The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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Q Are the schools and teachers ready for the new school year?

A I am really pleased with the progress that we made at Village. They had a very short construction timeline. The contractors have done a great job and the architect has done a great job getting the work done in a short amount of time. We have some remodeling and renovation work at Lowther South and that is going well. The schools will be ready and the teachers will be ready. I just wish we didn’t start school so early, but that is the way the calendar came together this year.

Q School assessment scores have been good for the district. Can that success continue?

A For the last eight years with state assessments we have been improving with every sub group. That is function of the hard work of the staff, kids and parents. It is one measure of how well our schools are doing, and I don’t think there is anything more important than reading and math. We will always continue to improve our scores.

But that is really the flaw of No Child Left Behind, because there is no real way to have 100 percent of students be at proficient. We made a consciousness decision out of our strategic planning process that our goal was not to make AYP but our goal was to continue achievement for every student.

Q What will happen with No Child Left Behind under the Obama administration?

A There is some talk about simplifying it and changing it. The question becomes in 2014 when we are all supposed to be proficient then what happens? Some will some won’t. Does the program go away?

Q What are the school budgets like for this year?

A I have been doing this for more than 20 years and this is the worst year ever. It is not about the state running out of money, or our valuation going down. It’s really how the school finance formula’s set up to be a year behind were it needs to be in order to address poverty issues in school districts. This has been a bad year and I think it will just get worse over the next couple of years.

Q Are you going to look at shutting any schools down?

A We are having an efficiency study being done by the Center of Innovative Leadership at Emporia State University. They are gathering data right now and we working on a steering committee. They are going to look at all our programs, scheduling, transportation. They are going to give some objective feedback about how we can be more efficient.

Q Is there still a shortage of teachers or has the economy changed that situation?

A There is no teacher shortage anymore. It really changed overnight. I know some young, very good teachers coming out of Emporia State that have had trouble finding jobs.

Q You spent your summer in the classroom. What did you teach?

A I taught two classes this summer. The superintendence and schools facilities.

Q What advice do you have for kids today?

A Things are really more difficult now than when you or I were in school. You hear people say, “School is just like it was when I was in school” but that is really just a fallacy. Kids today have to work harder and they are smarter today. For instance when I was in school kids would know their ABC’s by the first grade. Today kindergarteners are expected to know them. Some kids need to work harder today and some need to take a little time smell the roses.

Q Things may be more advanced today for students, but studies suggest we are very far behind our European counterparts. Can we ever catch up?

A That depends on what data you look at. There are some general statistics that we don’t do as well. But it is hard to find a test that compares apples to apples. If you take our top 15 to20 percent against their top 15 to 20 percent, our kids will do as well or better. But the difference between our education systems is that we educate all kids who walk through our door, while in foreign nations they don’t educate everyone. So that is really a big difference.