On the ballot for District 1 are Dow Fogleman, Garry Smith and incumbent Virginia Suarez. In District 7, Bill Gorden, Mary Klentzman, A’Lisa Ozment and Elwyn Johnston are running for an unexpired one-year term. Unchallenged District 6 representative David Pennington was also on hand to answer questions. The election is May 12.
Elwyn Johnston did not attend the forum. In a news release, he said this was because of a previously scheduled engagement with a group of parents from District 7.
Among the questions asked to the candidates were:
How do you propose to help solve the district’s high administration costs?
A’Lisa Ozment - “I think we should look at other districts that are our size and see what they are using for their organizational structure. The importance is to be streamlined and effective.”
Mary Klentzman -“It’s important that the administrators we do have are experienced and educated in the fields that they serve…and make sure the emphasis is on instruction.”
Bill Gorden -“There’s just so much money out there that you have to tax. When I was on the school board we had 11 employees in the ‘head shack.’ Now we have around 30.”
David Pennington - “I think the emphasis should be on instruction, but in our defense there are a lot of things today like technology that you didn’t have in 1968, but we do need to keep emphasis on teaching and classroom.”
Virginia Suarez -“There have been some positions that have been cut through attrition. There are reasons behind (administration) expenditures. The new administration that we have, in the nine months they have been here have been evaluating all along and will address that issue.”
Garry Smith - “Before we start to bring down our forces, first we should analyze and pinpoint our problem. Let’s not start downgrading ‘the friendlies’ here…we may need those people later on down the road.”
Dow Fogleman - “By the 2008-09 school year, 65 percent of funds have to be instruction. Right now we’re at 57 percent. We need to closely look at non-instructional jobs and… be critical of any new positions.”
Do you think discipline is a problem in the district? How do you hope to solve it?
David Pennington - “I think over a period of years we had a problem at the high school, and I think principal J.J. Villarreal has taken a major step in solving those problems and it makes me sad when someone says they are going to move out of Temple.”
Bill Gorden - “If you don’t have discipline you got a zoo, just like a bunch of monkeys running around. You have to have quality teachers along with discipline.”
Mary Klentzman - “I feel that we as a community need to support our administrators and what they need to do to back up our teachers in their classrooms in order to have an ordered learning environment in that classroom.”
A’Lisa Ozment - “I think teachers need to be able to talk to mentors about the problems they are having in their classrooms so they can better handle a classroom.”
Dow Fogleman - “My understanding is that school resource officers do a great job at going to the classrooms and talking with kids, but (D.A.R.E. needs to be integrated.)”
Garry Smith - “Discipline problems are not the result of some out of control child, most of their actions are reactions to the way they were being treated. I feel we should come up with a better plan of attack when disciplining our kids.”
Virginia Suarez - “If discipline is lacking at home it's going to make it harder for teachers, and sometimes teachers are not equipped to deal with some of the issues that these students bring to school with them.”
kchandler@temple-telegram.com
