Marty Lundeen: 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: itascaWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Itasca District 10 School Board (4-year Terms)Age: 47Family: Married, two daughters. 2nd and 3rd grade.Occupation: Former 30year bond trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. Now a stay at home Dad and part time farmer.Education: Attended Iowa State University, Dairy Science.Civic involvement: Itasca Lions Club, Itasca Garden Club (treasurer), IEPTO, Itasca Giving Garden (founder)... www.itascagarden.com (the Daily Herald has run two nice articles about Itasca's Giving Garden.)Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 I'm not running for school board to push an agenda. My main goal is to help the Board make well informed decisions on every issue by putting the time and effort in to fully research and understand the facts and effects of every decision.Key Issue 2 Candidate did not respond.Key Issue 3 Candidate did not respond.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?Candidate did not respond.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?I think Itasca School District 10 is doing a great job of preparing our students. One important reason for this is that District 10 is constantly evolving to meat students needs by always trying to improve. We need to keep pushing this culture of improvement. This will continue to drive our students successes. When our students win, everyone wins. I believe a heathy, strong school district leads to a healthy and strong local economy.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?I am a fiscal conservative and do not favor a tax and spend approach to solving budget problems. But here we are. District 10 is facing a budget crises. We are fast depleting our reserves which, according to the auditors are already too low. According to the 2012 Illinois School Report Card, District 10 already has one of the lowest instructional costs per student in DuPage County and one of the highest ISAT Composite's in DuPage County. There is little room for efficiency cuts in an already efficient district. (I do believe, however, this can be improved on and will dig deep in an effort to make the District more efficient.) Also, there is no chance the state is going to increase school funding. Actually state funding is decreasing. Unfortunately we are now down to two choices. Cut the quality of our education or increase our revenue. District 10 has never asked for a tax increase but, the changing State economic climate is forcing our hand. In order to protect the strength of our local economy, I think we need to vote for the referendum increasing our property taxes approximately $240 per $300,000 of home market value per year. It's either that, or vote no and weaken our kids education, risking the economic health of Itasca. People tend to move into strong school districts and out of weak ones. You get what you pay for.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?If there are any elementary teachers out there who thought they were going to get wealthy teaching 3rd graders, I'm sorry, but they made a poor life choice. Fortunately Itasca District 10 has well grounded, fantastic teachers. Teaching is a great and admirable job that deserves a good, fair pay including modest and fair cost of living increases, modest and fair performance based increases, and modest and fair further education incentive increases. I've met many of District 10's teachers, workers, and administrators and they are a great group of dedicated professionals who deserve to be treated with respect and fairly compensated for their hard work and proven performance. Unfortunately how you would like to do things and the financial reality of the situation rarely agree. It would be irresponsible to run District 10's budget into the red. Without the passing of the referendum, all cost cutting options will have to be on the table and, unfortunately, the quality of education in Itasca would bear the brunt of it.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?Is this a trick question? Of course not.