There are five candidates running for two seats on Upper Arlington School Board. Pencilstorm asked each of the candidates five specific questions centered around issues that impacted Upper Arlington schools and questions that were being raised by fellow voters. Pencilstorm will be posting their complete and unedited answers individually throughout October and reposting all their answers together before the election. Answers will be posted in order they're received. Our fourth candidate, Scott McKenzie, is featured below.
Scott McKenzie, Upper Arlington School Board Candidate
Scott McKenzie
www.MM4UA.com
What makes you qualified to have oversight of the $98 million schools operating budget?
I have worked in education for 42 years as a teacher, guidance counselor, business manager, and as the Superintendent of the Groveport Madison Schools. When I retired from Groveport, I was the chief administrator of a district with an annual budget of $72 million, 75 buses, 500 staff, and 10 buildings.
I currently serve as the President of the UA Board of Education and have served on the Board for four years. In that capacity I am one of two board members who serve on the superintendent’s finance committee and meet regularly with the superintendent and treasurer to review the district’s financial status and outlook. Before joining the board I served on the UA Schools Financial Advisory Consulting Team providing community input and advice to the treasurer.
I’m proud of the financial successes of the district during my time on the board. We are opening our new buildings on time and on budget, and we have used savings from a hiring freeze and other cost-saving measures to postpone levies in 2020 and 2021.
One priority of our strategic plan is “Whole Learning.” How will you foster whole learning in our elementary schools, middle schools and high schools?
“Whole Learning” means providing tailored levels of instruction to meet each individual child’s strengths and weaknesses. To accomplish this, I will continue to support the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) in the UA Schools. MTSS establishes increasing tiers of instruction for students – classroom instruction, small group instruction, and individual instruction. Teachers proactively assess each child’s needs along multiple axes, tailoring instruction for each child. For instance, a child may be part of classroom instruction for math but need extra help from small group instruction in reading. MTSS is proactive: Teachers continually monitor each child’s progress, adjusting instruction levels as appropriate, rather than waiting until a child falls behind. Elementary teachers are currently being trained in MTSS. We should deploy it to all grade levels in the coming years.
In addition to MTSS, “whole learning” means providing programs for the approximately 20% of UA students who have an individual education plan (IEP). UA Schools offer numerous resources for these students, including specialized language instruction, speech therapists, adaptive PE, and more.
In all cases, I am committed to educating students with special needs in the least restrictive environment. This is not only required by law; it is the right thing to do.
Another priority of our strategic plan is “Student and Staff Well-being” with a key element of belonging. How will you serve as a role model to our community and create a feeling of safety and connectedness?
The importance of serving as a role model to our community has been forefront in my mind as I have presided over board meetings in the last year. Regrettably, school board meetings have involved an unusual amount of divisiveness and emotionally charged rhetoric in the last two years, primarily concerning the board’s measures to mitigate risk from COVID-19. Throughout these difficult times, I have done my best to be respectful of everyone and to seek input from all stakeholders. We have had many long board meetings in which everyone has been given an opportunity to speak, and we have listened actively and carefully to all perspectives. In making decisions, we have tried to act as role models for our students by basing our decisions on evidence, not political rhetoric, and favoring the opinion of experts over personal anecdotes.
Once we move past the pandemic, we need to put in extra effort to find common ground and remember that we all share the same goal: helping our kids grow up to be happy, well- educated, and successful members of the community. There are a range of views in our community, but that shouldn’t stop us from working together to support our schools.
Everyone at Pencilstorm is a musician. To that end, what would you do to support music education at a younger age in our elementary schools?
I am an amateur musician too, and I strongly support elementary music education! Our elementary music teachers are treasures, and I know that music class is one of the highlights of many students’ days. I also want to support our classroom teachers incorporating music in everyday instruction, as some of them already do. When I was an elementary teacher, I would try to incorporate music in my classes. For example, my students and I would make up songs to help remember tricky material. I also encouraged my students to give class presentations and would give extra credit if they used music or another media to make their points.
Here’s a fun question. If you had a time machine and an unlimited amount of money and could pick any band or performer to play in the new auditorium for our students, who would you pick? Bonus question – who’s the opening act?
I would pick the Traveling Wilburys to play for the students. As you may know, this often- overlooked “supergroup” was made up of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. They made some great music (especially their Vol. 1 album). More importantly, the Traveling Wilburys would, in one group, give our kids several examples of English-American popular music in an incredibly influential period that still resonates today. Our kids would experience classic 1950s-style love ballads from Roy Orbison, the 1960s British Invasion from George Harrison, the 1960s and ’70s political and social upheaval from Bob Dylan, and the 1970s and ’80s “classic rock” stylings of Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.
For the opening act, I would pick Aretha Franklin. Her music is amazing, and her empowering messages (“Respect,” “Think”) are spot on for our kids.
Pencilstorm would like to thank Scott McKenzie for taking the time to answer our questions. Learn more about Scott at his website: www.mm4ua.com. Look for responses from future candidates in the coming days. Pencilstorm is an independent news source and does not endorse any individual candidate.
Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee.
Check out coverage of all the candidates we've received responses from by clicking here.