Kristie Cary Fingerhut: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Kristie Cary Fingerhut

City: Mundelein

Office sought: School Board Member District 75

Age: 41

Family: Married with three children, all of whom will be District 75 students next school year (one at each of the three K-8 schools in our district)- Next year: 7th grade, 5th grade and Kindergarten

Occupation: Family Law Attorney/Mediator/Court Appointed GAL/Child's Representative- Managing Partner at FW Family Law Group LLC in Libertyville

Education: BA Psychology with Law and Society minor- 2000 University of Southern California; JD Loyola University of Chicago School of Law- 2003

Civic involvement: Active member of District 75 PTO; Active Member of multiple local bar associations; Troop Leader/Cookie Mom/Registered Volunteer for Girl Scout Troops; Organizer of Lake County's Girl Scout Project Law Track Program; Member Congregation Beth Judea Synagogue in Long Grove.

Previous elected offices held: None other than former Homeowner's Association Board in 2004-2009

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? N/A

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Issue questions

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

Our district's qualification for Evidence Based Funding Tier 1 Funds is an important issue since it highlights our status as a community with one of largest "Adequacy Gaps" across the state, which is not a good thing to be known for when ranking school districts, but at the same time qualifies our district for additional funds to use to help address that gap, which is a great thing and unique opportunity. How our district decides to use that unique funding source is an important issue and I would like to see them used as wisely as possible to best directly serve the students in the district rather than a pet project or gimmicky tax rebate (which defeats the very purpose of the funds). I am open to speaking with the teachers and administrators to learn their ideas for these funds, but would be most interested in ideas that serve the students in hopes of reducing the need for our district to even qualify for such funds in the long run. The district's transition in the next couple of years into the Shared Services System with District 120 is another important issue that gives us a great opportunity to streamline our services and administration to free up resources that can be used to increase our ability to directly impact students in our district.

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?

Our district is making great strides to prepare students for their transition into high school by moving towards a standards based grading model more similar to that used by the high school to help prepare students for their transition into high school. In addition, as a parent, I have been impressed by our district working hard to find and implement new curriculum to help to best prepare our students for long term success in math and reading, and they continue to work hard to try to provide instruction at higher levels to a broader range of students. One of the most exciting projects in our district for me is the Two Way Immersion program that leverages our strengths to increase english proficiency for students while immersing english language learners into spanish language to help prepare them for success as well. I am hoping to utilize that program for my youngest child who will start Kindergarten this Fall. Our district offers a lot of unique opportunities for students to engage in enrichment classes and unique extracurricular activities that provide more exposure to new activities and help prepare them for future interests/classes that can lead to future careers.

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.

It is important that our district function within our means so as to best serve the community who comprises the tax base and who are sending their children, grandchildren and neighbors to our schools for education. The community is relying on the Board to maintain fiscal responsibility to serve the students in the community while also helping to preserve community value that a quality school district provides. To do that, we need to most effectively use those resources on programs and services that directly impact the students rather than bloated administrative expenses. The Shared Services arrangement gives us the opportunity to do that in order to free up resources to better serve students without increasing taxes. However, I am concerned by the desire of some to want to "rebate" funds to the community as a great sound bite that hardly puts money back into the pockets of the taxpayers while forcing the need to have sharp increases in the near distant future to "pay" for the rebate since that will hurt both the students by providing decreased funding and upsetting taxpayers with a sharp increase later.

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?

Since we have 3 more years on the existing teacher's union contract, we will have to see how the economy operates in that time frame, what the market averages are demonstrating and how competitive our pay and benefit structures are in order to make that assessment. We want to be able to attract and retain quality employees, but need to be mindful of the financial ability to cover cost increases and at what expense in other areas. It is a delicate balancing act that I would want to research more before committing to any particular response.

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?

Our district does have a retiring superintendent who helped to implement the shared services arrangement with District 120 rather than merely replacing him and will help give us the opportunity to utilize those administrative savings for student based services. However, no, I do not support substantial increases in pay to boost pension benefits since that negatively impacts the system as a whole by placing greater pressure on the pension systems at the expense of taxpayers.