Arlen Gould: District 21 School Board Candidate

Name: Arlen S. Gould

Age: 67

Family: Married to wife Randi with four children. Three attended District 21 schools. Sonia graduated from London middle school and is now a Pediatrician; Heidi graduated from Cooper and is now completing her Masters in Social Work. Dan graduated from University of Iowa and has completed his masters in IT and is with a major corporation; and Josh graduated from Cooper middle school and the University of Iowa and is now in process of becoming a fire fighter. He is now in paramedic school.

Education: University of Illinois Chicago (LAS) 1966

Occupation: Sale Executive

Previous Elected or Appointed Offices: 20 Years on D-21 BOE. Former President of BUILD, Inc. Chicago organization that moves kids from gangs to education. Former President of Temple Shir Shalom. Former President Northgate Civic Association. Special Education Coordinator, Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie. Former Special Education Teacher in Chicago.

Other community involvement: See above

Position sought: Wheeling School District 21 Board of Education.

Campaign E-mail address: personal email arlengould@comcast.net

Campaign committee: None

Campaign Website: None

Campaign Facebook: None

Campaign Twitter: None

Why are you running?

I have been in involved in Education all my life. Nothing is more important than providing quality education for all our children. My experience in education and business gives me unique credentials to serve on the Board of Education. As previous Board President and Vice President of District 21, I have continued my efforts to be an informed and intelligent board member. Further, I believe that if life is good to you than you should give something back. This is one way in which I can give back.

In what ways would the school district benefit from your service?

My continued membership on the BOE brings not only institutional knowledge but also a combination of a businessman’s view and that of someone with extensive education background. Through continued professional development, I have attained Master Board Member status through the Illinois Association of School Boards, a testimony of my desire to always be knowledgeable about the changing world of education. My political involvement at the State level allows me to lobby for District 21 and engage our legislators to constantly protect our children’s and our districts best interests.

What is the biggest challenge the school district faces and what should be done to address it?

Although we were recently able to reduce our Tax Levy to our property tax owners, and have balanced our budget for over 10 years our biggest future challenge, as it will be for all school districts across Illinois, will be providing quality education with declining revenues. Specifically State and Federal financial support while small in comparison to our financial revenues generated by property tax dollars are important to District 21. State revenues have been declining and Federal revenues might also decline. In addition, the threat of the “pass through” of the cost of teacher pensions to school districts will add an ominous pressure on our budget.  (We are already tax capped.) In addition, we have virtually no ability to enhance our revenue stream. The combination of all of these various events means we will struggle in future years to have adequate financial support to properly educate our children. All school districts are primarily a “labor intensive” enterprise. Our excellent teachers represent 76 to 80% of our budget. Thus the Board challenge is to maintain acceptable class sizes while being fair to our outstanding teachers and all within a balanced budget.

What do you think the district does well?

First and foremost we do a good job educating our children. Our nearly 500 staff, teachers, support staff and administrators as well as the BOE has only the best interests of our students at heart. We are constantly reviewing how we are doing and making new efforts to do a better job.  Our goal is to challenge all children to achieve more and learn more. Second, we have balanced our budget for over 10 years and we are very careful with taxpayer’s dollars. We have had a deficit prevention program in place for many years now and as a result have cut millions of dollars in non performing programs. Third, but not last our buildings are maintained well and our staff takes a personal interest in maintaining the condition of the buildings. Fourth, we have outstanding relations with our Teachers. We work very hard together to provide outstanding education for all our Students.

What should be some of the school district’s priorities over the next four years?

1. Continue to provide quality education for all children. Look for better ways to assist those who have special need; 2. Provide improved opportunities for very bright students; 3. Move in new directions in terms of evaluation of teacher performance (as required by state law) as well as find new ways to analyze student growth; 4. Be conservative in spending tax dollars and continue to look at ways to save money, by constantly evaluating programs and discontinuing programs that are not working.  Continue to pass a balanced budget.

What else would you like voters to know?

My political connections with the General Assembly on both sides of the aisle allow me to have substantive conversations with legislators regarding key legislation that might affect District 21 and our students. I was endorsed by the Daily Herald today. They said it was an “easy endorsement."