Keith DeVore: 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: 29Family: MarriedCivic Involvement:Occupation: Research Budget Analyst for Lake County GovernmentEducation: Master's Degree in Public Policy and Administration #8211; Northwestern University / Bachelor of Arts Degree in English #8211; Illinois State UniversityCivic involvement: I have worked on state and local government campaigns. I am a member of my townhome association board. Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Providing teachers with the necessary resources to give our districts children a world class education. Key Issue 2 Ensuring fiscal responsibility for the taxpayers of our district.Key Issue 3 Challenging the status quo. Adjusting to changing demographics in our district and providing our students with more technical expertise needed to excel in a 21st century workplace. Questions Answers Do you have concerns about staffing being too high considering fewer children are in the system? Explain your answer.I believe we are living in a world of great fiscal constraint and many challenges will need to be met over the next four years. That being said, I do not like to say staffing levels are too high or too low. I believe we need top quality educators to provide our children a world class education. Staffing levels should meet the requirements of the children in the system, I believe in top quality educators to meet the needs of those children. It is not about the number of teachers in a district, it is about the quality of the teachers in the district. How should the district approach the next teachers union contract talks? Would you be willing to pursue salary cuts or freezes? Explain your answer.There will be extremely challenging fiscal issues facing this district over the next few years. I think all ideas should be on the table. Salary cuts or freezes is one way to save money in times of great fiscal restraint. However, I do not like to make broad stroke comments that salary cuts or freezes are necessary to ensure fiscal responsibility. I would rather look at these negotiations holistically and come up with a deal that is fair to the taxpayers, our students, and our teachers. 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?I work in the budget office of Lake County government so I believe there are many ideas to provide cost savings. One idea is looking into renegotiating vendor contracts. Taking a look at all expenditures and seeing if we can't find a better deal through our procurement. 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 am not yet privy to all of the information. From a distance this does seem like one area that conveys frivolous spending. However, as someone that is not entitled to all of the information it is often difficult to understand the context of certain expenditures. When you are working in public finance it is important to understand what expenses are necessary for the quality of that organization and what expenditures need to be halted? I like to look at a public institutions finances as a whole and understand where are the real cost savings to that organization. Are current class sizes too large? If so, how would you address the issue, including funding the solution?It is difficult to say if current class sizes are too large, there is research to suggest this is both true and false. I believe it is the quality of the educator that truly matters. Our district needs to recruit, train, and retain the most qualified teachers they can find, which I believe they are. It is then the responsibility of the school board to give our teachers and administrators every fiscally responsible resource they need to be successful. They are the subject matter experts, and top quality teaching is what is going to give our students the education they need to compete in a globally shifting workplace. Great teachers will find a way to teach their students the lessons needed to be successful, no matter how large the class size is.