St. Vrain Valley school board election Q&A: Rod Schmidt, District F

E-mail: Schmidt_rod@stvrain.k12.co.us

Age: 53

Address: 1873 Blue Mountain Road, Longmont

Family: Wife, Cindy; daughters Kristy, 20, and Erika,18; son Rick, 16

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Westmar College in Le Mars, Iowa, in 1978

Professional background: Vice president of client services at Acosta Sales & Marketing; spent 28 years in the consumer packaged goods industry marketing to grocers and mass merchants; prior to that, spent three years in the computer industry

Political experience: Four years on the St. Vrain Valley School District Board of Education

Who is your hero? Not relevant

Tell us something unusual about yourself that few people know: Sponsor annual trip to a Mexican orphanage in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, to assist in the buildout of a church-operated orphanage, farm and school

What is your favorite Web site or blog? Not relevant

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Building up my level of patience

What do you think are the district’s top budget priorities? And how would you engage the community in making tough decisions? Every financial decision we make today must have the potential for long-term sustainability, and not place the district in a position of rescinding those commitments. Every employee group needs to assume a measure of accountability and willingness to collaborate on creative solutions that continue to focus on the key deliverables.

How do you think the district should move forward with teacher contract negotiations? Move away from traditional bargaining the union requested this year and go back to interest-based negotiations. Traditional bargaining paralyzes us in terms of building a collaborative relationship with teachers and ultimately generates distrust and rhetoric during the negotiation process. It’s also non-effective in building consensus to solutions on issues.

How would you work to continue closing the achievement gap? The SVVSD will continue to responsibly implement technology and programming to maximize our teacher effectiveness and output. This includes incorporating data-driven instruction that insures students are grasping the instruction immediately, versus waiting for results of high-stakes testing that is not timely nor actionable.

What issue would you take up, if elected, that you think hasn’t been addressed by previous school boards?Contract negotiations — we must move toward a negotiation platform that allows all employees to have input in the process versus an executive leadership board. We must build out a collaborative process that allows everyone the opportunity for input into decisions impacted by the contract that will drive academic excellence.