FM is a great school district, and our schools are the reason why so many of us chose to live here. We have dedicated and highly skilled educators, and a talented student body that is eager to learn and thrive. However, there are areas in which we can and must improve. We owe that to our students, teachers and taxpayers. Together we can be
A BETTER FM!
On this page, I have addressed a few areas in which I believe we can and should improve. There are many great things about FM that we should celebrate. The purpose of this page is not to detract from those, but merely to highlight that there are some areas in which we can do better. Certainly, people can have differing opinions on these and other issues. I welcome any civil, productive conversation on any of these issues. All of these issues require collaborative efforts in order to implement change. Feel free to email me at DSeidberg@gmail.com.
School Safety
This is clearly the issue that is at the forefront of all current school-based conversations, and it is a topic that is long overdue for meaningful attention. Because of the gravity of the concerns, issues and needs, I have a separate page on this website dedicated solely to this issue, and I encourage you to visit that page, read what is there, and to then contact me directly with any questions, thoughts and/or input. This is a topic on which we surely can and must do better.
Politics and School Boards
Let's be clear: I'm not a politician, and I have no desire to be one. I don't believe that a school board is an appropriate place for politics or political agendas. When it comes to our schools, my opinions and beliefs are driven by evaluating the best interest of the students and educators, in a fiscally prudent manner.
In my professional career and through the companies that I have founded and managed, I have learned that successful results are best achieved when all decisions serve the most fundamentally important goals (which here would be sustained excellence in education) in a transparent and fiscally sound manner, above and before any personal agendas. That is the approach that I would bring to my time on the FM School Board.
To anyone who has attended our school board meetings on a regular basis (I have attended more of them than even some of our elected board members), it is clearly evident that some members of our board care more about politics and personal agendas than the best interest of our students, educators and taxpayers. This must stop. We deserve better, and we can do better!
Transparency
Transparency should be an obvious expectation in any public school district. While "transparency" is a word often used at FM board meetings, the actual functioning of our board is anything but transparent. The few who regularly attend board meetings (I attend almost every one of them), understand that "secrecy" better describes how our board of education conducts its business.
A meeting agenda is posted online for the public in advance of every meeting, with only rare and limited attachments. At the board meetings, "back-up documentation" and "Thursday letters" are regularly referenced, but never publicly provided. The board frequently votes on items with limited, if any, public discussion. Details of what they voted on are typically posted online only after the vote has been completed, if at all. Meeting minutes are typically very brief and uninformative as to what actually took place. Audio and video of the meetings are recorded, but never made public.
After almost every public board meeting, the board adjourns into extended, confidential, executive and exempt sessions that often last hours. I have witnessed first-hand the functioning of multiple public boards. None spend nearly as much time in confidential sessions as our present board of education. Maybe this time is warranted and proper, but maybe it isn't. At the very least, the time spent in confidential sessions leads to a perception of improper secrecy. As a simple comparison in this calendar year alone (1/1/2018 through meeting minutes posted online as of March 28, 2018), FM's board of education has spent more than 7 hours in confidential exempt/executive sessions, as opposed to the Jamesville-Dewitt school board spending just 1 hour and 15 minutes in exempt/executive session.
At the end of the day, FM is a public school district, governed by what is supposed to be a public and transparent board of education, which spends public tax dollars. True transparency is a necessity.
Educational Programs and Support for our Educators
I owe a significant debt of gratitude to the FM educators, without whom I would not be where I am today. Unfortunately, our educators are at times constrained in what and how they teach, whether it be by curriculum mandates or financial restrictions. Our gifted educators need our community's support, and our district's support, in every aspect of their education of our students. This is one of the reasons that I have been so involved with the Board of the FM Education Foundation, which strives to enhance the academic experience of our students by independently funding innovative opportunities beyond the district's curriculum and resources. In my time on the Board of the FM Education Foundation, we have awarded over $20,000 in grants to our teachers for teacher-driven educational experiences, including grants in every one of our six schools!
The expectations placed on our students in this district are high, but students simply don't all learn the same way. Our educators need to be able to effectively meet the needs of all of our students, whether they be at the top, middle or bottom of the class. This includes our special education students, who may have educational needs that differ from other students, but who are no less deserving of the very best that FM has to offer.
It will be my goal on the Board to free our teachers as much as possible to implement innovative and forward-thinking educational methods, so that the teachers who are actually in the classrooms have the necessary freedom to most effectively meet all of their students' needs. I also believe that it is important that we always maintain a continuous, open dialog with our educators about changes that can be made to evolve and improve our educational program on topics including technology advances in education, collaborative learning, personalized learning, course offerings at all of our school levels, extra-curricular educational offerings, and the timing schedule of each of our school levels.
Fiscal Prudence and Budget Increases
Our district has an $80.7 million dollar budget for the current fiscal year. The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is $82.9 million dollars. The currently proposed budget increase (2.69%) is the highest budget-to-budget percentage increase since the 2008-2009 school year.
The tax levy is the amount of money that is actually billed directly to the local taxpayers. For the 2018-2019 school year, the district has proposed a 3.67% increase in the tax levy. That is also the highest increase since the 2008-2009 school year. The tax levy increase in 2008-09 was 2.88%. The next highest increase since then (until this year) was 2.51% in 2013-14. In 7 of the last 10 years, the tax levy increase was less than 2%.
On top of the budget increases, there is $45 million dollars of facilities work that was approved by the voters in December 2017, and remaining facilities needs have been roughly projected at another $75 million dollars (which does not include any expansion of the elementary schools that are currently at capacity).
Our community does not have unlimited resources, and our district's residents simply can not afford endless tax increases. At the same time, we have an obligation to maintain excellence in our educational programs, in full support of our teachers and students, and that comes at increasing costs. It is critical that our administrators and Board exercise greater fiscal prudence, with careful planning and proper prioritization of expenditures.
At its core, our school district is an $83 million/year business. Now more than ever, we need board members with actual, real world business experience. I have that experience. I've founded and run two very successful businesses, employing dozens of people, including an international business that serves more than 6,800 municipalities. I have significant experience in hiring and managing people and large projects, developing and implementing long-range strategic plans, and maintaining a fiscally prudent budget. We need someone with this business experience on our Board to ensure that we are prioritizing the needs of students and teachers, in a fiscally prudent manner that is respectful of the tax impact of every decision that is made. I am the only candidate with that business experience.
Student Health and Well Being
We must have honest communications about issues being faced in our schools, and about finding solutions to these issues. Very smart students, in an accomplished school district, and in a well educated community, are making very dangerous and unwise life choices. Whether the issue is opioid use and addiction, "casual" experimentation with drugs and alcohol, hard core use of drugs and/or alcohol, pharma parties, cutting, or any other such issue, it's here at FM. Turning our backs on that, or pretending that it does not exist at FM is not an option. Our number one job priority both as parents and as a school district should be simple to understand: don't let the kids die. It's time to have real, meaningful discussions about policy and programmatic changes and enhancements that are directed at changing the culture that allows these issues to enter and exist in our schools.
Programmatic innovation within our schools on these issues is something that I have long advocated for, and is something that I have been actively involved in with our educators. I was personally involved in driving and developing an educational program within our schools on opioids, addiction, and addictive behaviors, and am grateful for the vision and courage of Maureen McCrystal, the Eagle Hill principal who embraced and encouraged this program in her school. The first such program was successfully launched for eighth graders at Eagle Hill middle school in June 2017, and I'm very proud that the same program has now been expanded to both Wellwood and Eagle Hill for this academic year. In future years, the hope is to expand this program with age-appropriate content to earlier grades within both middle schools.
I look forward to the opportunity to continue those efforts from within the board of education.
Diversity, Accessibility and Inclusiveness
FM has come a long way since I went to school here, and our community continues to evolve for the better, enriched by diversity, whether it be racial, social, national origin, physical, sexual orientation, family dynamics, religious, or economic diversity. I am regularly convinced that we can all learn many valuable lessons directly from our students about inclusiveness and tolerance. Unfortunately, there continues to be work to be done, particularly in the areas of accessibility within our schools, and full inclusiveness of students with physical, developmental and/or mental health challenges. Every student deserves no less than the very best that FM has to offer, and I am committed to doing all that I can to ensure that every student receives a full, proper and inclusive FM education, free of any discrimination.