Melanie Impastato: Candidate Profile

Back to Batavia Unit District 101 School Board

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:BioQA Bio City: BataviaWebsite: www.cpf-inc.comOffice sought: Batavia Unit District 101 School Board Age: 44Family: For 20 years years I have been married to David Impastato and together we have three fabulously active children, Samantha Impastato (15) a freshman at BHS, Carson Impastato (11) a 6th grader at RMS and Sophia Impastato(10) a 4th grader at Grace McWayne Elementary school.Occupation: President Claims Processing Facility and Execuitve Director EPI Settlement TrustEducation: Bachelor of Arts, Illinois State University, December 1991 JD, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1997 Admission State of Illinois Bar 1997- present in good standingCivic involvement: Member of Holy Cross Catholic church and previously was a catchiest for 8 years for all three of my children: a member of the Grace McWayne PTO: member of the DuPage County Bar Association:Tournament Director and Fundraising chairman for son's travel baseball team through Batavia Youth Baseball;Elected offices held: District 101 School Board Member June 2013 - present Corporate Officer - Claims Processing Facility Corporate Officer DMI Enterprises, Ltd.Questions Answers How satisfied are you that your school district is adequately 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?If you are totally satisfied you become complacent. There is always room for improvement, especially in an ever changing technologically advancing global economy. District 101 is a fundamentally strong district with a superb foundation, but as the motto indicates the district is "always learning, always growing". The District is still learning to how balance the mandated standardized testing and use that data to better the student experience on a day-to-day basis through enriching curriculum. Also District 101 does a very good job with the low performing student and the average to above average students, but needs to provide better opportunities and results for the gifted students at an earlier age and I want to see earlier interventions and longer interventions for the in-between student who is almost at grade level, but not quite at grade level - those students spend to long teetering on the edge without the extra help they need until they are turned off or its to late or they get to little in terms of extra help. I want those students identified earlier and I want those students helped earlier. I also want to see a return to full day kindergarten provided with full district curriculum. Great strides have been made in the BHS guidance department and I want to continue to see growth in that department because that should be a community resource for the students and the parents as they prepare the students for their next step be it college or full-time employment.What budgetary issues will your district have to confront during the next four years and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, be specific about programs and expenses that should be considered for reduction or elimination. On the income side, do you support any tax increases for local schools? Again, be specific.State funding is an issue that must be addressed and if last session's Senate Bill 16 came to fruition District 101 is a so called "loser" under that funding formula and the lost funds would have to be found elsewhere. Moreover, should Springfield transfer the pension obligations to the local entities, the district will have much greater obligations. If either of these are passed by the General Assembly, we will have to redo our budget and consider program and staffing cuts. I cannot and will not specifically name what programs or how much staff would be cut, I would have to study that in much greater detail. Additionally, we have a significant capital improvements that need to be completed in our District and only a very small portion of the budget dedicated to these projects each year. We need a long term solution to keeping up with the significant investments we have made in our real estate and properties so they do not go into a state of disrepair or become unsafe for our children and end up costing more in the long run. I do not like band-aid approaches to long term problems. Everyone loves saving money, cutting back, and reducing expenses. However, sometimes there is a tendency to focus on the wrong things. While you're busy feeling good about reducing little costs here and there, every once in a while you neglect the larger picture and you end up being penny wise and pound foolish.Are you currently employed by or retired from a school district, if so, which one? Is any member of your direct family - spouse, child or child-in-law - employed by the school district where you are seeking a school board seat?No.As contract talks come up with various school employee groups -- teachers, support staff, etc. -- what posture should the school board take? 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?This past summer, District 101 completed a new 4 year contract with our support staff and a new 3 year contract with the teachers and so it will depend on a variety of factors such as the economy, the tax base, the debt structure of District at the time the next contract talks arrive. I am a firm believer that high quality employees are a heart and soul of a high performing school district. That said,fiscal responsibility is a primary responsibility of a school board member, so it was important last summer for the Board to provide modest COLA type increases for both because of the still fragile and still recovering economy and because that is what the private sector is seeing and that is what our stakeholders are seeing, if anything, in their paychecks. However, BESPA benefits were behind the area marketplace and in order to retain and obtain quality employees the Board recognized we needed to increase some of their health care benefits and the Board did that while still maintaining fiscal responsibility and maintaining a balanced budget.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 do not believe in playing the system to boost pension benefits. Such tactics is one of the reasons why the Illinois pension system is the mess it is in across the board for all covered entities from public officials to officers of the court to IMRF to TRS etc. The pension system relies upon long term planning and long term payments and annuities significant pay hikes at the end of a career wreck havoc on such planning and in the end the pension system cannot sustain such substantial increases that is not how the system was intended and is not how the system is funded over the long term. The pension system cannot sustain such burdens. Moreover, taxpayers find it offensive when for no apparent reason a superintendent or administrator is given a substantial increase in order to play the pension system.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I think is important for a candidate to understand the broad range of issues that come before the board and that as a board member your job is to make policy along with the other board members you work as a team and not as one - to come to the board with your own predetermined agenda is not an effective way to govern because you as one have no individual power. That said, I see issues that the District continues to need to address as continuing to decrease class sizes, work on effective communication plan so that all the stakeholders whether they have students in the District or not feel a integral part of the District, address the social- emotional well being of the students well balancing the mandates of the state and federal government, continue to strengthen the professional responsibility and growth of our educational staff, develop a long term sustainable capital improvement plan, continue to maintain a fiscally responsible budgetary policy, develop an online classroom and reestablish curriculum based full day kindergarten.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Malala Yousazai is a champion of education and represents the ideal that education is the key to individual, community and global success.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?To listen and when you fail try again and always give big hugs!If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?I don't believe in do-overs, everything happens for a reason and learning comes from experience, especially, mistakes and failures. I do believe in second chances.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?History. Hopefully, we learn from our past experiences and our past mistakes and take our past experiences to enhance our future endeavors.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?To find a pursuit that speaks to both their dreams and their skills so that ultimately they are happy and contributing members of society.