Voters Guide

Michigan City Area School Board of Trustees

LWV Voters Guide - Candidate Profiles View 2012

Michigan City Area School Board

MCAS Coolspring/Pine Township
The Indiana public school system (prekindergarten-grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards members and superintendents. Indiana has 295 school districts. The Indiana state constitution requires that the General Assembly "encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific, and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall without charge, and equally open to all."

Candidates
Vote for no more than 1

Donald Dulaney
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.No response received by deadline.

What are the important issues in this race?No response received by deadline. What are your goals if elected?No response received by deadline.

Dennis Metheny
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.No response received by deadline.

What are the important issues in this race?No response received by deadline. What are your goals if elected?No response received by deadline.

MCAS Michigan/Springfield Township

The Indiana public school system (prekindergarten-grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards members and superintendents. Indiana has 295 school districts. The Indiana state constitution requires that the General Assembly "encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific, and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall without charge, and equally open to all."

Candidates
Vote for no more than 1.

Deborah L. Chubb
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.I practiced law before becoming the

Executive Director of The Child Care Consortium, a non-profit organization that provides the highest quality early childhood education to all children in the community and works to improve the quality of early childhood education throughout the community. In this position, for the past twelve years, I twice guided Imagination Station through accreditation by NAEYC, which establishes the nation's highest standards for early childhood education and care. I partnered with hundreds of families to secure the best opportunities for their children. I advocated at the state level for the needs of educators and families. I conducted extensive training for early childhood educators in the community. I serve on several boards for community organizations that strive to improve the quality of life in Michigan City. I worked to connect Business & industry to schools, to match people with jobs and skills with future needs, to ensure long-term economic success.

What are the important issues in this race?The current administration has begun very positive changes to improve the educational experience for children in Michigan City. I bring strong accounting, business and legal skills to the position to build on this movement in a professional way. The school board should be working harder to connect families with schools. Families need to feel respected and embraced to establish a strong relationship that will result in more investment by the community. Educators should be able to rely on informed and capable school board members to advocate on their behalf at the state level. The school board needs to have a fresh perspective by someone who has extensive educational and community experience. What are your goals if elected?On budget and financial matters, I intend to ask the hard questions, persist to get answers and to communicate clearly with families. I would like to see the responsiveness of our current administration continue and increase. I will use my relationships with state leaders to advocate for the needs of educators. I will also work to bring more professionalism to the school board.

LLoyd A. Flowers
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.Over 50 years of experience in developing

and implementing policies affecting education at the Federal, State and local levels. Past Owner and Director of a vocational School. Have served on various Governmental, Private, Profit and Non-Profit Boards; with a consensus determination to provide continued educational excellence for our children. What are the important issues in this race?An ineffective board; with complacency and obstruction as a mantra. The lack of urgency on the part of the present board to aggressively seek out and enact crucial policies and state prescribed requirements; to produce educated young men and women as responsible citizens. We need a board that is ready to make significant impact on the educational problems of today, with concerns for the future. What are your goals if elected?I will bring commitment and responsibility! I will offer a pragmatic, proactive and objective approach to all decisions making as it pertains to all policies and state requirements; as they affects the education of our children. Realizing that education is an emotional issue; I will represent our community with dedication. I will also devote my time and resources necessary to put the students, schools and community's concerns into positive actions and resolutions.

William Greene
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.No response received by deadline.

What are the important issues in this race?No response received by deadline. What are your goals if elected?No response received by deadline.

Dorothy (Sis) Murphy

Detail your experience and qualification for this office.I have a Teaching Life License and I am

certified in Kindergarten through Twelfth Grades in Administration and Supervision. I have been an educator for 40 years! Twenty-seven years as a teacher in private, public and parochial schools both here and in Chicago. Thirteen years I have been a elementary school principal on the South Side of Chicago. I have taught all levels, Kindergarten through Eighth Grades, and I have been an English as a Second Language Teacher in Chicago Public Schools. I worked for DePaul University in Chicago evaluating Reading Programs throughout the city. I have considerable experience in grant writing, fund raising, and marketing of schools. I returned to Michigan City full-time in 2011 and was a guest teacher in most of the Michigan City Arrea Schools for the 2011-2012 academic year and continue to be one at this time. What are the important issues in this race?The last six years as Principal in Chicago I was Chairperson of a South Side principal's Council and the last three years I was there I was the South Side representative on the Superintendent's Board. The Important Issues are: 1. Creating and revising the Budget 2. Continuation of Student Achievement 3. New Issues such as revising the Policy Manual

What are your goals if elected? I believe my qualifications, varied educational experiences and my long history in Michigan City would be an asset to the School Board. I would like to be an advocate for all the parents, principals, teachers, staff and entire community, but most of all, I'd like to be an advocate for every student in the Michigan city Area Schools. Finally, I think Dr. Eason-Watkins and Mr. Botana have brought new hope and possibilities to the Michigan City Area Schools. I, too, would like to represent new hope and possibilities for all the students and the community. I ask for your vote on November 6 in the hope that my expertise will help move the Michigan City School Corporation forward. I belong to the International Reading Association, the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Arbor Day Foundation. Also I have attended their conferences in Chicago and other locations in the U.S.

MCAS Michigan City Civil City

The Indiana public school system (prekindergarten-grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards members and superintendents. Indiana has 295 school districts. The Indiana state constitution requires that the General Assembly "encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific, and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall without charge, and equally open to all."

Candidates
Vote for no more than 1.

Ayala Anita Barth

Detail your experience and qualification for this office.I have 4 years of military experience. I

have spent my nursing career seeking to serve the under insured population and advocating for low income and middle class families. My time at HealthLinc has been focus on improving family healthcare.I am currently heading a committee entrusted with on boarding a new corporate quality assurance program.I am a mother to 4 school age children and have a vested interest in the success of our public school system. What are the important issues in this race?The responsible allocation of school funding is crucial as the school system is facing a deficit that has forced critical budget cuts. In the face of these budget cuts the student teacher ratio is rising and impacting the teachers' ability to remain effective in the classroom. Preschool outsourcing has caused mulitple problems for families of all income levels, from financial to logistic, parents are struggling to provide a basic foundation for their childrens education. A failure to provide this foundation will lead to a continued decline in test scores. Budget cuts that have reduced cleaning staff, this means that our class rooms are being cleaned less frequently which puts our children at increase risk of infection. As a nurse I can't help but express my concern for increased cases of flu and other communicable virus and disease. What are your goals if elected?I believe that the board has a obligation to hold the administration accountable for its actions. I feel that it is important for the board to advocate for fiscal responsibility. It is equally important that budget cuts have little if any negitive impact on the students.This required tough choices be made and hard questions be asked. Spending on new programs should have data that justifies the expense through evidence based practice. I believe that the board should play an active role in representing the views of local parents and should encourge questions. Questions stimulate conversations and help to provoke innovative solutions. We can't be affraid to admit when we don't have answer. Instead we should embrace the chance to learn something new and in turn educate others. After all this is the school board, we should be leading by example.

Marty M. Corley
Detail your experience and qualification for this office.Served on the following

boards/commissions: *Moichigan City Commission on the Social Status of African-American Males *Michigan City Human Rights Commission *Stepping Stone Shelter, Inc. *Michigan City Housing Authority Family Self Sufficiency Voucher Program *Local Coordinating Council of the Drug Free Partnership of LaPorte County *LaPorte Comomunity Corrections Additional experience: *12 years as a police officer serving in several different divisions. Lead advisor for the Michigan City Police Department ;operations of police work and good citizenship. *3 years executive director (founder) of Guiding Our Descendants, Inc.; a non for profit organization that provided afterschool and summer programming to children in a HUD housing development. *Mentor and career day speaker for public and private schools throughout LaPorte Couny What are the important issues in this race?Controlling the school budget, retaining personnel to provide a conducive classroom for proper teacher to student ratio and the rise in test scores of students in the school corporation. What are your goals if elected?Provide guidance to innovative ways to give teachers the proper resources needed to provide the children with the best education including producing better test scores, expand the use of technology in the school system and more community involvement in the school system.

Leslie W. Rowley, Jr.

Detail your experience and qualification for this office.No response received by deadline.

What are the important issues in this race?No response received by deadline. What are your goals if elected?No response received by deadline.