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.
