Tom Waggoner Davis School Board Precinct 6 1. What, in your opinion, is the main mission of public education? The main mission and fundamental purpose of public education is to prepare students to become active and productive members of society. Public education provides a foundation for our youth to develop skills, talents, and abilities that enable them to make a valuable contribution to their future employers, their families, and to society in general. 2. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and why you have filed to run for the Davis Board of Education. I ve always felt a strong sense of duty to be an active participant in public service. Generations of the Waggoner family have benefited greatly from living in this area and I believe deeply that we owe it to the community to give back. My last attempt at public service didn t turn out as I had hoped when I ran for a third term as Mayor of Clearfield. However, my desire to serve my community didn t diminish. When I became aware of the fact that Mr. Burke Larsen was not running to retain his position on the Board, I felt like this would be a good opportunity for me to serve the public again. I believe I m the right person to represent the interests of District 6 as well as the entire area covered by the Davis School District in a way that will continue the fine work that Mr. Larsen has accomplished during his time on the Board. I am a lifelong resident of northern Davis County as well as a retired civil servant, having spent 40 years working at Hill Air Force Base. My wife, Joan, and I moved to Syracuse from Clearfield about seven years ago. We have 4 grown children and 15 grandchildren 8 of whom are currently students in the Davis District as well. I spent 4 years on the Clearfield City Council and 8 years as Mayor to that great city. We are the definition of A Davis County family and we are very proud of it. 3. What kinds of experiences have you had with public schools, charter schools, or other schools? (please be specific) The majority of my experience with schools and education in general stems from my work in public service. For example, during my time as Mayor of Clearfield, I partnered with the elementary schools in the city to conduct a monthly Lunch With The Mayor. As part of the program, I was given the privilege of having lunch each month with a group of young students chosen by their respective schools as a result of their academic achievements. It was a program that I loved dearly.
The experience that I would bring to this position is my extensive history of public service and my dedication to the good of this community. During my years of service, I have been fortunate to participate on the following boards: Governor s Special Commission to Keep Nuclear Waster Out of Utah (1year) Utah Defense Alliance (1 year) Davis County Council of Government (8 years Chairman 1year) Wasatch Integrated Waster (8 years) Davis Economic Development (4 years Chairman 1 year) North Davis Fire District (6 years Chairman 1 year) The strength of my experience comes not from time spent in schools or participating in the governance of education and educators. My key strengths come from a history of dedicated public service with a keen focus on finding solutions for the greater good. The fact that my experience comes from outside of education is, as I see it, a benefit because I come to the table without a political agenda, without an axe to grind, and lacking any pre- existing relationships or obligations in this area. My one and only purpose is to serve the community and to do all I can to help the Davis School District as a member of the Board of Education. 4. What do you see as the three most critical needs/issues facing the Davis School District in the next few years? What ideas do you have for addressing those issues? Issue #1: School Overcrowding. Davis District is faced with a seemingly ever- increasing student population. We must be prepared to accommodate the growing number of students in our classrooms. The only logical and effective way to do that is to build the facilities necessary to provide for those students. Yes, it s expensive and, yes, it requires funding to make that happen. But, if we as a community are really committed to providing the best education possible to our children, then we must first provide places where that education can take place. Portable classrooms are not the solution because they bring a number of issues with them, safety and security being primary concerns. Issue #2: Teacher Compensation. Whether we like it or not, there is an on- going competition between school districts to hire the best educators for their classrooms. If Davis School District is to remain competitive and relevant to the top educators in the state, we must compensate our teachers accordingly. Teachers have many options available to them inside and outside of education. If we want to keep our best teachers in our classrooms, then we must give them a reason to stay.
Issue #3: Curriculum needs. Teachers and students both are measured more now than ever before. We spend a great deal of time and energy ensuring that our students are being taught what society believes needs to be taught in the classroom. But we do not do a good job of providing the tools and curriculum to the teachers in the classroom to meet the expectations that are being placed on them. It is not enough to give teachers and students expectations of what should be learned only to leave them to their own devices to ensure that the information it taught and learned. Standardized testing requires standardized curriculum and standardized tools. Only then do the test truly measure performance objectively and accurately. 5. Do you believe that public schools are adequately funded? If you do not believe they are adequately funded, what changes should be made to provide appropriate financial support for quality public schools? No, I do not believe that public schools are adequately funded. Each election cycle, our legislators consistently tout education as their number one priority. I find it one of the great ironies of Utah politics that support for Utah education gets you elected and, once elected, support for Utah education gets you voted out of office. Our representatives are quick to proclaim their love of both education and educators but are slow to open their pocketbooks to really help where it matters. We need to hold our representative s collective feet to the fire to get the funding that we need to provide the education that our parents expect their children to receive and, frankly, our educators expect themselves to provide. Utah is slated to have 10,000 new students in the school system statewide next year. The funding must be there to provide for the learning. One change I would recommend would be to work with our state legislature to pass a funding initiative that would take a large percentage of any budget surpluses in a given fiscal year and immediately pass that money to education. When we, as a community, agree to fund our schools at the same rate we populate them, we will be successful. 6. What would you do to retain and attract quality educators in the Davis District? There are two primary things I would do to attract quality educators to the Davis School District: Pay competitively and start the hiring process much earlier in the year. Education staffing is a business. There are competing entities whose sole purpose is to provide a superior educational experience to their customers. These entities, specifically the individual school districts in the area, have a vested interest in getting the best educators before other districts are able
to do so themselves. The Davis School District must be more aggressive in both compensation and timetable to get the best teachers and administrators in our schools. If we don t, then we will always be picking up the teachers that the other school districts have already chosen not to employ. We cannot rely on hoping that we find diamonds in the rough among those not chosen to teach elsewhere. We must go find the all- stars and convince them that Davis School District is where they need to be. 7. If another voucher or tuition tax credit bill is introduced in the legislature, would you support another such bill, or would you oppose it? Why? The current guidelines do a significant disservice to public education and I was against it when it was first on the ballot. I am not willing to take a position on any future legislation that may be introduced until I am familiar with the contents of the bill itself. That being said, for a bill of this nature to receive my support, it would have to be significantly different from its current iteration and not be nearly as punitive for public education as the current guidelines. 8. There have been several proposals in the Legislature the past few years to limit the rights of teachers and other public employees. What is your view on the rights of public employees to negotiate with the school district, payroll deduction of dues, and other association issues? As a general rule, I am against the limitation of employment rights for any individual or group of people. My view is that public employees, including educators, should enjoy the same general rights as employees in the private sector. There are currently state and federal laws in place that determine an employee s right to negotiate individually or as part of a collective bargaining arrangement. 9. Do you support the concept of a single letter grade to measure schools? Why or why not? I support the implementation of a fair methodology that measures the relative success of a school and provides a clear and concise way to communicate that to the general public. However, I do not believe that the current letter grade system is a fair measurement of a school s level of success. There are far too many contributing factors outside of the scope of influence of the educational system socio- economic and student mobility factors being chief among them that greatly influence how a school is measured in the current simple letter grade format. It is clear to me, even without being able to refer to a specific scientific study, that the economics of a given are within a community play a significant role in how student perform in the classroom. It is truly a measurement of apple and oranges to
compare the scholastic performance of a child whose primary concern is where their next meal will come from against the scholastic performance of a child who has no such concerns. Only when we find a way to fairly and effectively measure the complete set of realities faced by each individual school can we assign a letter grade that is truly representative of a school s pressure and demoralize students and educators alike. 10. What role should technology plan in teacher and learning? Technology is an integral part of the future of education. However, technology comes with a price. The rate of obsolescence of today s technology speeds up on a constant basis. As a result, technology becomes a reoccurring costs for which legislators and district leadership must be prepared to manage effectively. In addition, technology brings with it an element of variable costs that must be part of the plan, specifically related to technical support and system upkeep. As long as our elected leaders and our legislature in particular continue to fail to address the funding needs of our schools, the level of technology needed to keep our schools current with the national and global trends will always outpace the district s ability to provide those same tools. If technology is to play the role in education that most believe it should, including myself, then we must commit to spend the necessary funds to do it the right way from the beginning. 11. What is your opinion of the Common Core? I support anything that will help our students acquire the education they need to succeed in an increasingly global society. I also support anything that will provide the necessary tools to educators that allow them to give our students the best and most competitive educational experience possible. Common Core, as it currently exists, accomplishes neither of those things. Over time, The common Core standards, will, I believe, prove to be an effective framework to meet those important and lofty goals. However, there are many necessary and highly important elements of the system curriculum factors being the most glaring need that must be addressed immediately. The rollout of the common Core initiative has been a dismal failure form the very beginning. However, the concept of Common Core and the ideas that it represents, is truly the blueprint for the future of education in the Davis School District. I believe that, once the politics are removed and the ideologies of those on the far left and the far right of the political spectrum are muted, somewhere in the center is a logical framework and a workable solution that can be effectively implemented and utilized for the greater good of all students in the Davis School District. But if that is to happen we must do everything possible to ensure that our educators have
the right and best tools possible to turn that blueprint into a functioning and successful program. 12. What role do you see for the Davis Education Association and its members with the school board and the school district? The Davis Education Association provides a valuable service to Davis School District employees. Along those same lines, I believe the Davis Board of Education and the Davis School District also have the best interests of their educators at heart as well. The goals of each organization, I believe. Are not mutually exclusive from one another. However, there must be a renewed effort to create a collaborative and synergistic relationship between the three entities. An honest, open, and mutually supportive relationship that allows for honest debate and differing opinions is in the best interests of everybody. I see my role on the Board to be one who works to facilitate some form of cooperation and to be an objective voice of reason that weights the opinions of all entities equally In that regard, I feel strongly that any group that represents the best interests of our educators, obviously referring to the Davis Education Association, should have a seat at the table and a significant voice in the debate before a final decision is rendered by the Board. 13. If you are elected, what strengths and abilities will you bring to the school board? What do you see your role being as a member of the Davis School Board? So as not to repeat myself, I would refer you to answers that I gave on Questions #3 and #12. That being said, I would also add that I understand the function of a board and I know how a board should work. A board is designed to be a reasonable and objective governing body that can analyze the input of many and come to a decision that has the greatest positive impact on the greatest number of people. It is not a place to grind axes or perpetuate a personal political agenda. It is not a place to go against the grain simply for the purpose of being contradictory. It is a place where a group of dedicated individuals can provide a great deal of influence and make a positive difference in the lives of many people. In this case, the Davis School Board can influence for good the lives of thousands of students and thousands of dedicated and loving educators. The primary strength that I bring to the table is that I want more than anything to do the right thing for the right reasons and that I have absolutely no personal agenda in making that happen. I am objective and fully committed to doing all I can to further the best interests of the Davis School District, its teachers, and its students. I have no ties to any political interests that will skew my objectivity and cause me t look at any issue with a pre- existing personal bias. My experience on previous boards has taught
me to look at all sides, debate the points that need debating, and come to a reasonable and workable solution even when it may not be popular 14. Is there anything else you would like to add? I would simply add that I am profoundly grateful for the experience the Davis School District has provided me, my family, and my community. This election offers me what may be my final opportunity to give back to my community in a meaningful and productive way. I welcome input from any and all parties and look forward to what I believe will be a spirited and competitive election.