Get ready to vote for Vail school board

If you live in the Vail Unified School District, these are the people you will see on your general election ballot. They are seeking one of three volunteer positions.

Allison Pratt, 35

Employer and position: Self-employed, tutor for autistic students.

Education: Bachelor's in family and human development, Brigham Young University.

Political experience: Appointed to Vail school board one year ago.

Top priority: To continue Vail being one of the top districts in Arizona, providing excellent student achievement and educating the whole child.

HER TAKE ON ...

Testing: Testing is important because it gives the district the feedback to help educate children. You’re kind of doing the shot in the dark if you don’t know. Testing helps us know if we are on target. On the other hand, I’ve heard from teachers that we don’t want to get to the point of teaching to the test. There should be some flexibility so that teachers aren’t so stressed.

Improving teacher retention: There’s a couple things you can do to help. One of course is teacher salaries. We’re looking at that all the time. Another thing is making teachers feel valued and our district is where teachers want to work at. But the culture of the district doesn’t matter as much if you can’t feed your families.

Improving academic achievement: The role of the board is to give freedom to the people who were hired to do the job of improving academic achievement. We hire amazing people to do that. My role is to step back and let them do their job, but also hold them accountable and make sure they’re rising to the standards that we’ve set.

Mark Tate, 63

Employer and position: Retired from Raytheon.

Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Political experience: None.

Top priority: A good balance of spending both in the classroom and in administration.

HIS TAKE ON ...

Testing: I know there is a lot of conversation about teaching to the test. I don’t believe the Vail school district does that. They teach the subject matter and they use a powerful program called re-teach or enrich. I do support testing. It makes sure they’re learning what they need to.

Improving teacher retention: Unfortunately in Arizona, it has become a matter of salary and classroom support. We would need to try and find ways to help the teachers in the classroom, perhaps with the use of para-pros and increase salaries.

Improving academic achievement: One of the things that Vail does is they use some unique ways to encourage student to learn. It’s not just your normal reading, writing and arithmetic. They try to find what attracts students. That encourages certain students who wouldn't excel in a traditional classroom to want to come to school.

Callie Tippett, 41

Employer and position: Self-employed, owner of financial planning firm.

Education: Attended Pima Community College.

Political experience: None.

Top priority: My top priority is to ensure that every decision I make is the best decision for the children of Vail.

HER TAKE ON ...

Testing: I need to know more before I can make a good judgment. Parents are not happy about some of the data that’s collected through testing and the emphasis on testing. My questions are: How are we approaching testing? How are we using this testing? Is it necessary to test as often? 

Improving teacher retention: We’ve got to get more funding into the district. I believe there’s always something that can be cut when you manage a business and you look at your priorities. There are somethings that have to be funded. So within the district, we do need to be very detail oriented about where the money is going.

Improving academic achievement: We have to continue to be innovative in how we use our resources and reach out to the children. For instance, Andrada has a rock band option for high school students. Some of them are involved in school because they want to participate in that. We need to engage the children with their interests but also provide the fundamental education they need to grow.

Anthony Sizer, 42

Employer and position: Raytheon, senior engineer.

Education: Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Oregon Institute of Technology.

Political experience: Previously ran for state House and Vail school board unsuccessfully.

Top priority: Classroom first, retaining quality teachers and properly funding all elements of the classroom including supply.

HIS TAKE ON ...

Testing: Obviously we can’t just completely remove standardized testing. We need to find out where the children are as far as knowledge base so we know what area they are weak and needs improving. I do believe there needs to be a state mandated testing requirement.

Improving teacher retention: Teacher salaries need to go up. How it’s going to be done requires an analytical approach to how the funds are being spent and figure out how to reallocate to make sure that we realign ourselves to the goal that classrooms and teachers are first.

Improving academic achievement: We don't want to stunt the desire of students who want to achieve more than what is required of them. We should increase classroom opportunities to high-achieving students. 

Four candidates are in the running for three seats on the Vail school board.

They are: Allison Pratt, an incumbent who was appointed to the board a year ago; Mark Tate, retired Raytheon employee who volunteered and worked for the district; Callie Tippett, a business owner and club sports coach; and Anthony Sizer, a Raytheon engineer who also ran for a seat in the state House.

Here are their takes on some education issues.

On testing

Pratt: Testing is important because it gives the district the feedback to help educate children. You’re kind of doing the shot in the dark if you don’t know. Testing helps us know if we are on target. On the other hand, I’ve heard from teachers that we don’t want to get to the point of teaching to the test. There should be some flexibility so that teachers aren’t so stressed.

Tate: I know there is a lot of conversation about teaching to the test. I don’t believe the Vail school district does that. They teach the subject matter and they use a powerful program called re-teach or enrich. I do support testing. It makes sure they’re learning what they need to.

Tippett: I need to know more before I can make a good judgment. Parents are not happy about some of the data that’s collected through testing and the emphasis on testing. My questions are: How are we approaching testing? How are we using this testing? Is it necessary to test as often?

Sizer: Obviously we can’t just completely remove standardized testing. We need to find out where the children are as far as knowledge base so we know what area they are weak and needs improving. I do believe there needs to be a state mandated testing requirement.

On improving teacher retention

Pratt: There’s a couple things you can do to help. One of course is teacher salaries. We’re looking at that all the time. Another thing is making teachers feel valued and that our district is where teachers want to work at. But the culture of the district doesn’t matter as much if you can’t feed your families.

Tate: Unfortunately in Arizona, it has become a matter of salary and classroom support. We would need to try and find ways to help the teachers in the classroom, perhaps with the use of para-pros and increase salaries.

Tippett: We’ve got to get more funding into the district. I believe there’s always something that can be cut when you manage a business and you look at your priorities. There are somethings that have to be funded. So within the district, we do need to be very detail oriented about where the money is going.

Sizer: Teacher salaries need to go up. How it’s going to be done requires an analytical approach to how the funds are being spent and figure out how to reallocate to make sure that we realign ourselves to the goal that classrooms and teachers are first.

On academic achievement

Pratt: The role of the board is to give freedom to the people who were hired to do the job of improving academic achievement. We hire amazing people to do that. My role is to step back and let them do their job, but also hold them accountable and make sure they’re rising to the standards that we’ve set.

Tate: One of the things that Vail does is they use some unique ways to encourage student to learn. It’s not just your normal reading, writing and arithmetic. They try to find what attracts students. That encourages certain students who wouldn’t excel in a traditional classroom to want to come to school.

Tippett: We have to continue to be innovative in how we use our resources and reach out to the children. For instance, Andrada has a rock band option for high school students. Some of them are involved in school because they want to participate in that. We need to engage the children with their interests but also provide the fundamental education they need to grow.

Sizer: We don’t want to stunt the desire of students who want to achieve more than what is required of them. We should increase classroom opportunities to high-achieving students.