William T. Geheren: 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: HuntleyWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Consolidated D158Age: 42Family: Married (Mia), Michael (15), Tommy (7), Charlie (5), Danny (3)Occupation: Director of Sales, Loyola Press, Chicago, ILEducation: Saint Mary's University (Winona, MN), BA - Marketing, Management and AccountingCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected 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 Providing the best possible education for students, but only within realistic financial constraints.Key Issue 2 Focus on attracting, retaining and training the best teachers who will be able to provide a superior education for our children.Key Issue 3 Special needs students must continue to be a priority in the district.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 believe the district is doing a high quality job preparing students for each of the levels that will ultimately lead to full-time employment. I believe it is the job of the school board to continue to strive to be the best in the state of Illinois at preparing our students.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?In Huntley growth of the community and class size will continue to be a challange. It is critical to contunue to support efforts that will continue to facilitate the growth, while taking into account families that are struggling financially becuase of the economy. If a modest tax increase was the best way to accomplish critical growth goals of the district, it would need to be considered.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 have minimal experience as a teacher (2 years) and I believe that the most important asset to any school are the people they have employed. I believe my expereince as a teacher will help provide educational insights. I have no experiences with unions, so I don't have a comment on that.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?Being new to the board, I would need to have more insight on where things currently stand. I do believe that employee retention is critical to running a successful organization and that conpensation and benefits need to be fair to retain your best employees.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?Again, I would need more information before being able to answer this question. My assumption is that the superintendent or other administrator would be receiving fair compensation and would not need a substantial increase to help boost pension benefits.