After completing most of her first term on the Tooele County School Board, Debbie Chapman gave up her District 3 seat to return to teaching. Two candidates — Scott Bryan and Matt Robinson — are running to fill the vacated seat, which covers northeast Tooele City and Pine Canyon. Their race is the only one being contested for the school board this election.

The Transcript-Bulletin asked the candidates to explain their positions on several issues via a written questionnaire. Their responses are printed below.

Q: Briefly introduce yourself.

Bryan: I grew up in Tooele, and my wife Rhonda and I moved around the western United States before moving back to Tooele 12 years ago. We love being home. Two of my children have graduated from Tooele High School, and our other two children are in district schools. Our children have attended 10 different schools, providing us with a variety of experiences and perspectives. I’ve been actively involved in the community. For the past three years I have served as a member of the Tooele High School Community Council — the last two years as president of that group. I’ve served as a leader in the Boy Scouts of America for 20-plus years and I’ve coached youth sports for several years. I have a master’s degree in business administration from BYU. Currently I work as a manager for Intermountain Healthcare. I have experience in setting and keeping budgets, managing and working with people, and meeting the bottom line. I bring with me “real world experiences” in community service, business, educational training and family that I’m ready to share with the community.

Robinson: I have been actively involved with community affairs since moving to Tooele City more than nine years ago, including volunteer service at Harris Elementary school where my three daughters attend. I have been active in civic, religious and community organizations by serving as the county vice chairman for the Tooele County Republican Party, and serving as a youth leader in my church group, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Youth and Families with Promise mentoring program. I am originally from suburban Philadelphia, Penn., and I am a microbiologist at Dugway Proving Ground. I would bring enthusiasm and a strong work ethic to the board with no predetermined agenda other than to do what is best for the 13,440 students in the Tooele County School district.

Q: What are your top three priorities if elected? Bryan: First, student success must be the driving influence for every decision made by the school board. Successful productive citizens upon high school graduation are the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of our school system. Second, encourage an increase in parental participation. The schools belong to our parents and to the community, and the school district needs to do all that they can to promote parental involvement. Third, be fiscally responsible with taxpayers money. Schools must be accountable to the public, making good use of every dollar through wise financial management.

Robinson: Growth: With an increase in enrollment of 7 percent to more than 13,440 students in the district, growth continues to be an issue in the forefront of the minds of many parents and citizens. As such, managing growth is a top priority, so administrative issues that develop do not interfere with quality education goals. Funding: Examining and approving budgets is always a large part of what the school board does, but in times of economic uncertainty prudent funding practices become a critical priority. Ensuring that tax dollars — essentially money that is yours and mine — are spent prudently and wisely is of utmost importance to me. Basic classroom education must never suffer from lack of funding. Careful inspection of budgets and expenditures will ensure that it doesn’t. Quality Education/Curriculum: Underpinned by attention to growth and funding, I want to make sure that every single student is given the best education possible. My top priority will be to see that curriculum is not only standardized to meet federal and state criteria, but that it is aligned across grade levels both horizontally — within the same grades throughout the district — and vertically — moving up grade to grade within each school.

Q: Given the downturn in state revenue, the school board may soon be faced with providing an education for more students with less money. This would require either increasing local taxes or making budget cuts. What steps would you take to balance the school district’s budget in the face of decreasing state income? Bryan: There is a third option not identified in the question. We need to be willing to think outside of the box, identifying ways to stretch our current resources without impacting the success of our schools. We need to find and adopt the best business practices possible to run our district. Every dollar spent outside the classroom needs to be identified and analyzed, making sure it supports our core mission of educating our children.

Robinson: In times of economic insecurity, it is necessary for all Americans to tighten their belt and make do with what is given them. This year the current school board chose to keep tax rates the same in the face of an increase in property values — essentially raising taxes. Though I believe tax dollars are crucial to providing public education, I fundamentally disagree with tax increases. The school district then, like all of our families, must look for ways to trim any and all waste. In doing so, I believe creativity will be of the essence if cuts become necessary and the quality of instruction must be made the priority. The newly approved Energy Savings Plan is a good start, but every aspect of support and activity must be scrutinized. I am also concerned that on a state level there will be a temptation for lawmakers to tap into the School Trust Land Fund as revenues continue to shrink. I will be a strong voice on the board in lobbying that those State Trust Land monies are kept sacrosanct and can be utilized effectively by our community councils to support schools and quality education here in Tooele County.

Q: Is the district’s 10-year plan adequate for keeping up with enrollment growth? What steps would you take if enrollment begins to overtake infrastructure? How would you reduce class sizes?

Bryan: As a parent who has children who will be attending high school for the next six years, I am very concerned about the growth and planning for new schools. When Stansbury High School opens next fall, both Tooele and Stansbury High Schools will be at or above capacity. The current 10-year building plan does not call for another high school to be opened until 2020, just in time for today’s kindergarten classes to graduate. We cannot always build our way out of growth challenges and we can’t turn school playgrounds into fields of portable classrooms. We will need to be creative in identifying ways we can maximize the use of our school buildings.

Robinson: Upon initial review, the current plan which contains three new elementary schools, an elementary rebuild, a new junior high and a new high school seems like a lot of building. However, student population trends over the past few years indicate this is warranted. For right now, I believe that the plan will keep up with growth, but it isn’t enough to say, “We have a plan” and not carefully reanalyze it often to allow for changes and adaptation. We must build schools physically big enough to absorb population growth and keep class sizes small. In addition to building with vision, we must also allocate funds in the budget as a contingency to hire extra teachers when needed. If the initial plans are centered on building schools with adequate physical infrastructure and providing budget for sufficient staffing, we can keep class sizes small. The biggest factor influencing class size is the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU). The WPU is how the State Legislature funds school districts and is the source of teacher salaries. As a school board member, I will lobby the Legislature to increase funding of the WPU, which will allow the hiring of more teachers, thus reducing class sizes.

Q: With AYP, U-PASS, Iowa Basic Skills Tests, CRTs, UBSCT, and a variety of other tests, there is plenty of formal data on student and school performance. What would you look to as major indicators of a successful school?

Bryan: In business you are measured by the quality of the product you produce. Similarly, in our schools we need to be measured by the quality of our graduates. Each of these tests help us measure the quality of the education but we should never lose sight of our ultimate goal to produce successful productive citizens.

Robinson: Though test scores have their place in determining performance, there are some aspects of a school that indicate success without being formally measured. Schools need to be a place of safety for the students. Nobody should feel physically vulnerable within the walls of our schools. Review of the Safe School report for our district shows that 98 percent of our students are doing exactly as expected, but there is some room for improvement. A successful school also has current technology and infrastructure necessary for a 21st century education. Some of our schools are older, but current plans allow for an elementary remodel and several new schools over the next decade. This will allow for students and parents throughout the district to feel good about where our students attend school. Finally, our district has a high school finish rate of about 88 percent, but that could and should be higher. I want every student who starts kindergarten to finish with a high school diploma. We must provide a quality education that has programs for every student’s skill level, including advanced classes and gifted programs, which will allow them to either enter the work force or continue on in higher learning.

Q: What curriculum changes would you like to see made within the district?

Bryan: A strong emphasis on the core subjects is critical to a student’s ultimate success. An emphasis on reading, writing and math can never be replaced, however, as an employer, I also see a need to emphasize other “softer skills.” We need students who are comfortable using technology, we need students who know how to interview and find employment, and we need students who have basic budget and finance skills.

Robinson: While most curriculum decisions rest in the hands of the state board of education, there are some things that could be done within our district to better the curriculum mandated by the state. As a growing district, we need better alignment of what is taught across all grade levels at the various schools. If all of the teachers know what needs to be taught for any given grade, they can still use their unique skills to teach the students in their classes. For example, better alignment would ensure that second-graders at East, Middle Canyon and all other schools would be taught the same core principles. This same principle can be applied when moving from grade to grade. If all the teachers of a given grade know what needs to be taught to prepare students for the next grade, it makes the transition at the beginning of the school year easier and simplifies the necessary process of building on previously taught principles to master progressively learned concepts. Better alignment will also help improve scores on standardized testing mandated by state and federal programs.

Q: What steps would you take to improve the quality of teaching within the district?

Bryan: We need to be willing to reward teachers who have success. Great teachers deserve to be recognized for their efforts and talents. We also need to be willing to train and coach those who need to improve. We need administrators who know how to recognize and reward the great teachers and know how to train those less-than-great teachers.

Robinson: We have great teachers in our district that reflect the values held by our parents and community. Recruiting and keeping teachers who maintain our values will allow for quality teaching to continue. There are many teachers that graduate from the college ranks here in Utah, and it is imperative that we keep more of those teachers here in the state and convince them, with commensurate pay, to teach here in Tooele County. With more schools being built, we will need more teachers. I support the board’s goal to improve the district’s position on the state pay scale — two steps — and increase total pay to $34,000 for lane 1, step 1. Recent and future developments on the state level have made a merit-based performance increase available to our teachers as well. In addition to higher-paid teachers, the growth of student population will also yield greater opportunity within the district to have more programs for gifted and talented students. I believe this also will increase the quality of teaching, as well as overall education for the students.

Compiled by Staff Writer Tim Gillie