Maria Curry: 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: NapervilleWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Indian Prairie Unit District 204 School Board (4-year Terms)Age: 53Family: Divorced, 2 childrenOccupation: Alternative Energy ConsultantEducation: Ph.D -Physical Inorganic Chemistry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill MBA- Finance and Marketing, University of ChicagoCivic involvement: Co-founder of Smart Moms, a diverse group of D204 mother's who set up a summer reading and math program for McCarty Elementary school in 2010. Program had over 40 volunteers that reached 150 students. Served as IPPA representative for White Eagle Elementary School 2008 and 2009. Served as volunteer tutor at Quad County Urban League to At Risk Youth from 2009-2010. Active participant in PDAC (Parent Diversity Advisory Council) from 2008 to 2011. Currently provide at least 15 hours per week of free tutoring to students in STEM related subjects.Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Yes, a misdemeanor for driving on a suspended license because I did not pay a speeding ticket when I was a 19 year old college student.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Strengthening STEM education in middle and high school and making sure that a racially and economically diverse group of students have rewarding STEM experiences in D204. This can be done in part by creating a STEM Research Institute where a racially diverse group of Sophomore, Junior and Senior students can participate in world class research projects in conjunction with support from local and national scientists and corporations. This would include efforts to find summer paid internships that would further foster the student's passion for learning.Key Issue 2 Closing the the achievement gap for African Americans and Hispanic students in D204. One approach is to engage the support of community experts to provide free tutoring to students who otherwise can not afford it.Key Issue 3 Supporting multiracial dialogue around the Common Core Curriculum to engage a diverse group of parents to participate and support the initiative so that parents help to develop a roadmap to improve the academic performance of their child.Questions Answers What do you think about the shift to the common core standards? How big a role do you think the board of education should play in setting the curriculum for students and what ideas do you have for changes to the current curriculum?The switch to common core standards is long over due. From this initiative, school age children will be able to benefit from the adoption and inclusion of national and international best practices for Math, Reading, English and Science instruction. Additionally, academic standards will be raised for all Illinois k-12 students and there will be a more reliable k-12 assessment system. This will provide parents with higher quality data on how their child's performance tracks on a national basis so that corrective measures can be made sooner rather than later if their child is not working at the appropriate level in a specific subject. No longer will the state of Illinois present to parents in our District great academic performance results based on an inadequate testing tool like the ISAT. As for the role of the D204 School Board, to my knowledge the board does not set the curriculum for students, instead the role of the board should be to insure through questioning and investigation that the recommended changes are based on peer reviewed nationally recognized research. As a scientist and business manager, I will be very focused on how the standards will increase STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related subjects. Given that future career opportunities for many of our current students will be in these related fields, I believe the goal of D204 should be to have a world class STEM education system. This is not to detract from our superiority in the arts, which I too support. For me this is not an either or but an AND proposition for our students. We can learn a lot from the collaboration between industry and high school's like Nile and create our own world class high school STEM Institute. Another equally important role for the board should include helping parents to fully grasp the changes that are coming to the education system through the common core standards. In this, the Board should take a proactive stance. For example, the board should put forth every effort to work with the D204 Director of Communications and the Superintendent to make sure that over the next year this subject is top of mind for all affected parents in the district. Also, once the changes are clearly understood, the board in conjunction with the D204 Superintendant and local principals should participate in multiple education and outreach public forums to both present relevant information and to answer questions. There should not be any large group or subclass of parents that do not clearly understand the new changes and their role in helping to insure that their child is successful in meeting the new academic standards. Further, regardless of parental support, I do not believe that we have to leave any child behind in this effort to succesfully adopt the core curriculum. D204 Board members and educators simply need to be deliberate in creating an educational environment that encourages all students to have big dreams, high standards and a strong work ethic. It is a great benefit to have parents actively support this new initiative, however neither the Board nor the educators can allow the lack of parental engagement to be an impediment to educating all of the children in this district to their fullest potential. So solutions may include creating a structure in which parent volunteers from other schools are allowed to assist schools that have low parental assistance. This will be especially beneficial for classrooms with 30 or more students and limited financial support to hire an adequate number of school aids.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?Having two students in D204, one that participated in Project Arrow and another who did only regular middle school classes, I can clearly see a strong need to raise the bar for both groups of students but especially for those in regular classes. If my son's father and I had not intervened and pushed our son to do a lot of extra work he would likely have stayed away from Honors and AP classes in high school and therefore have no chance of attending a Division I or some Division II schools. This lack of preparation from middle school to high school in my opinion is due to inconsistency in teacher quality, low student achievement expectations and lack of parental understanding of the full ramifications. The teacher quality and low student achievement expectations hopefully will improve with the common core curriculum which has funding for teacher's to obtain further professional development. Also, more intentional efforts by the school and the school board to have meaningful communication with parents prior to students falling behind can help to set a foundation for positive future engagement and comfort when the subject matter is more serious. Additionally, the board can provide strategic support to make sure that K-12 students who need extra help will have access to excellent, highly motivated tutors who are accomplished in the perspective field of study. Too often parents are given a list of individuals that are neither qualified nor motivated to tutor their children causing frustration, and a waste of valuable time for the student and financial resources for the parents. With the use of IT the District can certainly do better in this area.What budget issues will your district have to confront and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, what programs and expenses should be reduced or eliminated? On the income side, do you support any tax increases?D204 may have to confront a number of issues that relate to the budget. First, in 2012, state aid for D204 declined by 16.4%, this trend will likely continue given the current fiscal condition of Illinois. Secondly, companies like Alcatel-Lucent and BP continue to shrink their work force and commitment to the Naperville area. If this tax base is not replaced it could seriously impact tax revenue that helps to support the District. Thirdly, contract negotiations for the District's certified staff will occur again in 2014. Fourth, the higher common core standards may require the hiring of additional teachers and further reduction in class sizes. In my opinion, over the past five years the District has done a pretty thorough job of obtaining cost reductions at the individual school level. Therefore, in anticipation of future declining revenues for the District, I would propose the following for revenue generation and cost savings. First, no new initiatives for cost savings should occur at the instructional level unless it addresses redundancies at the individual school administrative level (e.g. elimination of some assistant principals). Instead, the focus for savings should probably switch to Transportation and Administration and Business (GA) . For Transportation, school districts across the country are finding that they can save millions by switching part or all of their bus fleet to compressed natural gas as opposed to the current diesel powered engines. District 204 should at the very least learn more about these potential savings and the federal funds that maybe available to offset the switching costs. As for Administration and Business (General and Administration), it might be worth the exercise to have an organization like Mckinsey to map the roles and responsibilities of members of Administration and Business to identify potential savings that can be transferred to Instructional Support. Some cost savings may occur through further leveraging technology and using consultancy groups to perform activities like collecting, slicing and dicing test assessment data. The use of such consultants can reduce overhead expenses while allowing the District to benefit from the external source's vast knowledge of what is occurring across other school district?s. Further, through the use of such support, there may be opportunities at the administrative level to eliminate some director and maybe some specialist positions. On the revenue side, I would encourage the District to sell some real estate and use the income to further pay down debt or make the funds available for instructional support. Also, I would challenge the District to apply for more federal and foundational grants to support STEM and arts related programs. Organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation and the Department of Education to name a few may provide some additional infusion of financial support for our District. This effort could be done by an out side company that is paid for performance thereby eliminating additional overhead expenses. As for taxes, I could not in good conscious ask taxpayers to pay more until I was absolutely sure that at every level of our district, measures have been taken to increase efficiency and eliminate waste.As contract talks come up with various school employee groups, do you believe the district should ask for concessions from its employees, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?Contract discussions are not done in isolation of the realities of the broader economic environment. If the country, the state and the district are fairly prosperous then I think the District staff should receive a decent cost of living adjustment to salary and benefits. However, if the state is about to go bankrupt and the district is under intense financial pressures then shared sacrifice should be requested at all levels, starting at the top.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?No, I believe our administrators and superintendent are properly compensated.