Larry Bury: Candidate Profile

Back to Elgin-Area Unit 46 School Board 4-year terms

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: BartlettWebsite: www.larrybury.orgOffice sought: Elgin-Area Unit 46 School Board 4-year terms Age: 49Family: Wife - Jennifer Daughters - Rebekkah, Amber, Hannah, LilaOccupation: Deputy Director for council of governmentEducation: Master's degree in Urban Planning and Policy Bachelor's degree in Sociology Both fron University of Illinois at ChicagoCivic involvement: U46 Citizens Advisory Council 2012- present Chair, CAC Legislative Committee 2013-14 Member, CAC Executive Committee 2013-14Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers What is your position on standards-based grading, which has been controversial with parents, students and even some teachers? Did the district botch the implementation of this new system? What could it have done differently?We need to modernize our curriculum and evaluation standards to meet the needs of a changing world. The previous grading system, which allowed students earn an "A" grade without demonstrating a mastery of the material, did little to prepare our students for the rigors of college and the modern economy. By holding our students accountable for proving that they have actually learned the material and are fully prepared for the next level, standards-based grading (SBG) will be a cornerstone of our education program. As a parent whose daughters' school already utilizes SBG, I find it easy to identify which areas they are making proper progress and where they need additional assistance. I strongly believe that when SBG is properly deployed, parents and education professionals will find it an extremely valuable tool for evaluating how well our students are absorbing and mastering their lessons. The initial rollout of SBG was inadequately planned and poorly implemented at the secondary level. Standards were never clearly defined, teachers were not given the training necessary for them to understand yet alone deploy SBG, students did not receive consistent guidance as to how this would evaluate their performance and parents were given little information as to how SBG would benefit their students. U46 needs to build on lessons learned from the successful implementation of SBG at Elgin High, ensure standards are clear and consistently deployed, provide teachers the necessary training and tie SBG into the rollout of new curriculum.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 have never worked for any school district. My wife is a teacher in U46. Her 17 years of professional experience combined with her dedication to the educational advancement of her students already provides me with valuable insights as to how the decisions of the U46 Board and administration affect the classroom learning environment.Would you support holding the line on tax increases since the district has emerged from deficit spending and has a healthy surplus of roughly $50 million? Explain why or why not.Fiscal reality prevents me from taking an irrevocable position on tax increases. U46 invests less than $5,900 per student in instructional spending, which is $1,200 less than the state average and far less than many districts in our region. Although the district has a balanced budget on paper and has limited property tax increases to the tax cap, the recent need to issue $40 million in working cash bonds to cover routine maintenance demonstrates that we still cannot afford to keep our facilities in good repair without either borrowing or diverting funding from our already underfunded classrooms. This situation must be addressed to avoid placing additional long-term burdens on taxpayers. With a nearly half billion dollar annual budget, a reserve of $50 million falls far short of "healthy". The Governmental Accounting Standards Board requires public bodies to carry reserves of 25% (three months of operations). U46 would need reserves of over $120 million to satisfy this requirement. Nearly $140 million, or 28% of our budget, comes from Illinois in the form of general state aid and categorical programs. With Illinois' severe budget crisis, it is uncertain if this level of state funding will continue or massively decline. If state funding massively declines, U46 Board members would be forced to make some extremely difficult decisions. I am unwilling to dramatically increase class sizes or otherwise diminish the quality of education in U46 simply to satisfy some irrevocable position I took in order to get elected.Would you support a charter school within U-46? Why or why not?There is clearly a need to expand the diversity of educational opportunities available to our students. I understand how many parents look at the current program for our youngest students and desire alternatives. A "one size fits all" approach to learning simply does not address our entire student body. Innovative approaches to learning tailored to the needs of different groups of students should be fully explored in order to ensure that we produce positive results for all students. U46 already has a successful track record of creating innovative education programs. The School Within a School program is designed for our higher achieving elementary students. The dual language learning program provides a unique opportunity for all students to become multi-lingual. Our five high school academies are a model of innovative educational attainment that school districts nationwide seek to emulate. We must build upon these existing models of success. I pledge to work with our parents and education professionals to explore ways to expand the diversity of opportunities available in U46. I cannot, however, support diverting taxpayer dollars away from our already underfunded classrooms to outside operators with virtually no oversight. As we have seen with recent federal investigations of UNO Charter Schools and Concept Schools, individuals have abused this situation to personally (and perhaps illegally) profit at the expense of students and taxpayers. As a fiscal conservative, I refuse to expose our students and taxpayers to this risk.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? Be specific.State funding reliability is our largest budgetary issue. It is impossible to craft a long-term plan for addressing our numerous fiscal challenges, such as funding routine maintenance, when over a quarter of our budget is uncertain due to the Illinois' budget problems. We have taxpayers severely impacted by the failure of outside governments to correctly calculate the property tax, resulting in massive increases for our DuPage taxpayers over the past two years and Kane taxpayers this year. Their frustration limits options available to address future budget issues. However, fiscal reality precludes me from removing tax increases from the menu of options if the state fails to maintain our funding levels. I strongly support legislation to address the state's inadequate education funding levels and antiquated distribution formula. U46, with a 60% low income student body and an insufficient property base to spread the tax levy, would greatly benefit from equitable distribution of state funds. Meanwhile, we must increase our operational efficiency. One area would be to concentrate some vocational programs at certain schools to improve quality, reduce costs and create new program opportunities. We must ensure that future educational initiatives, such as curriculum and SBG rollouts, are properly planned and implemented to avoid failure and its costly impact on both student achievement and taxpayers. We should review the procurement process to ensure that we are leveraging every possible economy of scale. Finally, the hiring of a new superintendent will allow us to restructure the deployment of our administrative resources.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?The biggest responsibility I face as an incoming Board member is hiring the next superintendent to lead our school district. U46 superintendent should be one of our nation's premier education positions and we need the most talented individual to fill this role. My professional background provides me with experience in identifying and evaluating potential candidates to serve in highly demanding positions that interact with elected officials and the public. Reconfiguring our school boundaries is another critical issue. One corner of our district has overcrowded classrooms while the opposite corner has underutilized space. Balancing the needs of our students, parents and taxpayers when deciding upon the recommended boundary option requires a combination of analytical skills and diplomacy. My professional experience with interpreting demographic data, applied problem solving and working toward compromise in the public policy arena will serve the district well on this issue. During the next four years, the contracts of our employee unions will come up for negotiation. Failure to offer fair and competitive wages and benefits could result in the loss of our most dedicated and talented education professionals from our schools. Yet we also must balance this need with our district's fiscal constraints to avoid placing an additional burden on our taxpayers. My professional knowledge of local government budgeting, tax levies and the labor negotiation process will be an asset when attempting to balance these competing needs.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Chris Christie. As a New Jersey native, I appreciate his blunt and direct approach to leadership.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Don't break the Lenox.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I wouldn't take it. All of my decisions, good and bad, have led me to the point in life where I am today.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Communications 101 because it provided me the skills to communicate in a concise manner with people at all levels.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?If you want to be treated with respect, you must start by treating others with respect.