Election Preview: Racine Unified School Board

On the ballot are:

• Incumbent board member Christopher Eperjesy, 830 Waters Edge Rd., who is a 10-year resident of the district and has a stepdaughter who attends Prairie School.
• Kristie Formolo, a Mount Pleasant resident whose two teenage children have attended various schools throughout the community.
• Michael Frontier, 1127 Lake Ave., a former alderman and 28-year resident whose three children have attended several private and public schools.
• Incumbent board member Julie McKenna, 724 Crab Tree Lane, who has lived in the district 22 years and has one child who attended several district schools, including Washington Park High School.
• Roger Pfost, 3114 Caledonia St., a retiree and the school liaison for the Racine County Taxpayers Association. He has seven children who attended various district schools.
• Robert Wittke Jr., 11 Sandalwood Ct., a lifelong Racine-area resident whose four children all went through RUSD.

Get detailed backgrounds on all candidates

Caledonia Patch asked the candidates about some of the key issues facing the district. Here — in their own words — are their answers.

What is the biggest issue facing the district, and how would you address it, if elected? Eperjesy Poverty. This isn't only the biggest issue facing our district; it is the biggest issue facing our entire community. Over 60% of the students in the district qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school board, administrators and teachers alone cannot solve the problem of poverty and the effects it has on education. In order to make real progress, the board of education needs to work with parents, community leaders, public officials, employers and concerned citizens to make real, lasting progress. As a school board member, I will continue to work to engage as many people as possible to work with us to find solutions to the effects of poverty on our community and the district. Some of my specific suggestions are in response to the question concerning addressing the district's racial achievement gap below.
Formolo I think one of the biggest issues facing Racine Unified is that so many people have lost faith in our district. Our taxes go up, but we are not seeing enough positive change happening within the majority of our schools. People are leaving the district!
In 2008/2009 RUSD lost 526 students through Open Enrollment.
In 2011/2012 RUSD lost 1053 students through Open Enrollment. 
An exit survey needs to be created and should have been done 3 years ago. Not only that, but in 2011/2012 RUSD only gained 24 students through Open Enrollment. Compare that number to Paris Elementary in Kenosha County. In 2012/2013 Paris had 265 students and 95 of them were Open Enrollment students. Their revenue from Open Enrollment was $515,600.00 while Racine Unified lost over 5 million dollars! What is the Racine Unified School District doing wrong and how can it be fixed? These are two very important questions that have to be addressed if we want to keep families in this district. Frontier Vouchers pose a great challenge to the district. The district elementary schools are viewed as very strong by famiies. However, middle schools are less attractively perceived. 
We cannot afford to lose students. We must create exciting, engaging learning environments, that counter this tendency.
Additionally, older facilities (average age 77 years) and the need for updated technology call for intervention beyond the district's budget. McKenna The biggest issue facing the district our system of education is the changing needs and expectations of our global society... for the future in technology, careers, communication....Racine Unified needs to be competive on a local and global level to prepare our students to succced. Students must succeed.
Pfost The District has rated last or close to it in its peer group for teachers salaries for the last 15 years. I will do my best to recognize the good teachers and reward them in their pay scales.
Wittke Performance. I believe it is the common thread that links every challenge the District faces. Student flight, fiscal stress, and substandard image can all be traced to the inability to trend achievement levels upward over a sustained period. This is going to be further complicated by the Federal and State mandates that will be required by the waiver granted to the No Child Left Behind law. I wish I had the magic formula to resolve all our challenges once elected but I don’t. I will bring the personal attributes I described above to work within the parameters of the Board and make contributions to its policy making, fiscal management, and governance which focus on improving the performance of all our students. How would you address the district's racial achievement gap? Eperjesy In my opinion, this is one of the biggest challenges facing the District – closing the achievement gap. In the short time I’ve been a member of the RUSD Board of Education, I have seen that progress is being made, but clearly a lot more needs to be done. Programs that engage parents to be more involved, expand 4-year old kindergarten, provide additional support for students in need, expand summer school and reduce class size are all programs I would support. I have a lot to learn and I am open to suggestions from all stakeholders, particularly students, parents and teachers.
Formolo We need to go back to neighborhood schools so that parents have the connection to the school in their neighborhood. We need more volunteers in the Elementary schools to help with reading and we need to continue offering more choices for parents who want their children to attend the magnet or charter schools. We also need to strive harder for a zero tolerance policy in the majority of the schools. A teacher and the school district cannot fix a broken home, but what they can offer is a safe and exciting haven for students to spend 5 days a week.
Also, and this is very important, we need to look at what is working at Walden who continually produces outstanding students and has very few discipline problems. We need to encourage more schools in our district to work towards the Walden Philosophy which I've included below.

Walden Philosophy: "Walden III's commitment to non-violence is a tradition that has been an integral part of its philosophy since the school's inception in 1972. Students are expected to solve problems amicably. The school's "no fight" policy means that no one may use physical violence against another. Any student violating the district's code of student responsibility may be removed from Walden III to return to their home school. In addition, a student at Walden cannot demonstrate truancy/tardiness or academic failure over the course of a quarter and remain a Walden student."
Frontier Early childhood is key. All research indicates that student in Head Start despite losing some academic gains still graduate at a much higher level than non- Head start students. This may be a function of more health -dental interventions provided that reduce lost school days.
Alternative instructional strategies are needed for students who lack the language rich environments of more well to do families.
Differentiated instruction is a buzz word that demands considerable preparation for teachers. This is critical if we are to appeal to all ability groups. Considerable staff development monies are needed to create outstanding teachers who can use this approach. McKenna The district has made progress in this area as evidenced by National Blue Ribbon School award for Jerstad-Agerholm, The School of Recognition designation for Jerstad-Agerholm, Rossevelt and West Ridge. We need all our schools to close the achievement gap and do that every year. I see growth in this area as evidenced by the above awards, also by the initiatives of IB programs at Jefferson Lighthouse, MckInley Middle School, Case High School. I am excited by the Science Technolgy Engineering (STEM) many of our schools are going to this and (STEAM) which adds the Arts in Mtchell Middle School. The North Star vision has helped us focus on this issue. The district has to continue to evaluate and do the things that are working , and stop or change the things that have not worked and do other things we are not doing to achieve the closing the racial achievement gap.. The Guilding Coalition and the District Wide School Improvement Council has really focused and continues to focus on this as well as all of our staff in the Racine Unified School District.
I am hopeful and want to be a part of that to make it a reality for all students.The district has a good start need to continue to do more in this area to close that gap for all students.
Pfost Did not respond. Wittke A key piece of addressing this issue will be the hiring of a new Superintendent. The Board’s role is to insure the Superintendent has developed a comprehensive plan to address the issue, monitor its delivery, and hold the Superintendent and his/her team accountable for achieving results. I believe the Board has to set a higher standard of accountability as well as emphasizing a greater sense of urgency towards making progress. There are concepts I believe need to be part of this plan. The focus has to be in the early stages of our student’s development and on the core foundational subjects reading and math. We appear to start losing our students in grade three. The more students that successfully pass this hurdle the better chance we have of improving performance at the secondary education levels. Leverage what is working in our own District. For example, West Ridge Elementary School has shown meaningful results in closing their achievement gap. If other outside programs or methods are considered they should have a proven track record of producing results. Ways to incorporate existing tools designed to supplement our traditional education process such as our technology instruction program, RTI process, Lighted Schoolhouse program, Schools of Hope program, etc.

RELATED COVERAGE: School Board candidates answer questions from the community