Robert Fieseler: 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: NapervilleWebsite: www.bobfornaperville.comTwitter: NoneFacebook: Bob FieselerOffice sought: Naperville Unit District 203 School Board Age: 61Family: Wife: Mary Ellen (married 37 years)Children: Bobby (36; lives in Boston, MA), Lauren (Fieseler) Molloy (34; lives in Naperville, IL); Billy (32; lives in Aurora, IL); Anne (27; lives in Columbus, OH)Grandchildren (Riley - born on 2/2/2017; Josephine - expected to be born in early-March 2017)Occupation: Patent AttorneyEducation: BS, Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (1977)MS, Operations Research and Statistics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (1978)JD, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (1984)Civic involvement: Naperville City CouncilNaperville Development Partnership Technology CommitteeDuPage Mayors and Managers Conference - Regulatory Issues CommitteeNaperville Public Library, City Council Liaison to the Board of DirectorsKidsMatter Board of Asset TrusteesNaperville Heritage Society, DirectorSchool District 203, Education for the 21st Century Task ForceFriends of Fermilab Science Education Foundation, DirectorNaperville Central High School, Band Boosters PresidentElementary, Jr. High and High Schools, Lecturer and Program LeaderBoy Scouts, District and Troop LeaderYouth Sports, Coach, 22 seasonsReligious Education LeaderChurch and Youth group musicianElected offices held: Naperville City Councilman, 2007-2015 (two terms)Questions Answers With growing concern around mental health and addiction, what should the district do to build mentally healthy students, support the mental health of students who have mental illnesses and help students avoid addiction?The district should develop and promote collaborative relationships with community organizations that have had success in helping students and their parents to recognize, avoid, treat, and in the case of substance usage, recover from the mental illnesses and addictions that the schools are not adequately equipped to handle. Such community organizations include Naperville-based KidsMatter and its counterpart ParentsMatterToo, Samaritan Interfaith Counseling, Linden Oaks, Rosecrance, Hazelden, A Man In Recovery, Genesis Clinical Services, and dozens of others.Research and a local opinion survey have shown there could be benefits to starting the school day later for junior high and high school students. What changes, if any, do you think should be made to the school schedule and why? How should the district adjust class periods, teacher preparation time, busing, student activities or other factors to account for any schedule changes?Teenage students don't function well when they're made to wake up early. Younger students wake up early and function well. So common sense says that elementary school starting times should be switched with high school starting times. Morning and afternoon bus schedules and facility operations would need to be adjusted. Athletic and after-school activities would have to be scheduled differently as well. Board members should all do their homework on this topic and then come to a workshop to present their views, debate the relative benefits of such a change, and then make a prompt final decision in open session. Any change of this magnitude should be evaluated after one year to mediate negative consequences that may have been minimized or unforeseen.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?The board should study the facts and recommendations of the professional educators within the district, then adopt those recommendations best supported by the facts. Board members should not let their anecdotal experiences weigh nearly as much as the professional recommendations.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 or fee increases?With less than half of the district's households sending their kids to public schools, our community will become increasingly populated with empty nesters on their way to senior citizenship. This trend will continue over the next 10-15 years as these empty-nest households increase in proportion to households with students in the schools. This trend will reverse around 2030, when most of the current empty nesters, mostly baby-boomers, will have left their current homes for homes more conducive to senior living. Meanwhile, young families will be moving into those departed homes. So in the near-term, the school board should avoid property tax increases and instead work with staff attrition. Approximately 80% of the expenses to run a governmental service organization, like the school district, is made up of staff salaries, benefits and deferred compensation (pension benefits). So the way to limit or reduce expenses is to manage headcount. The number of teachers should be set as an outcome of the annual budget process. However, when back office positions are vacated due to attrition, it should be used as an opportunity to "stress the system". In this regard, the department in which the attrition occurred should be made to wait 3-6 months before filling a vacated position. Department heads should then be made to justify why the work formerly handled by the departed employee could not be distributed among the remaining staff members within the department. If then justified, the position can be filled.What role can and should school choice play in your district? If Congress or the state approves a voucher system or other means giving students broader choices among public and private schools, how will that affect your district? What is the appropriate response for the board of education of a public school system?Families should have a choice as to which schools their students should attend, whether public or private. A voucher system would obviously make it easier for families to send their students to private schools, while at the same time depriving the school district of funds otherwise available for operations. Since households with private school students benefit from having a high-quality public school system available to them, both in terms of enhancing property values and providing a backup option if the private school experience doesn't work out, users of vouchers should pay a fair but limited amount to maintain the quality of the public school system. Also, if a student using a voucher decides to rejoin the public schools, the voucher amount should be prorated with the school district receiving back value for the remaining portion of the school term the voucher was meant to cover.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Vocational opportunities should be made available to students in the upper grades who aren't natural book-learners. Much of the school district's attention has been focused on gifted-student and special-education programs. Vocational programs abound in our community, including union-sponsored apprenticeships in the construction, electrical and plumbing trades, as well as culinary and other programs for which a 4-year college degree is not required. College preparation, while important to many students, should not be the default for all students, particularly for those who aren't suited to indoor desk jobs.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Tim Ryan, founder of A Man In Recovery. After his son died of a heroin overdose, Tim dedicated his life to addiction recovery.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?It's not the setback, it's the comeback.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Serving in the military upon graduation from college. The military would have hastened my becoming a man.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Spanish. I became fluent by the time I graduated high school and now speak Spanish every day in my work and every-day life.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?It always works out.