David Cleveland, Genoa-Kingston School District 424 School Board election questionnaire

Full Name: David Cleveland

What office are you seeking? Genoa-Kingston School Board CUSD 424

What is your political party? N/A

What is your current age? 53

Occupation and Employer: VP of Applications Engineering / Haumiller Engineering

What offices, if any, have you previously held? Genoa-Kingston School Board CUSD 424 (4 1/2 years)

City: Genoa

Campaign Website: N/A

Education: A.A.S. Drafting/Design

A.S. Pre-Engineering

B.A. Business Management

Community involvement: Volunteer - Genoa Park District Sports

Marital status/Immediate family: Married

(2) children

Why are you running for office?

1. To help build a better education foundation based on the getting back to core common education (reading, writing, and arithmetic).

2. To get better education resources for the students.

3. Increase the exposure to technical trades options for students who feel advanced education is no the correct path for them.

4. To hold the district administration responsible for fiscal decisions that do not benefit the students or taxpayers.

5. Work with the educators to understand what resources they need for increased education.

What makes you qualified for the office you’re seeking?

1. Past school board experience.

2. Sit on a company advisory board to help make decisions on topics such as company growth, financial investing, business acquisitions.

3. A parent that wants to see students have the opportunity to excel in education.

4. The ability to make tough decisions, based on a common sense approach to solving problems.

5. Active member in the community, which allows me to be approachable and have good constructive conversation with community members.

6. The ability to resist doing what is popular vs. what is best for student education, safety, and stakeholder investment in the district.

Have you sought and/or received any training to run for your local school board? If so, from whom?

1. Previous school board experience.

2. I3 school board conferences.

3. School board training sessions through the ISBE.

Would you propose any changes to the curriculum? If so, what?

Make sure the curriculum is based on core common education.

Are LGBTQ students treated fairly in your district?

Yes, as there are multiple clubs that address topic.

What is your assessment of how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is handled in your school district?

I believe the district is fair in addressing these issues.

Do you believe the district needs to make any changes to improve DEI in your district?

Not at this time, but that topic is always open for discussion and improvement.

Are teachers in your district paid adequately now and in retirement?

I believe there can be some discussions that need to take place and work to do on teacher pay. I do feel that the retirement compensation that a teacher receives is adequate. I would be happy to have a conversation on this topic.

Would you support changes to teacher pay scales? If so, how?

Nothing to be supported as the teachers have a 5 year contract in place.

What is your assessment of the district superintendent’s compensation?

The superintendent’s compensation is generous.

Would you make any changes to how the district superintendent is compensated?

Yes, to be more in line with the GKEA contract

Health Insurance Premium

Retirement Contribution

Do you support the current superintendent? Please explain.

Yes, but there needs to be some changes with district policy to allow for a better working atmosphere and relationships with the staff and the school board.

Should schools in your district adopt and teach sex education according to the National Sex Education Standards? Please explain.

No. Kids have a hard enough time to try and learn the basics of the educational skills they need. This is a standard that is driven by organizations that are promoting an agenda. This standard is not a one size fits all, so the district could pull bits and pieces from this to help develop good basic sex education instruction. The deeper dive in to sex education should be the responsibility of the parents, not the school district.

What is your assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled locally?

Unsatisfactory as the district only thought about the short term affects on them personally and not the long term affect on the education growth of the students. They picked and chose what guidelines they wanted to follow.

What did you learn from the pandemic?

My opinion was that it was real, but blown way out a proportion. How outside non-district entities can influence a society in to panic without any long term data on health and with no regard to children education.

Are voters that support your district taxed at an appropriate level?

Approximately 60% of our property tax goes to the district. I believe that we are not getting the full benefit of every dollar collected for education we are using for the best education for our students.

Would you support any plans to raise taxes in the district? If so, what should the additional revenue be spent on?

No.

Would you support lowering taxes in the district? If so, what programs or services in the district would you cut?

Yes. I don’t agree that we need to cut and programs or services. This is the problem with the philosophy that because we don’t generate the revenue, we need to cut programs or services. Why don’t we look at ways to lower taxes and get more efficient programs or services, rather than the blanket statement that we need to cut them.

Will you accept the voters’ decision in your race on Election Day?

Yes

What is your position on open, transparent government?

Needs to be more transparent, which the current district administration is lacking with the current school board and community.

Do you support the Freedom of Information Act and citizens’ ability to freely access government records?

Yes and it should be opened up to more information.