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1.
In order of priority, what do you believe are the key issues
presently facing the
Stafford
County
Public School
System?
Supporting
our schools is a balancing act.
·
Students
should be given the opportunity for a quality education.
·
Teachers
and staff need to be given adequate resources and support to get that
job done.
·
Taxpayers
deserve to know their money is being spent wisely.
Teachers
are our most important asset because the most important part of
education is the student teacher relationship. Supporting this
relationship in a time of declining revenues will present many
challenges, including the need to:
·
Maintain student teacher
ratios in the face of population growth,
·
Maintain competitive
salary levels, and
·
Build taxpayer support for
schools.
2.
What do you believe are the greatest problems facing
Stafford
County
Public
Schools?
Please elaborate?
·
Pressures placed on
schools by population growth. The majority on the Board did a real
disservice to schools by approving the developer-initiated TND
(“Traditional Neighborhood Development”). This legislation will
promote rapid growth in
Stafford
. For example, if approved the first project proposed under the TND will
build up to 2,250 residential units on land that is currently approved
for 145 homes. Our school system simply cannot maintain a quality
educational environment when faced with that kind of extreme
development.
·
For the last eight years,
spending on building schools has risen faster than spending on
instruction. This well-meaning but mistaken policy has created too many
school slots, and not enough focus on teaching.
·
An over-reliance on
property taxes to fund public services. Restructuring our fee and tax
system to decrease the tax burden on homeowners could help build more
public support for fully funding school needs.
·
A need to develop better
communication between the School Board and the Board of Supervisors, and
a shared agreement on priorities.
3.
What do you believe is the most important contribution you can
make to the
Stafford
County
Board
of Supervisors?
By
managing growth we can do a lot to control the pressures on schools. I
will work across party lines to create a majority to vote against
legislation that facilitates extreme growth, to vote for legislation to
manage growth, and to vote to use the tools we already have to control
growth.
With
growth under control, we can focus on strengthening our schools, rather
than continuously struggling to catch up with needs of the school
system.
4.
Should the
Stafford
County
School
Board propose a budget that reflects the needs of
the
school system as the School Board perceives them, or a budget that is
based
only
upon estimates of revenue projected to be available?
School
funding is the largest part of the County budget, and the reality is
that there are limits to how much revenue can be allocated to schools.
It is the responsibility of the School Board to prepare a budget that
·
adequately funds quality
education for our students,
·
provides the resources
needed to support the work of teachers and other school staff, and
·
takes into account the
impact of school spending on property taxes.
5.
If elected to the Board of Supervisors, what are your top three
objectives? Please be
specific
and rank these in priority order.
The
most important thing that the Board of Supervisors can do to support
schools is to manage growth. By doing that, we can decrease the
pressures placed on the school system by an ever increasing student
enrollment. With that in mind, my top priorities are to:
·
Represent homeowners and
residents, and the County as a whole, not the special interests of big
developers. An open government is the best way to hold elected officials
accountable to citizens, and my website at www.bobwoodson.org
is one example of how I will communicate information to citizens on a
regular basis.
·
Protect taxpayers. The
average homeowners’ tax bill has increased 66% during the last eight
years. We can’t afford four more years of those kinds of increases.
·
Manage growth. It is clear
that more development equals higher taxes, increased traffic, crowded
schools and the destruction of the environment.
6.
From time to time the
Virginia
General Assembly will approve additional funding for
K-12
education late in the Assembly session after the Board of Supervisors
has
approved
a level of local funding for the upcoming school year’s budget.
In your
opinion,
should this money be earmarked as additional money to provide for School
Board
requests that were not initially funded by the County, or should the
Board of
Supervisors
apply this money anywhere in the County budget it chooses?
We
need to have some flexibility in our budgets to manage this type of
situation.
7.
In your opinion, is the
Stafford
County
Public School
System currently operated in a
fiscally
responsible and efficient manner? Please
elaborate.
It
is the responsibility of the School Board and the Superintendent of
Schools to make that assessment.
8.
Frequently the Board of Supervisors addresses the pressure of
population growth in
Stafford
County
by funding needed improvements such as extended sewer lines and
improved roads. Do
you believe that the Board of Supervisors plans adequately for
the inevitable impact on our schools when it makes even modest
infrastructure
improvements?
No.
A majority on the Board voted to:
·
approve extensions of
sewer and water outside the urban service area,
·
to build roads that
facilitate development, and
·
approve the TND
legislation.
It
is clear that they were not taking into account the impact these
“improvements” will have on our school systems.
10.
Do you support funding for education sufficient to ensure smaller
class size
necessary for continued excellence in education?
Student
teacher ratios are an important part of a quality education. On the
other hand, we have to balance how low these ratios go with the costs to
taxpayers.
11.
Do you support funding for education sufficient to raise the
average salaries of
education professionals in
Stafford
County
to make salaries competitive?
I
support prioritizing teacher salaries over school construction because
we do need to have teacher salaries that stay competitive.
We
also need to keep in mind that the school system is the second largest
employer in the County, and that school teachers and other workers are
taxpayers. By supporting the salaries of school personnel, we support
our local economy and our tax base.
12.
Do you believe the Board of Supervisors should have a role in the
development of
the school budget? Why
or why not?
No,
this is the job of the School Board.
13.
More often than not, state and federal funding for public
education falls short of
meeting a fair share of the cost of the
Stafford
County
Public School
System. Are
you prepared to raise the necessary revenue locally to ensure
that the quality of
Stafford
County
’s educational program does not decline?
As
I have said before, there is a balancing act when it comes to revenues
for schools. Budget decisions need to be made based on an objective
assessment of the needs of the school system and the potential impact on
taxpayers of funding to meet those needs.
14.
To what extent should the Board of Supervisors attempt to control
spending
priorities of the School Board?
This
is the job of the School Board, not the Board of Supervisors.
15.
Please add any other statements or information that you believe would
help Stafford PAC better understand your position on issues affecting
public education and the
Stafford
County
Public School
System.
As
you know, balancing the needs of
·
students for a quality
education,
·
teachers and other school
personnel for the resources necessary to provide that quality education,
and
·
taxpayers to know that
their tax dollars are spent wisely
is
challenging. I believe that by developing better communication with the
School Board and working together, we can meet that challenge.
Additionally,
I would like to see more guidance counselors in middle and high schools,
and an increased emphasis on service learning—where students learn
through performing community service.
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