SMCISD Election Interview & Campaign Finance Report: Anne Halsey
Anne Halsey Sits Down With Corridor News
by, Brittany Baig
Printable PDF Campaign Finance Report
Q 1: There is no denying that our current school board is fractured ideologically. If elected, what will you do to build consensus, community support, and help lead our school district forward?
Anne: One I am a mom. My soul agenda is working on behave of the best interests of our kids; putting them first. I think that because I am not from San Marcos, my husband and I moved here five years ago when our daughter started kindergarten. My husband teaches history at Texas State. I am a stay-at-home mom. I can really offer a fresh perspective, and offer an opportunity to put aside whatever issues they have split the board before. I am a consensus builder I talk to parents all of the time, many different parents. I am always talking to parents. In addition I talk to parents that have had their children go through the district. It is a wide and diverse group of people who are supporting me because my agenda is putting the kids first for the best interest of the community as a whole.
Q 2. What is the ideal relationship between the board and the superintendent?
Anne: I think that the board should work constructively and cooperatively, and productively with the superintendent on the priorities that have been set worth by our taxpayers, our educational leaders. I don’t think the board should be a rubber stamp. I think the board needs to due diligence, needs to be thorough, needs to conduct comprehensive analysis of the issues at hand. The board needs to hold the superintendent accountable, but the community needs to hold the board accountable. I think first and foremost we need to have a professional approach where we work civilly and constructively and that’s what I bring: my professionalism and professional experience. I worked for a nonprofit organization and a corporate organization and all ideologies were checked at the door so that we could roll up our sleeves and do the work demanded of our stakeholders and us.
Q 3: Do you agree that the superintendent should sit at the head of the dais and help lead the meeting or should meetings be similar in structure and format to that of our city council?
Anne: I think it would surely be worth having a broader conversation about how that meeting is done. When I worked in the corporate world it was customary for the board president to run the meeting and then the president of the organization that I worked for was called to give certain reports, so I think having a conversation about why we do what we do and how we are doing it would be very helpful. I don’t want to dictate at this point what the appropriate answer for that is, but I think having that conversation and hearing from the community about what they think could be very constructive, could really change the tenure of how we do business.
Q 4: Although there were funds allocated in the May 2013 Bond Election our school board recently spent an additional $850,000 purchasing a score board for our district’s new Multi-Purpose Athletic Stadium using funds from our district’s reserve accounts. Do you agree or support this purchase?
Anne: I think that our students and staff need safe, up-to-date facilities that our suitable for learning. I recently toured just his week all of the new athletic facilities. It is a beautiful football filed. I am really looking forward to seeing our high school build a very strong program in the years to come. I was however shocked that we spent nearly a million dollars on the scoreboard after the fact. I don’t know who is being held accountable for what seems like a very large oversight. It seems to me that a really wonderful scoreboard could have been purchased for less money.
Q 5: In what instances do you deem it appropriate to utilize out districts’ fund balance?
Anne: I think that the fund balance needs to be safeguarded. I think we need to scrutinize all of the budgets from top to bottom as I’ve said before I think we need to do a lot more analysis when doing cost projection. At the recent board meeting they voted to open the tuition based program which I think is great and I am glad that I live in a district where the voters overwhelmingly voted to open up an early childhood education center and at the time the bond was being passed as a voter I was promised that there would be a tuition-based program opened and on Monday night that did pass there opening up with 66 spots in the fall, however I am greatly concerned about the affordability of that program. Yes I think it is absolutely terrific that we will have certified preschool teachers available, however I am concerned about that program cost to middle-class families and I am concerned that the preschool teacher ratio of 22 to 1. In our current preschool that is income eligible and in the expanded preschool program 22 to 1 is a very high ratio when it comes to 4 year olds. I think then that when we deem it necessary to dip into the fund balance it better be that we have done comparative analysis. For example I didn’t see on Monday night’s meeting a comparative analysis on the cost of other preschools and how our public preschool program lines up. My son is currently in a preschool program that I pay 435 dollars a month for. That preschool program goes from 8 am to 3 pm. The student ratio in my son’s preschool program is 14 to 2. The preschool that my son would be eligible for in the fall (she is referring to the school from the bond) the tuition there is set to be 504 dollars a month from 8 am to 3 pm for a student teacher ratio of 22 to 1. I understand that we have to cover the cost of running the preschool, but I just wonder how viable that is and what research and analysis has gone into that decision because it was not evident to me on Monday night. I looked at the board book and didn’t see it in there. I didn’t hear the members asking about that comparative analysis. If we are going to use the fund balance then it better be directly effecting the instruction and what happens in the class room, but only after we have looked into the community and have really done our homework.
Q 6: Do you support the way our current board is elected? If given the opportunity would you keep our five single member district and two at-large trustee system of representation the same?
Anne: The currant system seems fair enough to me, but I would certainty be in favor of having a public conversation about it.
Q 7: During the 2009 and 2012 school board elections the televising of school board meetings was brought up during the campaigns of numerous candidates. Here we are several years later and our district has just recently begun to discuss this issue. Do you think televising school board meetings is important? If elected, how long do you think it will take until our school district begins televising meetings?
Anne: During the meeting on Monday night they were streaming it. There was a student from the high school streaming it, and my friend was watching it online. I think more accountability; more transparency for our board members is a huge priority that I am glad that that step has already been taken. I would work to see how most cost-effectively to expand that, but I am glad that the access is there, but that (televising it) seems like the straightforward next step. It builds community and allows for more participation and to feel engaged. I am hoping to broaden the public discussion on our schools with the community.
Q 8: The Texas Education Agency’s 2013-2014 Texas Academic Performance Report for the San Marcos CISD tells us that only 44% of San Marcos High School graduates are deemed college ready for both math and English language arts. Is this acceptable?
Anne: No its not. I think that there are a lot of things that are happening that hold a lot of promise; one example being the vertical alignment of the curriculum especially at the elementary school level. In addition, I think the academy program has great promise involving small business owners and community organizations. This is our strength as a district. We have Texas State in our backyard and we have all of these vibrant, small business owners, experts, and very devoted community members. There is a father that works for Microsoft and once a week he goes into my child’s school’s afterschool program and teaches the kids’ computer programing that will enable them to be able to start their own computer companies if they want in the future. That’s amazing. We already have that local resource. We need to find ways to expand that. Local community partnerships are so important to us.
