Candidate for Madison school board, Cory Heidelberger, took time to answer three questions.
Question 1. Will you reach out to the parents that home-school and offer to them the services that the Madison school district provides?
Yes. I am a parent who home-schools. Home-school parents still pay the same taxes as everyone else. They are contributing additional resources to their school districts in the form of the human capital they invest in educating their own children. The fact that a family decides to take on the great duty of educating their own children does not end the community's responsibility to help ensure those children receive a good education. School districts should be open to helping home-school parents in whatever ways they can.
Question 2. Should the role of the school board be an advocate for the taxpayers, teachers, administration or students?
Yes. :-) All of the above. The school board serves the entire community and must balance its obligations to all parties. Providing our kids the best education we can is our primary mission, but doing that means serving all interested parties fairly. Finding that balance of interests is not easy, but that's the job of the school board.
Question 3. How would you handle executive sessions with respect to the freedom of information requests?
State law (SDCL 1-25-2) lays out very specific situations when school boards *may* (not *shall*, which is an important distinction) close the doors to the public. Federal law (FERPA) requires that we protect certain aspects of student and family privacy. But I take a very dim view of keeping things secret from the public that we serve. Executive sessions should be kept to the bare legal minimum. Outside of those very specific legal allowances for secrecy, the school board should make all of its discussions, notes, agenda packets, budgets, and other materials available to everyone (especially when that's so easy to do with the Internet).
(Editors note) With the upcoming budget cuts to education in the forefront, Mr. Heidelberger proposes and wait and see approach to the local opt-out, school expansion and retention of teachers. This prudent and fiscally wise vision is the reason why Proverbs1322.blogspot.com endorses Mr. Heidelberger for Madison school board.
