Lisa Jay: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: Vernon HillsWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Hawthorn Elementary D73Age: Candidate did not respond.Family: Married, two childrenOccupation: Customer Service/Office AdministrationEducation: Bachelor of Science Degree, Child Development, Illinois State UniversityCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: School Board Member 2007-CurrentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: No.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 I have no issues. My goal is to continue to maintain the health and financial security of our district so we can provide the best education for our students. A concern I do have is the increasing enrollment and managing the space and student/teacher ratio. I do not want class size to increase.Key Issue 2 Candidate did not respond.Key Issue 3 Candidate did not respond.Questions Answers How satisfied are you that your district is 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?Although I am satisfied, I believe there is always room for improvement. While we are preparing our students to move from elementary to high school it is important to make sure the students are learning how to study, prepare for tests and how to approach homework. We need to continue to make sure the students are prepared to manage the work load that comes with high school courses.What budget issues will the district have to confront? What measures do you support to address them? If cuts are needed, be specific about programs and expenses that should be reduced or eliminated. Do you support any tax increases for local schools?The budget issue the Board is confronted with is costs are increasing each year and our funding is not keeping up at the same rate. This is forcing us to cut back on our spending, which to date we have successfully accomplished without impacting student achievement. We only receive approximately 10% of our funding from our state and federal government. The remaining of the funding which allows us to run our schools effectively is coming from our local property tax dollars.The district is proactive which allows us to keep a healthy budget. We currently have put together a Financial Advisory Task Force which is made up of School Board Members, Faculty, Administrators, HEA Representatives (Hawthorn Education Association/Union) and parents of the community. Over the past couple of months this group has been dissecting our budget and working on making recommendations where cuts can be made and still provide the best education for our students. These recommendations will be presented next month. To answer the third question, I do not support any tax increase for our local schools. What I would like to see is the State keeping their commitment of providing the funding that has been allocated for our district. Is experience as a teacher or support from a union valuable because it suggests educational insights or detrimental because it creates pro-teacher bias? Please clarify whether you have such experience or would accept union support.Support from our Staff/HEA is valuable. The staff has the closest insight with our students on a day to day basis. Without their input and knowledge it would be difficult to make informed decisions. HEA, the Administration and the School Board have an exceptionally great working relationship. We share a common goal which is to make decisions that benefit our students. With that said, yes I do and will continue to accept union support.As contract talks come up with various employee groups, what posture should the board take? Do you believe the district should ask for concessions, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?This school year our district started a new five year contract which expires in 2015. The Board collaborated with all parties to make sure that everyone was treated fairly with an end result of maintaining student achievement and a financially sound budget. With regards to concessions, employee costs and benefits, these components are not independent of each other. All components need to be examined collectively when working on a contract.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?I do not favor using tax dollars from our community to support the inflation of future pension benefits. My role as a Board Member is to make sure that local tax dollars from our Stakeholders are to be used to educate our students.In fact, several years ago the TRS (Teacher Retirement Fund) passed a regulation that the maximum annual increase in the final four years of employment is not to exceed 6%.