Dirk Gunderson: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: West ChicagoWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: West Chicago High School District 94 School Board (4-year Terms)Age: Candidate did not respond.Family: marreid, 3 childrenOccupation: Candidate did not respond.Education: BS University of Illinois MBA Northern Illinois UniversityCivic involvement: volunteer coach for many years school board memberElected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Candidate did not respond.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 The most important goal for the next term is to insure a long term plan to improve student performance in academics and extracurricular involvement.Key Issue 2 To use our financial resources most effectively to help our students achieve success without burdening our taxpayers any further.Key Issue 3 To more effectively engage our parents, students and staff so that they may collectively be successful as a community.Questions Answers What do you think about the shift to the common core standards? How big a role do you think the board of education should play in setting the curriculum for students and what ideas do you have for changes to the current curriculum?I like the shift to the common core because it will improve our students abilities to relate to real world issues. The board should be a part of the process and support the administration in order to get the job completed properly. We have recently switched to a weighted grade policy and increased our rigor. It is my goal to push our students more and more each year to be able to compete by increasing course rigor and dual credit programming. We must also communicate and change our courses to relate to current business needs for students that may or may not be going on to college.How satisfied are you that your district is preparing students for the next stage in their lives, whether it be from elementary into high school or high school into college or full-time employment? What changes, if any, do you think need to be made?We need to do more to understand what our business partners need and make sure we align our courses to support our students to be able get full time employment, or go on to college to further their education.What budget issues will your district have to confront and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, what programs and expenses should be reduced or eliminated? On the income side, do you support any tax increases?We have been able to control our costs very effectively and I would not be in favor of burdening our taxpayers anymore. We have been able to add and not cut programs and courses and I hope this will continue by working together with our staff.As contract talks come up with various school employee groups, do you believe the district should ask for concessions from its employees, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?I believe that all employees should be paid what the market can bear for the type of work being performed. We cannot afford to pay all employees the same because the type of work is different for each group. We need to cap some pay for certain positions and no longer pay way above what the private sector can provide in both benefits and pay. I would like to see pay in the future tied to performance and type of work.If your district had a superintendent or other administrator nearing retirement, would you support a substantial increase in his or her pay to help boost pension benefits? Why or why not?I would like to stop this practice for all employees. It is not fair to the taxpayers.