Election 2013: Amy Connolly

Campaign Info

• Position Sought: Community Consolidated School District 146 Board of Education.
• Website: Planning for Progress; Planning for Progress on Facebook; Twitter: @PlanProgress
• Email:  ConnollyFrederickson@gmail.com 
• Phone:
• Hometown: Tinley Park

Personal Info

• Family: Stephen Connolly, husband; Elizabeth Connolly, daughter; Henry Connolly, son; Margaret Connolly, daughter.
• Education: Kansas State University, 1994, Bachelor of Arts - Political Science; Kansas State University, 1996, Masters of Regional and Community Planning
• Occupation: Planning Director, Village of Tinley Park
• Political Party Affiliation: Planning for Progress slate

Candidate Questions

Why are you seeking office?

Experience: I am honored to have served one term on the school board. During my tenure: I have served as co-chair of the District’s Finance Committee; helped institute a new school lunch program; and served as Board representative to the teacher contract negotiating team. My background in city planning, local government, public finance and policy formulation make me uniquely suited to work on educational issues and serve as your representative on the School Board.

Understanding: I am a working mother with children in the District. I will continue to advocate for policies and programs that support working families and partner with parents to support our children’s educational experience. Kids: I believe being on the School Board means serving the interests of our children first. I believe in developing the highest educational standards for our children and ensuring high levels of learning in the classroom. Our kids deserve the best teachers, low class sizes, and a well-rounded education.

Community: Our School District provides great value to residents and continually contributes to the value of property and our community’s well-being.

What will be your single most important priority if you get elected?

I will keep District 146 finances robust so that we can continue to offer and expand educational opportunities for our kids.

What sets you apart from other candidates? 

I am a working mom and a City Planner with experience in public budgeting, finance, and local government administration. These qualities set me apart from all the other candidates and have defined my previous four years of service to the School Board. I advocate for policies that support working parents, including an expanded school day, more full weeks of school, and the expansion of Early Learning and Kindergarten programs. Holding a Master’s Degree in City Planning and having over 15 years of experience with budgets, finance, and public administration allow me to best understand financial matters and the important relationship between a school board and the community. As the mother to three small children in the District, I have a direct link to our schools and I have similar experiences to all the parents in the District.

What is your opinion on the current testing schedule our students are placed under? Do you believe these high-stakes test are educationally viable?

I am not a fan of high-stakes testing. While I do believe that children need to be tested occasionally for the purpose of helping teachers and parent understand individual student learning, I do not believe that students should be tested when the scores are used for political purposes. Our District is required to give the “high-stakes” ISAT test each year in March, but the scores do not come back to the District until the fall. This means, a child’s teacher cannot use the results of those tests to help students or a class. Worse, the test scores are used by politicians in Springfield to force school choice on even high performing public schools and to judge the quality of our teachers. I fail to see how ISAT tests and any state-mandated tests will help our kids. When we are high-stakes test-focused our education protocol becomes “teaching for a test” and our goals become less lofty. We make sure all kids pass the test and our sights are set on mediocrity, rather than creating high standards and pushing our very talented students to achieve. District 146 has implemented MAP testing to diagnose issues and prescribe better educational practices for individual students, classrooms, and schools. Those results are available within 24 hours. We should continue to use the MAP tests, which have immediate and usable data, and ignore high stakes testing as another unsuccessful mandate from Springfield.

Where does music education and fine arts education fit in your educational priorities? What does an ideal fine arts curricula look like to you?

Kids in our District deserve a well-rounded education. However, many programs like fine arts, music, physical education, and (even) recess have been reduced due to a heavy focus on curriculums that will achieve higher “high stakes” test scores. The movement away from arts, music, and movement in school may be a mistake because these programs are what develop creativity and innovation in our kids. An ideal curriculum in fine arts would be more than the “arts on carts”, music every other day, and P.E. every other day. I would support the creation of arts classrooms and more art time, more hours of music, and more hours of physical education. These ideas require finding space in our buildings and require more teachers for those subjects – all of which is expensive to the District. We should look to partnerships with regional schools, park districts, and a robust after-school experience to potentially serve as supplemental opportunities for our kids. Technology may also offer opportunities for the District as these types of curriculum could be assisted with our technology efforts to bring fine arts into the classroom with iPads and computers.

What are your thoughts on the district's wellness policy? Would you change anything?

I am proud to say that I served on the District’s Wellness Committee, which developed the new Wellness policy. All the incumbent Board members voted in favor of that policy, which was adopted unanimously by the School Board, and approved by all the District PTAs. In addition to ensuring that our classrooms would have healthy food, the Wellness Committee interviewed and selected a new school lunch provider, which has been a great success. The Wellness Initiative comes from the understanding that overweight and obese children are preventable epidemic. Over 40% of the children in Cook County schools (and our school district) are overweight or obese, which means they are at risk of having a shorter life span than their parents. The School District isn’t responsible for the obesity epidemic in children, but the School District does have a responsibility to not contribute to the epidemic. The Wellness Policy does not interfere with any parent’s ability to feed their children at home or during school lunches, but it does say that if there is a school party, healthy snacks must be served. With the rise of serious food allergies and the high number of “nut-free” classrooms, we have a legal and moral responsibility to address classroom food and ensure all our children are safe.

Revenue from the state continues to dry up, while residents are also dealing with rising costs. Please rank the following in the order you feel the district should be focused on for meeting the district’s costs in light of these issues. 1) Staff Cuts 2) Contract Renegotiations 3) Operating Expense Cuts 4) Tax Increases 5) Other Funding Sources. Please also explain your reasoning.

The portion of our annual budget that is related to State revenues is relatively small compared with other school districts. District 146 is lucky to be insulated from much of the financial impact of the State of Illinois’s inability to manage its own pocketbook. We have a solid financial position, a balanced budget, and a healthy fund balance that allow us to weather financial storms. Our School District should always look at ways to tighten our belt and save money where we can. A belt-tightening effort is already underway as part of the District’s Finance Committee, which I co-chair. I do not believe that our District will need to consider staff cuts or tax increases if we continue to manage our monies carefully.

How can the school district best prepare students for the Common Core State Standards? How can the district also involve parents in the process?

Common Core State Standards curriculum development is already underway in District 146 for Language Arts and Math. These standards were set in 2010 by the State Board of Education and expected to be fully adopted in every school District by the fall of 2014. The best way to prepare students for Common Core State Standards is to give our administrators and teachers time and resources to develop curriculum and practice in implementing the Common Core. Testing on certain elements of the Common Core standards started with the 2013 ISAT tests. Parents should be involved by reading more about CCSS and understanding that curriculum redevelopment is underway at our schools. Information is available here: http://www.isbe.net/common_core/pdf/guide/parent_guide_info.pdf

Have you ever been charged with a crime? Were you convicted? If yes, please say what the charge was, and what was the case's outcome as it stands.

No.

Are there any candidates in other races you would like to endorse here?

I endorse Tim Frederickson for District 146 School Board as another member of the Planning for Progress: Elect Connolly and Frederickson team. Tim is an experienced educator, an amazing father, an honest and caring man, and he would contribute positively to the District 146 Board. In the District 228 Bremen High School race, I endorse Larry Canning. For Mayor, Clerk, and Trustees of Tinley Park, I endorse Mayor Edward Zabrocki, Clerk Patrick Rea, David Seaman, Brian Maher, and T.J. Grady.

Read about other D146 candidates running in the April election.