SCHOOL BOARD VACANCY SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE
Candidate’s Name: __________Geoffrey P. Scott________________________________
Contact Address: ___805
Contact Telephone Number: _____(W)_614/923-3119______(H)
614/436-8521_______
Contact Email Address: _______gps@bhmlaw.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
Worthington School District, another school district or in a private school.
I received my undergraduate degree in Social
Studies and Earth Science Education from The Ohio State University in
1990. I worked for Gary Moore’s
2. What personal traits, skills, or experiences would you bring to the position that you feel would make you an effective board member?
I have significant experience on other public service boards and
committees. I served on the City of
Worthington Board of Zoning Appeals, which gives me experience working on a
public board. I served on the Council
for Older Adults of Delaware County, which oversaw the expenditure of public
levy monies. I am the incoming president
of the Worthington Educational Foundation and am the past chairman of the
Columbus Bar Association Estate Tax Committee, which demonstrates leadership in
my profession and community.
My family is also a long time resident of the
community. I believe my grandfather
Halliday served on the Worthington School Board when the
I believe my training and experience as an educator gives me
insight into the needs of students, teachers and administration. I believe that I would be polite and
collegial in my interactions with other board members, but am confident and
assertive enough to push a minority viewpoint and challenge conventional
thinking.
3. What do you think is the most pressing issue in the Worthington Schools?
I believe Worthington Schools is doing an excellent job as
evidenced by its rating. Therefore, I do
not have a specific agenda for radical change.
However,
4. If it were necessary to make substantial cuts in the expenditures of the district, what areas would you cut first, and what areas would you seek to preserve?
Core academics must be protected at the expense of electives and
extracurricular activities, if that is the choice before the Board. However, I do not believe that is the choice
before the Board. Additionally,
excessive focus on these core academics to the exclusion of other educational
activities is undesirable. I strongly
believe the humanities and extra-curricular activities are critical to the full
development of the human potential. A
rich offering of these subjects is necessary to preserve
Because most of the district’s operating expense comes in the form
of salaries and benefits, it would be exceedingly difficult to make substantial
cuts in expenditures without cutting people.
Additionally, because most of those people are under a collective
bargaining agreement, the district has limited flexibility to make such
cuts. This flexibility is further
limited by numerous state and federal mandates.
My point being that it would be imprudent of me to declare what I would
and world not cut before knowing more about what is possible.
Although I gasped at my latest property tax bill, I believe that a
district publicly fixated on cutting expenditures is presenting a school
district in decline. As a public
official, a board member must be focused on the prudent expenditure of funds,
not cutting for cutting’s sake. I
realize that emphasizing the cuts the district has made in recent years is
necessary to maintain credibility with certain segments of our community;
however, it is not the message people my age and in my economic position
necessarily want to hear. My focus would be on what the district is
spending its money on now and in the future, and not on what
it is no longer funding.
5. If it were possible to add new programs to the district, what programs would you seek to add?
6. What do you see
as the impact of “No Child Left Behind”
on the Worthington Schools? What about the
I am not impressed or pleased with state and federal attempts to
“standardize” public education in the name of “accountability”. I believe these legislative acts merely
create new layers of administrative complexity at great cost with limited
benefits to students. I believe these
efforts, although perhaps well intentioned, are largely political grandstanding
to mollify the public and give the impression that legislators are “doing
something about the problem”. I think
this movement has unnecessarily roiled public education and diverted scarce
intellectual and financial resources from its mission in places like
7. If selected, what do you see as your role in influencing state education laws and policies that affect the Worthington Schools?
I believe that state legislators will listen to other elected
public officials, such a school board members, because
those board members have the backing of voters a legislator needs to be
re-elected. Thus, my role as a board
member would be to use that influence to help develop law and policy. Additionally, as experts in the needs of our
districts, we have a duty to educate our legislators as to those needs.
The most pressing issue at the state level is school funding and I
am deeply conflicted about the alternatives faced by the Ohio General
Assembly. I am very concerned that
whatever resolution comes out of that debate will not be beneficial for
districts like
8. What do you see as the roles and responsibilities of a school board member?
The primary role of a school board member is that of the
taxpayer’s representative. He is
responsible for the prudent expenditure of public funds to see that the
community’s children are prepared to compete in the world at the level the
community expects. To that end, the
board sets education and funding policy at a high level and hires
administrators to oversee the implementation of that policy. The board does not implement that policy, but
instead delegates that responsibility to administration. If administration is not capable of carrying
out the policy, the board must find administrators who can and will carry out
the policy.
The responsibility of a board member is to become informed of the
specific issues within the district and knowledgeable of the potential
alternatives. One source of information is
the public, and a second is administration.
A board member should listen to administration as experts on these
issues, but be sufficiently informed and confident enough in his own ability to
challenge their recommendations.
A school board member is a public representative of the district
and must present the board as a competent, collegial body. He must be an advocate for the district.
9. What evidence do you believe shows the Worthington Schools are adequately, or inadequately, preparing students for their lives after graduation?
One piece of evidence would be post-secondary education levels and
graduation rates. However, I have a
sense that the exceedingly high rates sometimes cited by the district are
misleading, and would like to learn more about what those numbers really
mean. Generally, I am wary of
statistical data that purports to objectively prove effectiveness in an
endeavor that is so inherently subjective and dependent upon context.
The ultimate piece of evidence is whether