SCHOOL BOARD VACANCY SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE
Candidate’s Name: _Elizabeth Squires
Contact Address:
Contact Telephone Number: 614-798-8995___________________
Contact Email Address: esquires@wowway.com____
Please answer all questions and send a completed questionnaire by January
16 via email to:
1. Please state your
professional or volunteer activities with K-12 education, either in the
I have
not volunteered in the Worthtington School System. I have volunteered at as Girl Scout leader
for my daughters’ troop at Brookside Elementary, and coached soccer for several
years for Worthington Youth Boosters.
2. What personal traits,
skills, or experiences would you bring to the position that you feel would make
you an effective board member?
I feel that my honesty, ethics and drive are traits that would
make me a very effective board member. I
feel that issues have many sides to them not just 2 and that they should all be
heard and dove into.
I used to work in a manufacturing plant and have dealt with many
personalities. Before that was customer
service. I have learned to listen,
develop good working relations with coworkers and management to get the job
done when asked.
3. What do you think is the
most pressing issue in the Worthington Schools?
The most pressing issue in the Worthington Schools is money, lack
thereof. We need to come up with better
solutions to this problem instead of taxing people living in
Possibly looking into other school systems and seeing how they
work with less money but just as many students or more.
To make substantial cuts we
need to combine more responsibilities,
letting go assistant deans of whatever groups, not rehiring people so
that they are ‘double dipping’ into funds and getting a 6 figure or close to 6
figure income, reviewing the health
insurance for teachers and trying to find a better deal for them and other
school employees and not paying an outrageous amount for a consultant thinking
we are getting our money’s worth.
Other changes could be having
all kindergartners go to school full day, the parents wouldn’t pay extra for
this, the names A-N would go Monday and
Wednesday and every other Friday. The
kids with O-Z would go Tuesday and Thursday and every other Friday. This would cut on costs for afternoon busses
too. There i a gap of education between ½ and full day and then intervention later
on. Maybe with this idea we won’t have
to have the intervention in 1st or 2nd grade; again cutting costs but all the kids
will be at the same level of education.
Last suggest would be
combining busses, like middle and high school. This would cut down on gas
costs. We would have to have the schools
start at the same time.
5. If it were possible to add new programs to the district, what
programs would you seek to add?
More safety programs for elementary like Stranger Danger and a
foreign language too.
For all the schools I would like to see new computers that you could
update on line with software and not hire someone to come out and update every
computer in the district individually.
6. What do you see as the
impact of “No Child Left Behind” on the Worthington
Schools? What about the Ohio Core legislation?
The impact of “No Child Left Behind” on Worthington Schools is so
far good. So that children are given the
attention that the need.
I see the impact of the Ohio Core legislation as a good one, to
higher the standards in
7. If selected, what do you
see as your role in influencing state education laws and policies that affect
the Worthington Schools?
I would uphold the laws and policies. If I feel we can go further with ideas or
policies I will give suggestions and then continue from there.
8. What do you see as the
roles and responsibilities of a school board member?
To actually listen to what is going on. We have a variety of different people with
different backgrounds and some are living paycheck to paycheck, elderly on a
fixed income and some are not. We need
to think how changes affect everyone not just the select few.
Since more money is been difficult to acquire we need to look at
changes and not hope that increase in taxes will solve everything. We financially can’t keep up with other
school districts that have a lot of money.
(We can’t keep up with the Jonses.)
9. What evidence do you
believe shows the Worthington Schools are adequately, or inadequately,
preparing students for their lives after graduation?
The evidence I see that the schools are adequately preparing the students are by the test scores and by the % of them graduating and not dropping out.