Joe Oberweis: 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: Sugar GroveWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Kaneland Community Unit D302Age: 30Family: I am married to Jennifer Oberweis, and we have 3 kids: Drew (6), Evan (4), and Reese (21 months).Occupation: President and CEO, Oberweis DairyEducation: MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern UniversityBA, Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCivic involvement: Member, Young Presidents OrganizationMember, Economic Club of ChicagoElected offices held: None.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Improving education qualityKey Issue 2 Improving education quality without increasing costKey Issue 3 Improving education quality without increasing cost and applying effective aspects of a business mindset.Questions Answers How satisfied are you that your district is preparing students for the next stage in their lives, whether it be from elementary into high school or high school into college or full-time employment? What changes, if any, do you think need to be made?I am not satisfied with the education quality. When compared to Batavia, St. Charles, Geneva, Oswego, and Aurora, only Aurora produces worse results in regards to high school test scores. Oswego, for example, spent roughly 19% less than Kaneland per student in 2010 and achieved better test results. St. Charles and Batavia spent 1% and 3% more and achieved significantly better test results. Therefore, my predisposition is that this isn#146;t about money.However, my thought process is to enter with an open mind. I#146;m not a candidate coming to the table with my own agenda. I#146;m coming with a curiosity about the issues, a problem-solving mindset, and a motivation to add value to produce the best education possible. I anticipate asking many questions and learning about the school district rather than grandstanding with my own agenda.Besides providing a stronger foundation for our children, I also believe a better reputation for the school district has the potential to increase residential property values.What budget issues will the district have to confront? What measures do you support to address them? If cuts are needed, be specific about programs and expenses that should be reduced or eliminated. Do you support any tax increases for local schools?I know the district has already had to make very difficult choices and will likely have to make further difficult choices. Unfortunately, this is a reality of the economic climate we#146;re currently in. I believe my background in business can help the Board weigh the difficult decisions with the reality of the real world. There aren#146;t many silver bullets or easy solutions. Success takes a huge amount of hard work and cooperation. I#146;d like to be part of a team working hard, smart and together to solve the problems that confront the district.I can provide a small example with the caveat that this is just an idea, and there may be real reasons why it wouldn#146;t work. Given that we have to make financial cuts, my thought is that rather than cutting one program and leaving another, let#146;s use the money we have as a matching fund that allows district organizations (i.e. student groups) that have been funded by the district in the past to fundraise and collect a match from the district. This would allow those groups who do the hard work of fundraising (and therefore demonstrate their commitment) to earn funding. Each group from their own perspective rightfully feels that theirs is the most important, but this approach allows those conflicting views to be settled fairly based on commitment and hard work. Everyone is then treated fairly and each group#146;s commitment is what can determine their funding level rather than administrators and Board members trying to judge the value of each program.Is experience as a teacher or support from a union valuable because it suggests educational insights or detrimental because it creates pro-teacher bias? Please clarify whether you have such experience or would accept union support.I am the president and CEO of Oberweis Dairy with approximately 1,000 employees operating in 7 states. I do not have any pro- or anti- teacher bias nor formal teaching experience.I do not believe the Board of Education should be composed solely of teachers and education administrators, but I certainly believe they lend valuable insight to the discussion given their experience. I would neither want them excluded from nor comprising the entire board. I think diversity of thought is valuable at arriving at the best decisions. For example, my wife was a teacher prior to our children being born, and her perspective on performance-related pay modified my view. I am strongly in favor of paying the best teachers the most, but I also now appreciate that the real challenge is how to do this.I entered my candidacy because I believe the perspective of someone running a business every day is valuable. I believe that perspective is seriously underweighted on the Board and can provide significant insights. While education isn#146;t identical to business, there are certainly many similarities such as addressing the needs of many stakeholders, the economic job of allocating scarce resources (capital, time, focus, etc.), and continually having difficult decisions to make.I would accept union support unless I believed the support was due to the wrong motivation. Our teachers are a huge part of improving the educational quality in our district, but I would anticipate their support to come from a desire to improve the district (rather than wanting disproportionate weight to any one group of stakeholder#146;s interests). In addition, I absolutely believe that each person#146;s motivation is critical to assess. I#146;ve entered my candidacy because I want my young children to have a great education without having to move out of the district. I would hope all candidates are running solely to build the district as a whole and not to over-represent one group of stakeholders.As contract talks come up with various employee groups, what posture should the board take? Do you believe the district should ask for concessions, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?Without more insight into the current contract, clear benchmarking data, and other research available to the Board, I cannot render a fair answer to this question. I believe these discussions have to be about both sides understanding the other. For example, health care costs are skyrocketing. In 4th quarter 2010, the first renewal quote from the major Illinois carrier we received was a staggering 32%. That#146;s a reality that everyone #8211; the Board, administrators, employees, and the community #8211; have to come to grips with. Negotiations often become about ego with both sides trying to win. Each party is trying to claim the most for itself (often referred to as #147;zero-sum#148;, #147;win-lose#148; or #147;distributive negotiation#148;). My experience is that often times there are ways to change the focus to ways both parties can help each other (#147;win-win#148; or #147;integrative negotiation#148;). By way of illustration, let#146;s say we#146;re trying to divide a pie. Too often, negotiators spend all their time focusing only on getting the biggest slice of the pie rather than trying to make the pie as large as possible. I#146;d rather have 40% of a 10x pie than 60% of a 5x pie.If your district had a superintendent or other administrator nearing retirement, would you support a substantial increase in his or her pay to help boost pension benefits? Why or why not?I think this is an unfortunate outcome of a systematic problem. This is an #147;agency dilemma#148; where each local Board of Education can create higher compensation for an employee at the cost of the Teacher#146;s Retirement System of Illinois. I wish at my business we could pay our employees more at the expense of State. That would certainly help our profits. In other words, the calculation of defined benefit pension payments has become a thinly veiled subsidy by the Teachers#146; Retirement System in favor of local districts.I think the practice is not good, but school districts are competing with each other for talent. I think the way the system is designed, it is difficult for one district to cease the practice without all districts doing so as well. I am strongly in favor of fixing the problem statewide and eliminating the ability for this to happen. It has the appearance of cronyism to me (which, I suspect, is how the practice began).However, we have to recognize that the people we select to run our district are critical to improvement. Therefore, if this is the only way to be competitive with other districts to attract the best talent, districts may effectively have no choice. A young, talented administrator might be turned away from a district that is unwilling to provide this perceived #147;benefit.#148;In summary, I am against this practice, but the system creates a competitive disadvantage for any district not willing to follow it. Therefore, I#146;d have to choose between making a decision I don#146;t like philosophically and making a decision that renders our district with a competitive disadvantage. I would advocate and support a change in the system, but I would intend to not sacrifice the district#146;s competitive position to take a philosophical stand.