Oskaloosa School Board Candidate – Laurie Palmer

Oskaloosa School Board Member and Candidate Laurie Palmer

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa School Board is holding elections on September 13th 2011 for it’s board. They will be filling Director Districts 1, 3, 4 and 6. Only one race is being challenged, that one being Director District 4 between the incumbent of Donald Patterson and Charlie Comfort.

Laurie Palmer is an incumbent Oskaloosa School Board member running for re-election in Director District 3. She was kind enough to take time from her schedule to sit down with me, and discuss some common questions and concerns expressed by our readers in recent months about the school district.

My first question is to find out what motivates you to be on the school board?

“Kids. It all comes down to what’s good for kids and providing quality education for kids. For me when I first started on the school board back in 2004, it was an honor it was a privilege to be asked to serve and I was delighted. I’ve had two terms now under me and I would say that over the course of the 7 years, what started out as an interest to serve pay back my community in part, it’s turned into a real passion for me. I think part of that is because there’s such a strong correlation between educational attainment and child well being.”

What do you believe your role as a School Board Member is?

“My role as a school board member, there are a couple there. Our main role is for governance. We set policy for the district much of which is kind of handed down to us from State and Federal policy, but we also do devise some local policies as well. So it’s policy, we also look at fiscal responsibilities so we’re responsible to set a budget for the district. Accountability is an important piece for our district and making sure that our programs are effective that we’re implementing, that our students are learning so the accountability piece is very important. We set the structure, for the district. We set the vision mission for the district as well.”

 How would you address parents that are displeased with fees such as a $25 parking fee and a towel fee when it’s reported that often there is no towel to use.

“Actually that will be on the agenda, maybe even in the September meeting. That is something I have personally taken note of and I do feel we need to review those fees. Free public education doesn’t seem to be free if you’re paying a large chunk in fees, so it’s something that I do intend to review and discuss it with our administrator and I believe that will be coming up soon.”

Do you believe that the school calendar needs looked at. Do you believe items like early outs on Wednesday’s and spring break need to be reviewed?

“We have had discussions about the calendar every year. There’s a process that they have implemented in the past for the calendar. Typically that process has involved parent representatives being on a calendar committee, some administrators, teachers and so forth. Then they typically come up with a couple different calendars in areas. Now a few years ago we looked at the number of days professional development and one of the challenges we have is providing professional development to teachers, which research indicates raises student achievement. So it’s important that we do allow the teachers to have the time to participate in the professional development. So, when we took a look at the calendar we thought, OK, we’ll try the half days, the early out days. Many of the other districts around do similar types and that seemed to be successful and so we last year tried that. This past year I think we decreased maybe the half days  by a couple I believe for this calendar year. And again because of our emphasis on professional development and the research that goes along with that and student achievement we felt it was important to continue.”

The new laptop program, do you believe that the costs of $100 and $200 respectively for repairs are fair for low income families?

“I can see that for families definitely could be an issue for them, and that’s something I don’t know that I have an answer. It’s a new initiative this year, new fees this year, and that’s something that we would definitely need to look at all those questions that people are sending to answer that. We hope that damages will be minimal if any and students will take good care. We understand that accidents happen sometimes and I do believe that it stated in the ‘1 to 1’ that people are encouraged to check with their homeowners or renters insurance to see if there’s coverage there. Those are some questions that I think we need to continue to continue to look at.”

Is it true that a student that is assaulted in school by another student can not defend themselves with also being punished. This could have other impacts to parents and students, such as repairs costs for the ‘1 and 1’ laptop.

“That’s a hypothetical what if type of a question in regards to the laptop being damaged and who would be responsible. Those types of incidents would have to be looked at and investigated, and again I don’t have a blanket response because every incident would be different.”

I focused in more on the question of policy about a student being assaulted that they can not defend themselves without also being punished. I wanted to know if that was our current policy.

“I haven’t seen that policy. I have to look. I guess I don’t know what the situation would be. I don’t know that I’ve seen a policy written like that.”

I went further to state that parents have said that their child was punished the same as the person who assaulted them all while attempting to defend themselves.

“And sometimes because there may not be a witness to a situation and so, it could be whoever is handling that type of discipline is just looking at equal type of discipline. It’s basically one student’s word against the other. That might be the situation, I’m not real sure. Certainly we do not encourage physical type of assaults whatsoever and that’s something that I’m sure our policies do look at as far as disciplinary measures if a student assaults another student or a staff person and so forth. Rather it’s perceived at equitable in how it’s handled. I’m sure that’s something that’s debatable.”

Parents have expressed that their concerns are not being listened to. What steps would you suggest the parents take, and school board members take in order to foster better communication?

“There are processes in place in the school handbook that goes out as far if they have a concern. Certainly we want them to contact. Maybe if it’s with a teacher we want them to contact that person first. If it’s something that they tried and they just don’t have that issue resolved then its’ the next step in that process, which is their supervisor, which is the principal, and so forth. It’s important to follow the process so that it can be efficiently resolved. I think an important thing is to communicate. If they are unhappy, don’t let it fester.  Try to make contact. If you don’t have success or response right away, then contact the person’s supervisor, which would be the principal and so forth, and follow the process in place. But I think the important thing is to not to let it fester.”

What plans and ideas do you bring to the table to help Oskaloosa Schools continue to improve and grow in the next 4 years?

“What I would like to see is continued progress in use of technology. We have the ‘1 to 1′ this year. Its’ new. We know there are going to be a host of questions that go along with that because it is a new initiative that we’re doing. We are the second largest high school in the state to implement the ‘1 to 1’ . I think this year, about a third of school districts will be implementing ‘1 to 1’ this year. So you know we are being progressive. We are listening to what businesses have said in that they want to see our students have more experience, more use of technology in their hands before graduating from high school. The ‘1 to 1’ will be a learning tool that they will take home with them for school, for projects, and their learning needs. I want to make sure we are focused for professional development with regard to use of that technology. I also would like to make sure that the STAM initiative that we’re also starting this year for the high school and middle school, which is a science, technology, engineering, and math program takes off. We’re very excited about that, those offerings to students. I feel that those will be addressing the 21st century skills and needs of preparing students into the college and career workforce. The other thing I would like to do as a board is to really focus our perspective on student achievement. Maybe a little bit more than we’ve done in the past. Look at data more as a board and that will help us to make some decisions as a board as far as resources, learning supports for students and I think looking at our system or at our education in a systematic way, system as a whole and what we can do or need to do to continue to move education forward, continue to help our students achieve to their highest potential. A more focused purposeful view for the board I think would be what I would hope to achieve in the next term for school board.”

Now I open it for the candidate to talk about what they want, their goals and desires for the Oskaloosa school system.

“Looking back on the things I guess have been accomplished since I’ve been on the board. We have gone through changes as a board and as a district. We have a new Superintendent, and so that’s a second Superintendent that I have had a privilege of serving with. That was a learning process there. I think Superintendent Reiter has got his first year behind him, and he to is focused on student achievement, and being progressive and trying to prepare our students for 21st century skills. I think there’s more talk among the board, a more purposeful focus if you will for that. Preschool has been something that we recognize as imperative. It’s an imperative at this point to prepare our student for, you know, work in the 21st Century and you know we’re already a decade into that. We’re still getting feedback from businesses and educators, high ed that our K-12 system isn’t preparing our students well enough to go into college without having remedial classes. We know that we need to do a better job, a more focused job and that takes the entire system working together. A systematic view of education on a local and a state. That’s what they talked about in the Ed Summit, is going to be important for not only Oskaloosa, but Iowa as a state, and it’s going to take everybody working together and a team effort to accomplish that.”