The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.

See below for questions on Qualification, Priorities, Parental involvement, Community Relations

Click on a name for other candidate information.   See also more information about this contest.

Answer from Terry G. Marty:

Former School Board Member (1976-1984). Past President of the Wyoming School Foundation (1984 + 2001). Past Board Member Great Oaks Joint Vocational School District, Co-Chairman of School Levy Campaign (1994), Steering Committee for 1998 Wyoming School Bond Levy, Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving + Leave a Legacy (2005) Wyoming School Foundation

Answer from Mary R. (Ries) Jensen:

I have managed complicated R&D organizations globally. This entailed creating and managing budgets, strategic planning and hard priority choices, keeping my work force and management informed and happy and creating a superior product by understanding what people need/want. These skills would benefit a school board.

Answer from Sheryl Felner:

Nine year resident, husband Jim, Middle School Daughters Molly and Caroline. Committees: Citizens Advisory Chairperson, Alternative Funding, Finance Education, Primary Facilities, Primary Playground Fundraising, Room Mom six years, Former P&G Purchasing Manager, Commodity Trader Louis Dreyfus, BA Economics Wellesely, MBA Cornell. Attended 80% of the last 4 years Board meetings.

Answer from David Birdsall:

A vested interest in the district both personal (3 children in the system) and economic ( home value preservation and less tax burden) My job allows me to be exposed to the operation of numerous local governments and school systems throughout the Midwest and that can provide helpful perspective

Answer from Lou Lorenzi:

Resident 29 years, wife - Betsy, grown children - Greg and Maggie. Mechanical Engineer/Ohio registered Professional Engineer. Wyoming Super-Booster Board and Youth Sports coach. Board of Directors - GE Park and River Oak Condos, South Carolina. Employed - GE 36 years, responsible for program management of engine certification with budgets from $250,000 to $40,000,000

Answer from Lynn P. Larson:

I bring a strong commitment and belief in our community's excellence in educating our children. My financial education and career experiences, communication skills, problem solving initiatives and planning capabilities are strengths that would serve our Board of Education and are evidenced by long-standing community volunteerism and leadership.

Answer from Lou Lorenzi:

To improve the community relations with residents, I will be available to all residents for input to the school direction. Communicating to the community can be accomplished by gaining the respect of the community. To gain respect, the Board must establish a policy of effective management of the school system, being fiscally responsibility, providing a plan to the Superintendent and monitoring the process to that plan. Now is the time to establish solid process of reviewing the activities of the organization to optimize methods and allowing our schools to eliminate waste, unnecessary tasks and release employees to perform challenging jobs.

Answer from Sheryl Felner:

Follow the Strategic Plan. Continue to align curriculum, focus on the achievement gap. Motivate District leadership and residents to be honestly self-critical, look outside for tested ideas, adopt proven innovations. Keep current successful processes. Wyoming's generous financial support of education is being tested by increasing local responsibility and costs. I will focus, prioritize needs and engage stakeholders in the work of educating with excellence and fiscal restraint. Our District is small, with needs and opportunities for resident involvement and support. I would: evaluate communication versus public need for information and input, clarify involvement opportunities and processes for input.

Answer from Lynn P. Larson:

1. Change the perception and mystique of how the Board operates by providing greater access to board members to listen to community concerns. Use email, community forums and informal access before agenda-managed board meetings.
2. We will always need our community tax dollars to augment state funded education. Long term alternative funding can be realized through growing the Wyoming School Foundation's Endowment. But currently, our only choice is controlling expenses by continuing to seek cost saving initiatives especially in employee benefits and collective purchasing.
3. Support our administrators and educators as they challenge themselves and our students in the educational process.

Answer from Terry G. Marty:

I feel that the current board and pass boards have always had these priorities as their priorities. I would have to continue those priorities

Answer from David Birdsall:

1. School Funding + The State will not do its duty in supporting our schools and the taxpayers are overburdened. We must look to the private school/college funding model to our resources in place to create an "endowment" that will allow the school system to become more self sufficient. The board needs to support this to help unify all of those efforts that are currently focused on the goal of subsidizing current funding ( Wyoming School Foundation, PSA, Boosters)
2. Improving Communication + Implement technology to fully engage the community and save costs. Use email to give board updates, post all board members email addresses on the district website. Change culture of the board to improve perceptions of lack of communication.
3. Maintaining "Excellence" + Support our Superintendent to ensure focus on the daily operations of the district.

Answer from Mary R. (Ries) Jensen:

Maintaining the excellent product that is Wyoming Education by ensuring we are being creative in our approaches. We need to find the "yes, and" answer rather than the "either, or" answer. How can we have all the programs we want inside the budget we have? What technology would bring the board closer to the community? What technology would make the cirrocumuli come to life? What is the right balance of control and responsibility for students? I don't have a specific agenda; rather I hope to bring passion and creative problem solving to the problems that will undoubtedly emerge.

Answer from David Birdsall:

Parental and community involvement will be a key component of trying to change our funding structure. We will need community "buy-in" and support if we are going to try and reduce our tax burden. That means that the community will need to see that their childrens education will not suffer as we try to save ourselves from drowning in tax levies and income tax increases

Answer from Sheryl Felner:

Parents are partners and a great strength in the success of Wyoming students. To increase parent participation I will: 1.Clearly and continuously communicate current opportunities. 2.Evaluate, with data, current involvement and look for gaps in participation or barriers to involvement 3. Seek input from teachers and administrators to target parent involvement toward student learning 4. Engage the whole community, not just parents, in the opportunities of the District.

Answer from Lynn P. Larson:

We are fortunate to have extensive parental involvement.

Continue to communicate educator's needs and matching them with the readily available parental resource. We already do this well through open houses, PSA, Wyoming Boosters, and teacher involvement with the parents. Encourage parents and students to make use of Internet access to student's homework and grades. Use email (individual and mass) to keep the dialog flowing directly with the teachers, administrators and parents.

Answer from Terry G. Marty:

Historically, Wyoming Boards of Education have done an outstanding job of parental involvement and community relations. Our school system currently gives parents and households without children in the school system many opportunities to be involved. I would continue to support these activities.

Answer from Mary R. (Ries) Jensen:

Wyoming has an excellent tradition of parental involvement and that is a very critical element of its success. Volunteering opportunities are one way to bring parents in and many take advantage of them. But not everyone is available for that kind of interaction. New technology programs which allow parents to monitor a student's class work and progress are an excellent new step which almost everyone can use. Continuing to find ways to let parents into their student's educational lives should be a priority for the district.

Answer from Sheryl Felner:

Generations of Wyoming children have benefitted from the strong support of our schools by Wyoming residents. People choose to stay in, or move to Wyoming for the excellent education this community continues to provide. Our community, including those without children in school, has participated heavily in funding, academic and extracurricular volunteering, parental support, and direction setting. On School Board, I will look for opportunities to involve more residents in the activities of the District. Some opportunities include: membership on working committees, encouraging board meeting attendance, and increased contact with administrators and Board members. The District is the steward of our community's children and money. I will work to broaden resident understanding of long and short term finances and the direction and results of our education system.

Answer from Lynn P. Larson:

Improving community relations will require the entire board to place a greater value on community input. Three times each year facilitate forums for residents to talk and board members to listen. Discussion topics could highlight finances, curriculum, or facility changes along with resident's topic of choice. Use email for joint and individual communication with all board members. Streamline and create reader friendly publications reworking "Know Your Schools". And finally, allow board meeting attendees' time before the agenda structured meeting to informally give input and freely discuss concerns.

Answer from Mary R. (Ries) Jensen:

By looking for every opportunity for face to face communication, neighborhood coffees and board meetings themselves are important. Not to beat too much on technology, but having individual Board members available via email is a priority. It would provide rapid turn and better information. In the absence of clear, transparent communication too many things get distorted. This causes a lot of wasted energy.

Answer from David Birdsall:

In this day and age of 24 hour access there is simply no reason not to utilize technology to make the board both accessible and responsive. Email is one of the most effective tools available and we should give residents the opportunity to receive board updates via a mass email "blast" that I believe has a better chance of being read and would serve to better engage the populace as a whole (not to mention the cost savings on printing and postage)

I would also have email addresses for ALL board members posted on the district website thereby enhancing accessibility.

Finally, I would work to change the culture of the Board so that perceptions of lack of engagement, lack of transparency and lack of sensitivity to the needs of the community (all evidenced in the recent neighborhood school debacle) are ended.

The order of the candidates is random and changes daily.