Juda School Board
There are three candidates running for three spots on the Juda school board. Joann Goecks, Dennis Pfingsten and Eric Makos are each incumbents.
Position sought: Juda school board
Age: 44
City/town of residence: Juda
Family: Wife Jody; children, Emily 12, Aaron 11, Ellie, two weeks
Education: Madison Business College (Business Management/Accounting)
Occupation: Credit QA Manager at Colony Brands (13 years)
Previous elected positions held: I was elected to my first term on the Juda school board in 2012
What are the top issues facing this district/municipality and how would you work to resolve them?
The financing of public education continues to be the top issue facing our district. The current state budget proposal seeks to push school revenues back to where they were several years ago, and our district budget was already pretty tight back then. Expenses only increase from year to year, causing districts to become more and more creative at a time when state requirements on schools continue to change and increase. So the top issue we face, by far, is to continue to find a way to provide a quality education that meets all state requirements, with fewer resources with which to do so. I'm proud of the work that our administration and board has done to meet those challenges and continue to offer a quality education and wide range of opportunities to our students. It will be even more important in the near future that we work together to be as efficient as possible with the resources we are given.
What are other key issues facing the district/municipality, and how would you work to resolve them?
Continuing change/uncertainty in the area of state school requirements, especially when it comes to curriculum, is a key issue facing all districts. We also face rapidly changing technology that requires investment in order to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. And there is still plenty of uncertainty on the topic of health insurance. All of these require our admin and board to be aware of changes, to be knowledgeable of how other districts deal with these same challenges and what has worked/not worked, and to be creative in how we deal with these issues while also staying within our budget.
Age: 44
City/town of residence: Juda
Family: Wife Jody; children, Emily 12, Aaron 11, Ellie, two weeks
Education: Madison Business College (Business Management/Accounting)
Occupation: Credit QA Manager at Colony Brands (13 years)
Previous elected positions held: I was elected to my first term on the Juda school board in 2012
What are the top issues facing this district/municipality and how would you work to resolve them?
The financing of public education continues to be the top issue facing our district. The current state budget proposal seeks to push school revenues back to where they were several years ago, and our district budget was already pretty tight back then. Expenses only increase from year to year, causing districts to become more and more creative at a time when state requirements on schools continue to change and increase. So the top issue we face, by far, is to continue to find a way to provide a quality education that meets all state requirements, with fewer resources with which to do so. I'm proud of the work that our administration and board has done to meet those challenges and continue to offer a quality education and wide range of opportunities to our students. It will be even more important in the near future that we work together to be as efficient as possible with the resources we are given.
What are other key issues facing the district/municipality, and how would you work to resolve them?
Continuing change/uncertainty in the area of state school requirements, especially when it comes to curriculum, is a key issue facing all districts. We also face rapidly changing technology that requires investment in order to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. And there is still plenty of uncertainty on the topic of health insurance. All of these require our admin and board to be aware of changes, to be knowledgeable of how other districts deal with these same challenges and what has worked/not worked, and to be creative in how we deal with these issues while also staying within our budget.