Thomas Hudock: Candidate Profile

Back to Wheaton Warrenville District 200 School Board

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: WheatonWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Wheaton Warrenville District 200 School Board Age: 66Family: Married.Two Sons, one married and one single.Three Grandchildren.Occupation: Retired Manufacturing ManagerEducation: Bradley UniversityB.S. Industrial Engineering M.S. Industrial EngineeringU.S. Air Force ROTCU.S. Air Force OTS University of Kentucky Certificate in Toyota Production SystemUniversity of Wisconsin Certificate in Total Quality ManagementCivic involvement: CurrentMetropolitan Family Services of DuPage - Board of Directors.City of Wheaton - Chairperson Wheaton Housing Commission.PreviousExecutive Chairperson Cub Scout Pack.Board of Directors and Baseball Coach Glen Ellyn Baseball.Basketball Coach YMCAElected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers How will you address the success of failure of your building referendum? How will you continue to inform the community about your commitment to funding capital projects regardless of the outcome?Should the referendum fail to pass it will be necessary to conduct a detailed review of the districts budget and analyze all expenses. Any questionable budget items will have to be justified and all available funds will need to be documented. An analysis of all maintenance projects will need to be conducted and then each project categorized within a priority scale. Those projects compromising the health or safety of the students would be assigned the highest priority. It would also be necessary to evaluate the existing Business Managers expertise and capability in facilities management given the lack of preventive maintenance to date. Once an effective manager can be identified to direct the efforts and complete the prioritized projects, funding can be released for work to commence. Jefferson School is a separate issue. An independent construction firm should be contacted to estimate the costs to make the necessary modifications to the excess space at Hubble School, converting it to the early childhood facility requirements. Should this prove feasible, funds would have to be identified to schedule this construction.Moving forward, detailed budget information should be shared with the community as needed but not less than annually, so that they can clearly see where and how their tax dollars are being spent. Given all the questions from the community with regard to expense mismanagement, a clear and open process is mandatory for the future.What do you think about the process for measuring student success in your district? Is it adequate? What changes, if any, do you propose?The District Score Card, as presented on their web site, displays scoring that one would conclude the district is doing a fine job in the education of the students. However, the state ranking of District 200 shows that it has been sliding from its' predominate rankings of years past. It would be of value to investigate how the District is working toward compliance to the ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, which was to be in place 2017/2018 time period. Along with this it would be valuable to determine the percentage of faculty that would meet the requirements of the Illinois HQT Plan, Highly Qualified Teachers plan. Given that the current Curriculum Advisors may be a road block to the engagement and independent development of forward thinking high performance teachers, it may prove beneficial to have the Board host informal town hall type meetings with faculty. These meetings would be conducted with no administration or union representatives present to allow free comment from the faculty with regard to their ability to teach and deliver the highest quality education to all levels of students. They could identify obstructions in their path from succeeding and share ideas for improvement. It has been found that Quality Circles, first identified in the Japanese manufacturing environment, have proven to be successful in the educational environment in Japan and US. Implementation of such a concept may be beneficial to the students of District 200.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 of Education has the responsibility to support the Mission Statement of the District "To inspire, educate, challenge and support all students to reach their highest level of learning and personal development". In supporting this Mission the Board must challenge the Administration and Faculty to be the subject matter experts in their appropriate facet of the curriculum and deliver to each student, regardless of ability, the state of the art scope and sequence of the curriculum available. To quantify and guarantee that this deliverable is being achieved, bi-annually the Board should interview subject matter experts from other top districts across the region to measure the performance of the Administration and Faculty. It would also be of value to benchmark District 200 against the top school districts in the state to see the differences in curriculum and instruction delivered to the students.Finally, the District scorecard should implement specific measurable criteria to validate success of implementation and completion of curriculum performance. Then the results of the scorecard should be shared with the customer, student and parent, to secure their input as to how they perceive the value of the service being delivered by the system.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?The district faces two major capital budget issues; one, ignored and neglected preventative facility maintenance of the school facilities in the district and two, a sub-standard learning environment at Jefferson school. The need for a referendum to support these enhancements is nothing more than a disguise to hide the failures of the Administration to perform their job responsibilities to secure, maintain and enhance the learning facilities of the district. The waste of maintenance funding is deplorable. Both Principals and the Facility Business Manager have failed to stay abreast of the needs of their facilities for preventative maintenance. If you review the videos presented on the districts web site for maintenance requirements at each school, you will see that the same pictures of facility deterioration are used multiple times for different schools. Deception?A financial accrual for facility maintenance is common practice in industry and has been ignored by the Administration. The Jefferson School issue could have been addressed with the construction of the Hubble Campus. It is common practice when building new schools today that they are considered multi-use facilities. Hubble, sitting only 60% utilized, could have been built to serve the needs of Jefferson and the middle school requirements. It may still be economically possible to modify some bathrooms at Hubble to accommodate the early childhood population. FYI independent studies by the school board showed that student enrollment would be declining through 2020. As mentioned earlier, intense expense review is warranted before any referendum should be considered.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?The Board of Education has the responsibility to see that the Administration and Faculty is delivering to it customers, students and parents, regardless of ability, the highest quality education which finds students meeting and or exceeding federal and state requirements.If this is accomplished, and the customer of the school environment it being delivered the highest level of service, the issue of choice becomes irrelevant. Furthermore, the Board of Education has the responsibility to hold the Administration and Faculty responsible for the product that they deliver to the customer. Then the Board needs to have transparency in all facets of school district operations, deliver uncompromising financial competency, and displaying an uncompromising commitment to the student.In the end the consumer, student and parent, has the right to seek out what they feel is the highest level of service for their dollar spent on education. If the Board, Administration and Faculty is performing at the highest level of competency, then the consumer will place value on the system that is supported by their tax base.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?The Wheaton Housing Commissions primary responsibility is to administer the Wheaton Housing Assistance program for seniors. As Chairman, I have had the privilege to meet the seniors in need of help to maintain residence in their home. These seniors face daily decisions to spend every dollar they have on medical care, food, utility costs or property taxes. Our average applicant is 72 years of age, lived in Wheaton for over 35 years and has an annual income of $15,900. These seniors and the other 9000 plus senior residents of Wheaton cannot afford this referendum, especially given the variety of alternatives available and ignored by the existing Board. The education of our youth is of utmost importance and demands the highest priority of the community and integrity of the school administration. If you view the operations of other school districts in our region, you will find financially well managed districts, delivering a high quality education to their students. Their students have not taken second place to green roofing systems or hotel like entry ways, but rather experienced an excellent level of education within four walls and a sound roof. Our consumers, students and parents deserve and should demand a superior level of service, delivering the highest product quality, in a lean and teacher empowered environment with no waste and board member, administrative staff and faculty self indulgence.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Dr. Edgar Staren, President Cancer Treatment Centers Phoenix. Pioneered new techniques to treat cancer, won a personal battle over cancer, devoted to family and church.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?My father showed me that ones ethical standards will define your life values, relationships and reputation with family, church, work and charity.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I would not have followed the advice of my high school guidance counselor that told me to pursue a career in engineering rather than architecture.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Architectural Drawing. It challenged me to think beyond the normal four walls and look at the world see what can be done to improve it.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Know yourself, your values and how fortunate you are and to share what you've be blessed with, with those less fortunate.