The real questions for school candidates

It is difficult in our current political climate to stay issue oriented.

In such an effort, I posed the question to an incumbent District 15 board member. What are the top five issues for you:

1. Upkeep of aging buildings

2. Maintaining financial strength - the current board has had a series of balanced budgets

3. Increase our "at-risk" preschool enrollment - currently District 15 has 200 kids on the waiting list. District 15 simply does not have the space to enroll all who qualify. When we are able to place at-risk kids in pre-K classes, we are able to decrease our special education enrollment and save money.

4. All-day kindergarten - the benefits of all-day kindergarten are measurable into the fifth and sixth grades. This will also decrease our need for special education.

5. Redefining middle school as sixth through eighth grades. Most current curriculums are based on this model.

Amazingly, who uses which bathroom did not make the top five - although simply re-labeling/re-signing one or couple bathrooms in a school as gender neutral has worked well in many, many schools and school districts.

I would like to hear responses from all the candidates in District 15 and District 211 to the same question: What are the top five issues confronting your district and how do you propose the board and the community address them?

Bruce J Goldberg

Palatine