Dale Ott: 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: MedinahWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Medinah District 11 School Board (4-year Terms)Age: 57Family: Married and have 4 children that have gone through the district, the oldest who is now a teacher. The youngest who has just made Eagle Scout.Occupation: Maintenance ManagerEducation: Nationally Licensed Chief Engineer, Bachelors level in Business Civic involvement: 4 years as an Assistant Scout Master, 25 years in local government.Elected offices held: Medinah District 11 Board Member #8211; 8 years.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Continuing to provide a top quality education to our youth, adequately preparing them for High School and the future in spite of the increasing financial constraints that public education faces today from all sides.Key Issue 2 Ethical Governance of our district. As pressures mount from decreasing resources and increasing expectations we have to maintain an open and transparent governance structure and processes. We cannot have people asking questions and not getting clear, understandable, and justified answers.Key Issue 3 Maintaining a solvent financial district now and in the years to come despite decreasing resources and revenues, and with increasing expectations, constraints, and mandates being placed on local school districts by the Federal and State levels.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?As with most change, it can be difficult, however I think with the efforts we have already made, this shift will be a positive move and should provide some benefits in the long run. One point this implementation can only help with is to take some of strain out of the ever growing mobility issue and the ramifications of that. As with many things the Board's role should be one of oversight and supporting the staff efforts.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?While I feel we do a good job of preparing kids academically, I personally think we need to do more on the socio-cultural side of the transition. Elementary school is much more structured and directed and I believe some of the students have difficulty coming to grips with the far less structured organization of the High School environment. This is an issue which really needs to be addressed by not only from the elementary side but the High School side as well. 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?The current budget issues are very much the same as we have faced in the past. Declining resources, increased costs and expectations and no clean simple way to make 'ends meets' as it were. In addition, we have the impending issue over the next several years of increased burdens of expenses the State cannot handle being placed on the local districts. Cuts on programs are a last resort to maintain our solvency, and are never a good plan, and I do not favor tax increases any more than anyone else, I have to pay them as well and most people are over taxed already. It is far better to find ways to make it work using less resources to produce the same 'product' through cost savings, innovations, and using technology to improve the efficiency of the education process.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?I don't personally see any particular concession being requested in the near future, but none of us has a really clear crystal ball showing us the future and future economic environment for school districts. I would like to see the district employee costs staying proportionally the same as we are now. As the precedent has been set by new legislation in this state and many others, pay and benefit increases should be based on increases in performance and quality of education provided, not just on a CPI number or some other relative factor. 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?This practice is an old traditional precedent that has really out lived it's necessity and the public educational resources to support it. While there may be those who still support this practice, I feel it needs to be abandoned because it is no longer justifiable or financially prudent for the future.