Candidate Profiles: Cromwell-Wright School Board special election

Question 1. How does your past experience, job or education qualify you to serve on the Cromwell-Wright School Board?

Question 2.  Pick one single priority item that you believe would improve the Cromwell-Wright Public Schools in the most meaningful way. What would it be and why?

Question 3. Other than finding greater efficiencies, what areas would you look to trim first if there are unexpected budget deficits?

Rod Walli

Question 1:

As a former teacher in the Cromwell-Wright school I know some of the difficulties associated with small schools. My education is in Math, Psychology and Computer Science technology.

Question 2:

I think a change could be made tailoring courses to what many of them do after graduation. It would require some changes in math, science and lesser changes in other courses. Many students do not go on to college but enter the work force after graduation. We could prepare them for that work.  

Question 3:

We have been facing revenue shortage and making cuts already so some teachers are not working full time.

Loran S. Shelton

Question 1:

I served on the Cromwell-Wright School Board for nine and one-half years, one of those years as Chairman of the Board. I have a strong sense of what the board needs to accomplish, and in order for this to occur, there needs to be teamwork among board members. The entire board has to keep one goal in the forefront, that being the students of the district. If we keep that as our focus and not personal agendas, the board will function to get the job done.

Question 2:

The one single priority that I feel would improve the Cromwell-Wright School would be to begin to offer College in the Schools. This opportunity would make the students high school experience more valuable, especially if they received college credit for it. Parents want to afford their child every opportunity to succeed, both personally and academically. The small town experience is invaluable, so for the families that want their children to stay in the school in the community in which they live, there have to be more opportunities like this. This levels the playing field for the small schools when competing with the larger ones.

Question 3:

There has been cost saving measures instituted with the start of this academic year. As a result of these measures, important student services have been severely limited or eliminated. Rather than cutting ancillary staff, we could do a better job of marketing the school and all it has to offer, to those students looking to come in from other districts. The students currently residing in our district are extremely important, offering other opportunities can benefit the school in added revenue with every child that open enrolls in our district. Cromwell-Wright School is one of the few independent school districts that doesn’t have an operating levy approved by the taxpayers. This would be a last resort to increase revenues.

Tags: election 2012, school board, cromwell, candidate, profiles