Meet the School Board Candidates

Editor’s note: The Roseville Patch invited each of the six candidates for District 623 School Board to respond to a brief questionnaire listing their qualifications for the job and priorities for the district.  Today we feature Tom Ring, who is seeking his third term on the school board.

Roseville Patch: Where do you work? 

Tom Ring: I am an Assistant Ramsey County Attorney currently assigned to the office's Civil Division where my practice focuses on employment and civil rights litigation. I also provide advice and counsel to county departments, managers and employees.

Roseville Patch: What are your qualifications for the position you are seeking?

Ring: I have experience on the Board, well-developed judgment, and the values and motivation to continue to serve. I am the Board's current clerk, and have also been its treasurer and a director.  Additionally, I serve or have served as a Board liaison to district and outside committees and organizations.

During my tenure, the Board developed the District’s current strategic road-map, vision, values, and Equity Vision. I also was part of the Board’s recent work to refine and adopt governance policies, and I am especially proud of the stronger conflict-of-interest policy that I argued for, and for which I drafted the material language that was adopted by the Board.

I have also been Roseville’s representative on the board of the East Metro Integration District. During my time at EMID, I served on the board’s Executive, Budget and Policy committees. I was also an officer on that board when EMID searched for, selected and hired a new superintendent in 2009, Dr. Brenda Cassellius, who Governor Dayton subsequently appointed Minnesota Commissioner of Education.

I have years of other community and school service. Among these, I was on the Board of the Roseville Area Schools Foundation. I was also appointed by the Roseville City Council to be one of the initial commissioners on the City’s Ethics Commission. I currently volunteer as a mediator and arbitrator for the Conciliation Office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

I have also taught in legal, law enforcement and law school settings. I realized very early that good teaching is very hard but rewarding work, and I appreciate as well as any member of the Board that quality teaching is one indispensable determinant of student achievement.

Lastly, I am a proud parent of two children who are products of Roseville Area Schools. Our daughter graduated and is studying to be an elementary school teacher. Our son is an eighth-grader at RAMS, doing well, and exploring options in the event baseball does not work out.

Roseville Patch: What do you think are the most important issues facing District 623?

Ring: District 623 has a good story to tell. As a community, we have done well navigating the difficulties of the last few years. The District has not had the significant budget- and staff-cutting other districts have had to go through; it continues to see modest increases in enrollment; and student achievement compares well with districts having comparable demographics. But challenges and opportunities always remain, and the three most important issues for me during the next term are:

Student Achievement: With continuing fiscal instability, the Board’s intentional focus must remain on student achievement, which should be the core criterion against which Board decisions are made and evaluated. To maintain and improve student achievement, the Board needs to require and support more effective use of all District resources (community, staff and financial), foster innovation, and continue the District’s equity work.

Community Engagement: The Board should expand its effort to more meaningfully engage all aspects of the 623 community. This becomes even more important as budgetary and other resource issues need greater attention in the next few years. In part, this engagement can now be an adjunct to the Family Project work that has been ongoing in the District.

Succession Planning: As an increasing number of senior administrators retire from long and productive careers, the Board needs to monitor these transitions and begin to plan for what is any Board’s critical responsibility:  selecting a superintendent’s eventual successor.

Note: Click the names below for more candidate profiles