Northside News
School
Board Questions
Arlene
Silveira
Seat 1
516-8981
January 28,
2009
The projected multi-billion state
budget gap will likely result in a reduction in state aid to schools. When cuts are necessary, the process pits
program against program and school against school. What will be your approach to deciding what budget items to
eliminate or trim, and what are your highest priority items to avoid cutting?
My priority is to keep as many cuts
as possible away from the classroom.
Our new strategic plan will drive some of the decision-making in
budgeting, meaning we would budget to support our plan. I am an advocate at
looking at district-wide processes to see where we can save money based on
efficiencies and will continue to encourage that programs are evaluated to
ensure we are effectively meeting student needs. If programmatic cuts are recommended, data on the programs and
students being served is imperative in the decision-making process. We have to
ensure we are meeting the needs of children at each school and different
schools have different needs. Class size,
support services, and educational environment (including safety) are high
priorities.
Many people believe neighborhood
schools are an essential component of healthy neighborhoods. If budget cuts require consideration of
closing schools, what criteria and process will you use to determine if a
school should be closed?
I agree schools contribute to the strength of neighborhoods. I’ve
come to understand that with needs for parent and community involvement in
schools and emphasis on developing relationships in schools, it would be
difficult to envision a situation where factors that go into a cost-benefit
analysis on school closings would outweigh the relationship benefits associated
with neighborhood schools. If closings
were presented, evaluation data should include: current/projected enrollment;
building condition; alternative space; expenses versus savings; other potential shared
uses for the building; “people” factor and demographics. Parents/staff from the
affected schools should be involved in the dialogue/solution.
Decisions made by state government
and school district leadership play a major role in the quality of our schools,
but so do the actions of parents and taxpayers. What actions do you believe parents and taxpayers can take to
sustain and improve our schools?
Parents and
taxpayers should be proud of all schools and focus on the health of the entire
school district, not just your neighborhood school. A good school district is central to thriving communities. A
district’s mission should relate to community goals, which is why our new board
governance model has strong community engagement and collaboration components
and why we are starting our community-based strategic planning. Community involvement in school demonstrates
the importance of school and education. There are opportunities to participate
through: volunteering; mentoring; development of business-education
partnerships (e.g. Webcrafters at Mendota); resource sharing; business
internships; advocacy for funding and other school issues; supporting community
groups helping students; expanding learning activities at home; modeling the
behavior expected of students. Parents
and community members are necessary partners in collaboration for student
achievement.