Monica L. Clark: 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: HampshireWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Community Unit D300Age: 55Family: Husband: Tim Daughter: Ann Son: T.J.Occupation: Sales agent; State Farm Ins.Education: Bachelor's degreeCivic involvement: Hampshire Area ChamberCUSD 300 board member NAIFA (National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors) member and past president of the Elgin ChapterElected offices held: School board memberHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Fiscial responsibility for the district.Key Issue 2 Continue to improve academic rigor and be an educational leader in technologies within the classroom.Key Issue 3 Accountability for every single employee of the district.Questions Answers What prompted you to run for the D300 board? If you're a newcomer, how will you make a difference? If you're an incumbent, how have you made a difference?I was not satisified with my children's edcuational experience and decided to run. I was appointed chair of the EPRT process. The process was already being utilized by the district but the committee has helped to get a complete understanding of how beneficial this process can be when looking at the money spent on a program and if the program is still meeting the needs of the students. It has become am accountability tool used to help evaluate the viability of programs. Over the past three years, many programs have been improved upon and money was saved or utilized to better serve the students and it is used by adminstrators to help determine budget funding.With significant budget cuts already made and more on the horizon, how do you propose the district maintain teaching standards? Please be specific.That is a tough question and normally I would refer you back to the experts but to answer the question, I would establish standards and accountability for all building administrators, particularly principals. Without strong leadership and accountability at the top teaching standards and morale will continue to decline. To lead in this new technological arena we must continue to provide resources to the classroom teachers. I would like to institute pay for performance and some real competition among the different school levels.If various unions fail to meet a list of concessions to save the district about $5.2 million, administrators warn cuts would hurt students. What is your approach to contract talks?I have never been involved in union contract negotiations before so my expectation of how negotiations should go and what actually occurs are entirely different. I would like to see some realistic and honest negotiating from the union. We, the board made some financial decisions last year based on conversations with the union leaders that didn't materialize. The board took them at their word last year and now we need to be fiscally responsible to tax payers. The district has a finite amount of funds to run the district. Taxpayers are no longer willing to fund the spending when 95% of the budget goes towards teachers salaries and benefits especially when so many of our families are out of work. We need to challenge the business model school districts are currently operating under.Should the district continue to provide programs that receive funding from the state, but are not mandatory? If so, which ones?I am going to go cautiously here. Deficit spending is not sustainable. Though I feel many of the programs we offer are beneficial they are no longer something we can afford. Public schools were meant to educate a large number of students. The responsibility of any school district is to educate and prepare all students for either a technical path or attend a univeristy. This is the basic responsibility of any school district. Somewhere we have strayed from the fundemental tenets of educating all students for their future success as adults.What changes can the new superintendent make to ensure the best educational opportunities for students in District 300?I plan to support Mr. Michael Bregy. He has a clear perspective what the future of the district will look like. Through his leadership he will establish educational goals and implement ways to achieve them. He recognizes this district has many talented people and he wants to use those talents to benefit students in the district. I am looking forward to working with Mr. Bregy and his progressive ideas and leaderhip style.