Terry Hall: 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: 61Family: One son, Daniel Johnston, of Seattle, WashingtonOccupation: Certified Public AccountantEducation: BA Business and Accounting, Barat College, 1984CPA University of Illinois, 1985Civic involvement: Member Woodland District 50 school boardElected offices held: Woodland District 50 school board memberHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Woodland District 50 currently does an excellent job educating our district's children. My goal is to protect our community's investment in the schools by maintaining our high standards within a budget our community can afford. I am committed to aggressively protecting the district's current revenues and controlling the growth of expenditures to keep them within the community's means.Key Issue 2 In partnership with our district's excellent and committed teaching staff, I want to find creative solutions to maintain excellence in education within our budget and with the least possible loss of jobs.Key Issue 3 I believe we can increase community involvement in our schools in a number of ways which will benefit the students and the non-school community members. We can find ways to reward individuals who volunteer their time in various capacities, and we can provide services to the community as a whole.Questions Answers Do you have concerns about staffing being too high considering fewer children are in the system? Explain your answer.As enrollment declines, the need for core classroom teaching staff will also slowly decline. I believe other teaching staff is at an appropriate level for the time being. It is too early to predict whether budget constraints will require staff reductions beyond those already enacted in the last few years, but creative solutions will be required to avoid further reductions.How should the district approach the next teachers union contract talks? Would you be willing to pursue salary cuts or freezes? Explain your answer.Labor and labor-related costs account for about 85% of the controllable expense budget, most of which are dictated by the union contract. The contract covers teaching staff and most other district staff members, and it also dictates many of the benefit terms. To live within our means, these costs must decline, and there are only three ways to achieve a decline: Salary reductions, benefit reductions, or staff reductions. My preference is to solve our deficit problem throughh the first two, and to protect our staffing level and our staff's job security as much as possible. Our excellent staff members are reasonable people and just as committed to the long-term health of the district as the administration and board members, and I expect they will work hard to help us find solutions which best serve all parties while continuing to provide a high standard of education to the district's children.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?First, we need to aggressively protect our existing revenue sources, and we are taking steps in that direction. I believe the state's decision to fund Prairie Crossing Charter School with monies taken from our district was a mistake and should be changed. In addition, we should, when we can, encourage new development which will add to our tax base, and we should carefully review other events which lower our tax base to see if they can be reversed.Second, we need to control expenditures by getting better consistency and predictability over recurring expenses. We have begun that already in several areas of long-term contracts, and need to continue that work.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?Car allowances should be examined in context with other travel expenses and reimbursements, and reduced overall if savings can be realized.Are current class sizes too large? If so, how would you address the issue, including funding the solution?Class sizes are currently within the targeted range for almost all classrooms, and sizes in the earlier grades are smaller than in the higher grades. Between the core classes and the additional education staff, sufficient instruction and individual attention are available for all students. At present, there are no data suggesting that the learning experiences of students are diminished because of class size.