Joel Finfer: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Joel Finfer

City: Vernon Hills

Office sought: Board of Education Hawthorn District 73

Age: 68

Family: Married for 45 years, 3 children, 4 grandchildren

Occupation: Retired

Education: Bachelor of Arts, Political Science from Northern Illinois University

Civic involvement: Active in the Family and Friends of Hawthorn District 73 Referendum campaign; Board Member, Stevenson High School Community Foundation

Previous elected offices held: Served on the Stevenson High School Board of Education (1990 - 2002)

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected?

Facebook: JoelFinferForDistrict73

Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your district and how do you intend to address them?

The continuing mission of any school district, to support and sustain quality programs, is the attraction and retention of high-performing certified and noncertified staff. Current issues include developing a solid working relationship with a new Superintendent and shepherd a $48.7 million construction project while continuing to monitor, manage, and respond to rapid enrollment growth.

School board membership is a team sport so I will not be addressing any of these issues individually. My plan is to work collaboratively with my Board colleagues, follow the advice of our professionals with pushback when appropriate, while keeping in mind at all times my obligation to the community to deliver the best possible return on their tax dollar investment in the education of our students.

* 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?

During my tenure on the Stevenson High School Board a recurring refrain was that we remained constructively dissatisfied. That phrase manifested itself through setting goals, developing metrics, measuring success, and asking how we could improve the following year. I intend to maintain that perspective on the District 73 School Board. The primary strategy used to attain continuous improvement was the implementation of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) process. I was both pleased and comforted to discover that our new Superintendent will come to our district from a school system identified as a model PLC. I would support any effort to implement that same process in District 73.

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? Be specific.

Continued enrollment growth brings with it the need for more space, increased costs to maintain that space, and the need for more teachers and support staff. It is my understanding that the current Board either has a plan in place or is building a plan to manage budgetary issues arising from that growth. I will work from that plan, as one voice in seven, and make recommendations based on my experience. From my perspective all options, including cuts and/or a tax increase would be on the table. Choosing to ignore any of the options available would be shortsighted and potentially reckless. 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?

I have on occasion served in a consulting role, both paid and unpaid, for Stevenson High School. 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?

To maintain and improve programming, continue to be a destination district for families and a destination district for professional staff, District 73 has to have a compensation package that competes effectively with surrounding elementary school districts. One standard business practice for making a company better is adding or retaining good people. Promoting "we pay less than our competition" is not an effective tactic for accomplishing that objective. * 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?

It is highly unlikely that I would support an extraordinary increase in compensation to boost pension benefits. In the interest of full disclosure, during my Stevenson Board tenure I supported early retirement incentives. In retrospect that support may have been shortsighted. That tactic allowed School Boards to replace higher salaries with lower salaries generating significant short and moderate term savings. It appears that tactic, Illinois legislative funding gaps aside, did not have its intended outcome.