SMCISD Election Interview & Campaign Finance Report: John McGlothlin

John McGlothlin Sits Down With Corridor News

By, Haley Heart

 

Printable PDF Campaign Finance Report

 

 

John: Well, building consensus is really important. I think over the last decade our board has been very fractured and factious, and there’s been two camps where the issues is they seem to be more opposed to each other than they are opposed camps to the district. I think that the first thing that is needed to build consensus is leadership on the school board and that’s one of the main I am running. I think I would bring that to the school board, a willingness to listen, a willingness to consider everyone’s ideas, engage into my own, and a track record of working with all sorts of folks to get things accomplished. So, I think one of the most important things is to turn the page on the past and the fractured make of the board and move toward a common vision for our goals. Community, it is the community’s school and there’s nothing more important than the future of the community schools doing well and producing educated students that can thrive in a work force and college in this area and elsewhere. So the first element of community support is parental support and in a lot of cases we have been lacking that. One of my sons goes to Hernandez Elementary and they have a lot of after school opportunities for the kids, some fantastic opportunities but when we attend, they are very lightly attended. There might be 10 or 15 kids with sets of parents at events where you hope there would be fives time that number. We have got to engage the parent and figure out what is standing in the way of their greater involvement and listen. Then hopefully have them remedy that situation so they can be more engaged. We assume that all prefer to be but something is standing in the way. Whether it is schedule or something else. The first thing we need to do is listen to the parent, not lecture them. Get greater engagement from the parent and then I think the community will continue to stay engaged because everyone knows how important the district is. The last ten years we built world-class facilities, and the next ten years I want to focus on the class room where the teacher meets the student. That’s where I think the bulk of education occurs. We have got to value that and put more of our greatest percentage on that rather than other expenditures and we got to attach and retain the greatest teachers that we can. Then spend some money and bring more of them in to reduce our class size.

 

 

John: Well, the board hires the superintendent and makes budgetary decisions on how to allocate their sources and vision for the district. The superintendent leads the administration and utilizes the resources as they have been budgeted and working and implementing the plan to work toward the goal that the board has set. So the board has to be capturing the community’s vision and the schools. As the superintendent knows what the goals are and knows how the administration is going to be measured, the performance is going to be measure. We leave it to the administration to do the day-to-day administrating of the teachers, to deal with direct campus situations all fall under the superintendent. The main job is to unite under the community’s goals, make that clear, then provide the resources necessary for the superintendent and the whole administration to achieve those goals.

 

 

John: I don’t know if the city council is the goal, but the schools are a little bit of a unique scenario. I have been to the meetings. I have seen their current seating arrangement where the superintendent is next to the board president. I’ve heard others voice concerns about the arrangement. Before I propose some sort of goal of reshuffling the chairs, I would like to get into the board, spend some time there, see its culture, see how other districts are doing it, and see if what we are doing is in the norm or not within the norm of other districts that are working well together. If we need to make an arrangement to seats, I don’t think Marc would have much care to where he sits as long there is a board that is captain of the vision that the community and the schools, and a board that is providing resources that are necessary.

 

 

John: As I understand it, the board fronted money for a scoreboard that was going to be an advertising vehicle, upon which the superintendent, administration, athletic department would sell advertising. The ad revenue was supposed to repute the cost of the scoreboard. I wasn’t in the process of that decision. I wasn’t even on the board at that time.  I understand that is the information they had at the time to make the decision and it seems like a reasonable decision in light of the information I had at the time. I don’t see why we have to decide that over again. The scoreboard is built. I don’t want to look backward to what the board maybe should have done or could have done, two or five years ago. I want to look forward to what we need to do in the next five to 10 years, in order to put our lying shares of our resources in the classroom or distribute to a student.

 

 

John: The fund balance is an overflow of money of what it had received in revenue and what it had spent on operating expenses and that’s money that the district needs some in reserve to get a very good bond rating, in case it needs to borrow money in the future or fix a current debt, it can do so at affordable rates. Now, there is currently more money in the fund balance than I understand is necessary to preserve our bond rating so if we were going to spend money for fund balance, I think the balance money should be spent on items that normally would be paid for with the MNO, maintenance and operation budget that the property tax goes to. We are really limited in what money we can take in MNO expenses. We can’t pass a bond for teacher health care or a bond to hire additional teachers, that’s not allowed. We have to absorb those expenses out of our MNO money. I would use any money that came out of the fund balance to support and further the MNO type expenses. Maybe to hire more teachers, lower the student to teacher ratio at elementary level. Maybe teachers need a little bit more support for their health insurance premium and copays. I have heard those have drifted quite a bit high. At the board, we need to decide that.  What would guide my decision is keeping that money to cover maintenance and operation expenses.

 

 

John: The five single member districts is part of a settlement agreement that was reached in the GI forum over minority representation on the school board. The school board can’t just unilaterally change that agreement without risking an additional suit from the stakeholders that want to see minority representation on the school board. We are open to provide a compromise, and then I think that is something to look at. To my knowledge, there’s no such openness and I wouldn’t want to unilaterally change those things and buy the district or cause them a lot of legal problems and headaches. We are talking about people who are really stable in this stakeholder of the board. I think that is a really submissive idea off the to, unless they had community support or broad support on the board. That is a conversation I don’t think we have had in depth enough to really talk about what is best. I don’t think it is wise to be making suggestions like that before there is community discussion.

 

 

John: Yes, I think there is value in televising school board meetings. I was at the meeting two months ago where this was on the agenda and the board passed or had a consensus about proceeding in that direction. First, by live streaming the meetings online and then eventually offering them on television. I agreed with that consensus and believe that is the direction the board should go. I consider that to be a decided issue. If I am on the board, I will continue, what I understand is the consensus, to moving towards televised meetings while being very cautious. That could be a lot of money coming out of the classrooms. If it can be done at a reasonable, affordable rate then I want to move toward that as expeditiously as possible. No

 

 

John: No. Obviously we need to increase college readiness. I think everyone would agree with that. I know that all seven of the candidates for the at-large position would tell you that we have got to increase college readiness, I think where I differ is that I’m ready to make tough decisions to make that happen. I’m ready to reallocate our budget so more of our money is going to the direct structure instead of administration and other costs. I’m willing to create an additional academy focused on college readiness for those students we know are college bound with more rigorous curriculum. I am ready to offer greater awards for students who challenge themselves the tougher classes. I ultimately think that’s how kids are going to become more college ready. We are also taking steps at the lower age level to do more. Pre-K will have more of a direct impact, because research shows that children reading by third grade have a higher likelihood of gradating from high school and ultimately being college ready. Then, also, I think if we reduce the classroom, student to teacher ration, in the elementary classroom so we are within the state guidelines we would see result in the secondary level from the elementary level. I know that if I were teaching second grade and I had 22 students in my class and then got two additional students that would feel like a lot more because you are already working so hard to reach what you have. I am ready to make those tough decisions to make students college ready. I think that’s what makes me stick out from other candidates.