this one. It’s too specific of a question. I think an issue like that – if this was a school board meeting, I would hope that issues like that would be submitted in writing in advance so people could actually contemplate the answer rather than trying to give a one-off answer.”
The candidate forum was sponsored by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and the Times-Union.
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Michael Coon, Wendy Fairchild and Keith Manuel brought up the matter as they answered six prepared questions in the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center. They also replied to a couple of questions from an audience member.
The first question: How should teacher performance be measured? What are some of the challenges inherit in evaluating teachers, and how should the district balance using evaluations for accountability in helping teachers improve?
Coon responded, “The aspect of trying to grade teachers across not only within a grade level but across grade levels, across school systems, given the different dynamics of families that they deal with incoming, what the kids are dealing with as they come into school, I think it’s tremendously difficult to evaluate across the spectrum. I do think there’s ways to create standardized tests from the beginning of the school year toward later on in the school year so you can grade progress of those individuals.”
Manuel said teacher performance is really hard to gauge “because you’ve got to see where kids start to where they finish. Kids in this school district are going to perform probably a little bit different from this one over here. And a lot of that goes back to where they’re coming from before they go to school.”
Making kids better is the goal, he said. “I think all teachers are in it to make kids better, so as far as trying to compensate them, I think teachers should make six figures. It’s not in the budget, but they should. It’s a very hard job. So we’ve got to find a way to compensate them that’s not based around a number or letter, but how much the children have improved over the course of the year,” Manuel said.
Fairchild said each child is so different from the other “that we can’t expect everybody to come out of the assembly line the same.” She said children should be evaluated at the beginning of the school year, and as they show growth throughout the school year, teachers can “feel like they’ve won there, that they’re moving a child forward with their education.” She said teacher compensation could be based on those “wins” and that it also should come from loyalty and dedication to the job. She agreed with Manuel that teachers should be making six figures but it wasn’t in the cards.
“I definitely think that they should be able to depend on a wage that will support them paying back their student loans, buying a car, raising a family. That’s not even possible with what we start paying them, and they have no opportunity to move forward with that,” Fairchild said.
The second question moderator and Times-Union general manager Gary Gerard asked was, “What specific steps would you take, as a school board member, to improve transparency and make school district information more widely available?”
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Manuel said sometimes people think they’re doing a good job putting out information – and it’s out there – but it’s hard to find. “The school corporation does a good job of posting on our webpage. That’s great, but a lot of people aren’t computer-friendly, and a lot of people pay taxes and are interested in what we do.”
Fairchild said the school corporation’s website could use a lot of attention. She said she can’t always find what she’s looking for when she visits the website, though she admitted she’s not a very “technological” person. Along with that improvement, she also suggested more articles in the newspaper. “Just more information,” she said.
Coon said there’s a reasonable amount of information available before and after school board meetings. He said he was less concerned with information being released after board meetings as opposed to the board gathering information before meetings so members know what’s going on in the minds of the public.
Asked what the district’s greatest capital needs are, Fairchild said the first thing that comes to mind is “filling the needs in each of the buildings with some support staff.”
Coon said not being on the school board yet, he’s not privy to all the discussions going on but he’s aware the high school and Lakeview Middle School need renovations.
Manuel agreed wtih Coon and Fairchild, adding he was concerned more with support staff.
The next question was, “In your past professional experience, what criteria have you used to make decisions about hiring people, retaining goods and services, and how will you use these criteria to make decisions as a school board?”
Coon said he has significant experience hiring people. He served on the YMCA board that hired Chad Zaucha as its director. He said he assumes people are going to be able to do the job, but he’s looking for the passion, work ethic, personal drive and motivation to get the job done.
Manuel said at least professionally, he tries to find people who are smarter than he. “You want someone in the room with fresh ideas, who are self-contained, who can take something and go with it and finish it and complete it the right way,” he said, as well as a person who is well-rounded.
Fairchild said in her hairdressing business, she looks for someone who has a servant’s heart. She said she likes to grow her own employees, and if you nurture loyalty that’s what you’ll get in return.
Retired Judge Duane Huffer was the only member of the audience who asked questions.
His first was, “Are you in favor of retaining the existing school board attorney who is not a resident of our county, who is not a taxpayer of our school district, who is not a Warsaw High School graduate, when we have more than 30 attorneys within the Warsaw School District, at least eight of whom are Warsaw graduates?”
Coon said the board should have a policy to guide a decision like that. If there’s not, there should be a policy that the attorney should be either a resident or taxpayer of the area.
Manuel said he thought it should be someone from the community, but he understands both sides of it.
Fairchild said that issue was completely off her radar and she would have to explore the policy.
Huffer’s other question was, “Do you think it’s equitable to the taxpayers of the city of Warsaw that we provide five school resource officers to the Warsaw School System and are only compensated by the school system for 1½ of the school resource officers?”
Manuel said, “You’re talking about safety of children, safety of staff. Things can get crazy, so I see extremes there.” He said he wants his children and their friends to be safe. The tax dollars are going toward the safety of everyone at the school district.
Fairchild said she’d need to see the budget and what has been to agreed to, but maybe the school district needs to renegotiate. “But you’re part of the community, just like everybody in the school is part of the community, so, yes, it is the responsibility of community members to help pay for the safety of your community. And a vast majority of your community spend time on the campuses of the public school system, which supports your community. You’re not losing, you’re winning, because of the care and the safety that’s being given by the Warsaw Police Department,” she said.
Coon responded, “I’m not going to dance on this one. It’s too specific of a question. I think an issue like that – if this was a school board meeting, I would hope that issues like that would be submitted in writing in advance so people could actually contemplate the answer rather than trying to give a one-off answer.”
The candidate forum was sponsored by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and the Times-Union.
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