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Stephen Pickering: Candidate Profile

Fox River Grove Consolidated District 3 School Board (4-year Terms) (Independent)

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: Fox River GroveWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Fox River Grove Consolidated District 3 School Board (4-year Terms)Age: 48Family: Married, two children, two dogs.Occupation: Application Support AnalystEducation: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1986Civic involvement: Cub Scout Pack 357, Fox River Grove Rec Council, Cary Soccer, Volunteer Play Director for School District 3Elected offices held: School Board Member, School District 3Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Keeping our district fiscally and educationally sound. To keep making District 3 one of the best reasons for a family to move into and live in Fox River Grove.Key Issue 2 To encourage voices from throughout the community to participate in the school district. This includes residents who do not have children in the schools, as the strength of the district has a direct relationship to property values.Key Issue 3 To continue to support and encourage the creativity and involvement of our teachers, staff, administration, and community members that has allowed our district to remain fiscally sound, educationally strong, and has allowed us to keep programs and activities that other districts have had to cut.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?When you look at the U.S. ranking in education compared to other developed countries in the world, it's understandable that we, as a country, would seek out ways to raise the level of education for our children. For us at the local school district level, the most pressing concern is not over whether or not we should have Common Core standards (since they have been adopted in Illinois), but how the standards are implemented, both on a fiscal and curricular level. District 3, like so many school districts in Illinois, already face declining revenues, especially from the state level, and work very hard to maintain tight, but balanced, budgets. So we surely don't want to pile on unfunded mandates, and we want to be able to maintain the high standards of educational excellence that we enjoy in District 3. District 3 is successful because of the partnership of teachers, administrators, parents, and community volunteers, all working together for the benefit of our students. We want to be sure that this partnership is preserved and allowed to thrive in whatever standards are handed to us. With regard to curriculum, I believe our already rigorous curriculum adoption process will continue to serve us well. What's important to remember about any achievement indicators is that they are just that - indicators of the educational rigor of a school or district. While they are an important part of the story, they are by no means the entire story. I would not endorse the practice of teaching to any particular test; rather, I do believe it is useful to continue to examine our performance against all of the measurements we are given to enable our district to communicate the value of a District 3 education to our community members.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?As top-ranked schools in McHenry County, I feel District 3 is doing a terrific job of preparing our students for successful high school careers. I would continue to seek out opportunities for our students to increase the opportunities for them, both curricular and extracurricular, to enhance their educational experience in Fox River Grove. I would like to continue to work with the other districts feeding into 155 to share opportunities and best practices that help all of our students succeed.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?District 3 continues to maintain fiscal discipline in this tight economic climate. With the state cutting funding and threatening to cut still more, with pension reform threatening to pass still more expense to local school districts, and with our declining student population, we need to remain vigilant and focused on our budget at each board meeting. District 3 has led the way with innovative approaches, such as our volunteer coach program, to enable us to continue to offer programs that other districts have cut without a negative impact on our budgets. We need to continue to innovate and work with other districts to try new ideas so as to continue and grow the programs that are important to our community, while keeping within a balanced budget. Our approach to class size needs to continue to be examined, as we do in each board meeting, and as our class size committee did last year. District 3 has built a reputation of finding ways for our schools to work better while preserving the high educational standards and fiscal discipline we now enjoy. We need to continue to be able to do these things with our current revenue streams. While I see much support in the community for our schools, people are also in a long period of financial struggle, and are not in a position to be able to shoulder an increase in their tax burden.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?We have terrific teachers and staff in District 3. However, with state funding continuing to erode, people unable to bear an increase in property taxes, and the prospect of the state looking at local districts to fund the pension deficits, this is a difficult time for District 3 to offer generous increases in pay or benefits. I support cooperation between the district and our teachers association to find an agreement that will enable the district to remain in good fiscal standing, so that we can all benefit when this financial storm has blown over.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?While I understand the reasons for these kinds of agreements between teachers and districts, the pressures on TRS doesn't support retirement-focused increases as a sustainable program. This is even more apparent if the local districts will have to pick up a significantly larger portion of the retirement tab. I support increases that are merit-based and within budget.