Chris A. Schrantz: Candidate Profile

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:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: GurneeWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Woodland Elementary D50Age: 48Family: Married to Jane. Daughters Katie and Abby, who attend Warren Township High School and are Woodland graduates, and Lizzie who is in third grade at Woodland.Occupation: Vice President, Finance and Business Services - Allendale AssociationEducation: Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting, Saint John's University, 1985Juris Doctor Degree, University of Wisconsin Law School, 1989Certified Public Accountant, State of IllinoisCivic involvement: Youth basketball, softball and soccer coach for Gurnee Park DistrictSt. Vincent DePaul Society soup kitchen volunteerParticipate annually in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk to Cure DiabetesElected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Managing the district's financial resources wisely during this difficult budgetary period to maintain the quality educational experience for our students. One way to do this would be to implement a 15% co-pay for employees' health insurance benefit, which at a modest after-tax monthly cost per employee of approximately $75 would save the district more than $1.1 million annually.Key Issue 2 Restore two additional nights of custodial service for the classrooms, using $100,000 from the $1.1 million in savings from the employee health insurance co-pay recommendation noted above. The cleaning schedule was reduced from five nights per week to just once per week this school year, which I don't believe contributes to a healthy learning environment for the teachers and students.Key Issue 3 Develop partnerships with the other local school districts, park district, area businesses and civic organizations to save costs and create additional educational opportunities for children and adults.Questions Answers Do you have concerns about staffing being too high considering fewer children are in the system? Explain your answer.The district has reduced its staffing numbers by 50 positions or 5.4% since 2004, while student enrollment has declined by 158 students or 2.2% during this period. From these actions and discussions that I have had with district staff, I believe that the staffing levels are appropriate for the current enrollment. With the enrollment projected to decline 2.4% further from 6,887 students to 6,720 by 2015, I think that the district should reduce its staffing proportionately during this period by analyzing position openings created through departures and retirements, and not filling selected openings to arrive at a 2.4% reduction by 2015.How should the district approach the next teachers union contract talks? Would you be willing to pursue salary cuts or freezes? Explain your answer.I think that the district needs to work cooperatively with the teachers union during the upcoming contract negotiations in recognizing these difficult economic times for families. I do not advocate pursuing salary reductions at this time but do think that a salary freeze or reduced annual increase from the current 4% needs to be considered in balancing the overall budget and avoiding additional staff lay-offs.Woodland has been cutting its budget and coming up with ideas for more revenue in recent years. What other ideas do you have for strengthening finances?As noted above in my Campaign Issue Number 1, implementing a 15% health insurance co-pay from employees would save more than $1.1 million annually and strengthen the district's financial position in the face of future increases by sharing this cost with employees. Because employee salaries and benefits make up close to 80% of the overall budget, I believe that we first need to look at these areas to improve the district's finances. I personally think that overall, employee salaries are reasonable which means that we need to look at the benefit structure and insurance costs for administration and staff as areas in which to achieve cost savings while offering competitive and equitable benefits to our employees.As noted in my Campaign Issue Number 3 to develop partnerships with other organizations, the district should look seriously at combining functions such as transportation to save costs, such as the Gurnee Grade School and Warren Township High School districts are doing. We should also explore ideas to form collaborations for purchasing and other functions, as well as seeking additional opportunities for renting facility space to interested groups.A Daily Herald analysis found District 50 spent $1,800 a year on car allowances for administrative employees. Do you support continuing that expenditure? Why or why not?I do not support continuing this expenditure. I believe that there are greater priorities for the district's resources and that the compensation for our administrative employees is sufficient without including a car allowance.Are current class sizes too large? If so, how would you address the issue, including funding the solution?Based upon my attendance at Board meetings and listening to the Board members and administration officials, I don't think that the current class sizes are too large but have reached a limit where we should try to prevent further increases in order to continue providing the highest quality education for our students.