The six candidates for WW-P School Board — four from West Windsor and two from Plainsboro — were asked to give a brief biography and provide answers to the questions below. Their responses are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
1.) What experience, expertise, or perspective would you bring to the board? Which trait would be most useful?
2.) What’s your opinion of the district’s financial management, including annual increases in the budget and budget surplus amounts. If cuts are required, what one subject/activity/initiative would you cut first? What would you cut last? What area or areas would you increase funding for?
3.) The school district this year has budgeted about $1 million for increased security measures. What’s your view of the district’s safety program?
4.) What changes or additions, if any, would you make to the district’s foreign language offerings?
5.) The district is embarking on a new technology initiative for students. Should the district be more or less aggressive in pursuing this initiative and what would you cut from the budget to fund it?
6.) The state has mandated a salary cap for superintendents, and also mandates changes to the teacher evaluation and tenure process. How can WW-P ensure that students are not harmed by these changes?
7.) Are there any other school district issues you feel should be addressed?
Scott Powell has a proven track record of financial management and solution creation for professional and nonprofit organizations.
Scott’s business acumen is built on a strong foundation of professional experience and academic achievements. He earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Southern California. As a product manager at Prudential Financial Scott manages revenues and expenses and cultivates long-term customer relationships. He excels at ensuring the delivery of high-quality service to both the institutions that purchase their products and the individuals who receive the benefits. Scott has resided in New Jersey since 2006, having moved to the state from California to take a position at Prudential’s Iselin office. He and his wife chose to settle in the West Windsor community for its excellent school district and quiet, leafy, suburban setting.
Scott grew up in Agoura Hills, California. His mother was a school teacher and small business owner. His father managed pension money. His wife, Michele, works as an operations director for a professional trade organization in New Jersey. She conducts marketing, budgeting, event planning, and administration for her enterprise.
Scott’s older son attends fifth grade at Village School. His younger son attends second grade at Maurice Hawk.
Scott is currently coaching boys’ soccer in the WWPSA for the fourth straight year and previously coached youth basketball.
1.) I bring broad professional experience to the WW-P board. During the past 10 years, I have:
• Created materials and presented them to professional boards and committees;
• Negotiated contracts;
• Managed expenses and priorities to meet defined goals;
• Researched laws and regulations to find solutions that meet client needs while remaining within the law.
But probably my most important skill has been collaborating with peers at different levels and with different skills to serve clients.
In addition to the above skills, for the past several years my wife and I have been studying education in the United States and around the world to learn the techniques that provide students with the best education.
2.) After looking at the budget for the last several years I find the district’s financial management uneven. For example, per student costs rose about 2 percent from 2010 to 2011, but then rose 8 percent from 2011 to 2012 before settling down to an increase of less than 1 percent from 2012 to 2013. In all, this 10 percent-plus increase over the last three years is pretty steep. But some of the interim years show what is possible. In addition, WW-P demonstrates an efficient use of funds to achieve test results comparable to similar districts within New Jersey.
Without intimate knowledge of the budget I do not feel I understand it enough to dictate bold savings proclamations. However, with the increased use of laptops in the classroom, we should invest in training to ensure our teachers understand how to use these new tools. In the age of social media and the internet, the board should engage the voters through the internet to ensure public input into budgets. As an example, I started a blog (scottpowellblog.wordpress.com) and Twitter account (@scottpowellwwp) specifically to interact with voters and obtain feedback on district and board issues. Not all voters have the time or interest to attend board meetings, and online forums give them a voice.
3.) The district appears to be taking appropriate measures to safeguard our children as well as possible. The improvements in the video systems should reduce the likelihood of inappropriate individuals entering schools. However, these measures should not give us false comfort that security systems will provide complete safety to our children. The best measures to avoid adverse incidents require better community engagement and assistance for individuals showing signs of troubled mental states.
4.) The school district is teaching the two most important foreign languages for the 21st century — Mandarin and Spanish. While I recognize the traditional European connections that we may have to French, German, and Latin, we should consider their current relevance to our students. As long as enough students (at least 20 per class) want to take these languages, we can continue to offer them.
5.) I applaud the district’s efforts to introduce more technology to the classrooms. The pilot program using Chromebooks is an excellent first step toward student-centered learning. This program should be expanded as quickly as possible. However, we must retrain our teachers to take full advantage of these tools for technology-based, student-centered learning to have its full impact.
6.) It is unfortunate that the state interferes with the district’s ability to hire and retain talented individuals. However, with strong policies and curriculum we can succeed even if a good superintendent leaves for a better paying state.
On the other hand, teacher evaluations and tenure revisions should help students. The podcasts on my blog summarize research on high-achieving school systems. They find that the most effective school systems in the world have strong teachers. Strong teachers emerge from school systems that:
• Confer prestige on teaching;
• Reward the most effective, high-performing teachers;
• Provide a mechanism, such as evaluation and coaching, to guide the least effective teachers out of the profession.
The new policies provide a good first step towards these values.
7.) One other issue we need to evaluate is pensions. This issue affects more than just this school district. This is a state-wide problem. New Jersey has a serious problem with underfunded pensions for state employees. We need to assess the impact that this problem will have in the short and long term for our district. Then we should develop a plan on how we will address it.
