Becky Kotsinis: Candidate Profile

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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:BioQA Bio City: GurneeWebsite: www.beckykotsinis.comOffice sought: Gurnee District 56 School Board Age: 38Family: Husband: George Kotsinis Children: Angie (13) James (9) and Leo (2)Occupation: Substitute teacher, Lake Forest District 67Education: Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Indiana University, foreign exchange student in London, EnglandCivic involvement: Member of the Gurnee Exchange Club, Member of the Friends of the Library at Warren Newport Public Library, Weekly volunteer reading partner at Prairie Trail School, Volunteer: Destination Imagination team managerElected offices held: Elected member of Gurnee District 56 Board of Education (April 2007-present)Questions Answers How satisfied are you that your school district is adequately 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?Our district is very strong in the arts and has built an award-winning theater and music department. I'm also very satisfied with the gifted education options offered for high performing math students in our district. Our district has also recently expanded its gifted reading program to an additional school to encompass more students. I would also like to see a stronger science program offered to complement the math education opportunities our students already enjoy. Our award-winning one-to-one iPad program gives our students unique opportunities to enhance learning in all of their subjects. But we still need to work with all of our curriculum experts to move beyond simply providing the technology and find ways to better integrate these new tools into every aspect of our learning environment. I would also like to see a reduction in class sizes.What budgetary issues will your district have to confront during the next four years and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, be specific about programs and expenses that should be considered for reduction or elimination. On the income side, do you support any tax increases for local schools? Again, be specific.The district has done an excellent job working with its union to avoid staff reductions without increasing the tax burden on our citizens. We have accomplished this by sharing resources with other governmental agencies where appropriate, by seeking external grants to supplement our technology budget to avoid unnecessary spending and by consistently budgeting within our means.Are you currently employed by or retired from a school district, if so, which one? Is any member of your direct family - spouse, child or child-in-law - employed by the school district where you are seeking a school board seat?I am a substitute teacher in Lake Forest District 67. None of my family is employed by Gurnee District 56.As contract talks come up with various school employee groups -- teachers, support staff, etc. -- what posture should the school board take? 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?Our district must work to be fair to all of its employees, but we must live within our means. Our teachers have made concessions in important areas to help our district stay on budget. One example is, since April 1, 2013, all new teachers hired including candidates with a master's degree and candidates with prior teaching experience, are hired at the lower Bachelor +0 years experience pay rate. So far, these cuts have not greatly impacted our ability to recruit quality teachers into our school, but I feel that if we continue to ask for concessions from our teachers, we may have difficulty bringing in top talent in the future. That in turn could affect the quality of education that our district offers. We have a duty to our taxpayers to contain costs where we can, but the role of a teacher or staff member in a school is a difficult one, and one which should be compensated appropriately.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 feel that our district already provides more than adequate compensation for our district administrators including our superintendent. I believe that it is the job of the school board to represent the economic interests of the taxpayers in our district, and, as a member of the school board for the past 8 years, I have worked with the rest of board to contain our executive pay and even voted against our most recent superintendent contract for precisely that reason. I therefore see no reason to further burden taxpayers by increasing executive pay leading up to retirement.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Recently, class sizes have begun trending upwards. If this trend continues, it will make the job of our teachers far more difficult and eventually may impact the quality of our instruction. Our district needs to address this issue by working with our administrators and teachers to balance workload and bring class sizes back to manageable levels. We also have been weakening our school library instruction by replacing qualified librarians with less experienced staff who are not trained in library sciences. The knowledge economy of the 21st century requires that we teach our students how to research subjects and sort vast amounts of information. These are skills best taught by trained librarians not teachers or aides who are not trained in the library sciences. I propose we reevaluate this practice and work to identify or train from within resources who can fill this critical gap in our instruction. Finally, our district has done a good job in the past of working with other local governmental entities; however, one area where we have done poorly is in coordinating our district calendar with the local high school district and our local park district. I propose that before we finalize our district calendar each year, we coordinate, whenever possible, with the local high school and park district, to ensure that parents who have older students in the high school or who rely on the park district for after school care and summer programs for younger children, don't have multiple conflicting schedules to juggle.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Muffet McGraw, University of Notre Dame Women's basketball coach. She cares about students' academic and athletic success as well as them as human beings.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Compassion. When my Grandfather took me to see his friends and family, he listened fully. He would share with me why that person was important.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would have spent more time talking with my late Grandfather. We shared special memories together when I was young. He was my role model.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Music: I played in all-state honors orchestra Northwest Indiana Youth Symphony. I substitute taught in area school districts including three long-term music positions.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Treat yourself and others with genuine respect.