School Board Election: Broad Run

In the Broad Run race for school board, Kevin Kuesters faced no opponents until Joy Maloney announced a late write-in campaign. Maloney indicated she had entered the race in light of an assault charge against Kuesters that was ultimately dropped. He holds the Republican endorsement, while the Loudoun County Democratic Committee has been pushing Maloney’s name out in email messages.

The two offered their views during last week’s Loudoun Chamber of Commerce School Board Forum.

The candidates were asked whether Loudoun County Public Schools provides adequate preparation for college and careers.

“As a former math teacher and currently as a software developer, I see the need for stem education,” she said, referring to programs with the business community. She also said its important to foster needs at C.S. Monroe Technology Center.

“We need to fund and fully support Monroe,” she said. “We keep putting it off. We need to take care of Monroe.”

Kuesters said there’s always a better way, even if schools are succeeding in a particular area.

“I can tell you every question where you ask is there a better way, I’m always going to answer yes,” he said, adding that most people believe LCPS schools are helping students achieve success. “People are going to come to our community if they see good schools.”

However, he questioned whether the county is adequately assessing its success.

“How are we measuring that we’re preparing the kids?” he asked. “What are we looking at that tells us, that provides us feedback that the kids are being prepared for post-secondary or even the job world.”

When asked how the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and the school board could work together, Kuesters said, “I don’t understand why the board of supervisors and school board have to fight against each other.”

He said it made not sense for the two boards to publicly feud over an $8 million surplus earlier this year when everyone should have been focused on the same goal.

“We need to reach out to the BOS and work with them,” he said. Like some other candidates running this year, Kuesters suggested there may be services the county and school system each perform that could be combined for efficiency.

Maloney said the two boards have an inherit friction because of their relationship: supervisors hold the money, while the school board makes decisions about how to spend it.

“Basically, they control the money, we spend it,” she said. “Whenever you’re in a situation like that, there’s going to be friction. We need to make sure we’re as transparent as possible in the decisions we are making.”

Both candidates addressed the county’s high rate of growth.

Maloney pointed out that the school system anticipates being over capacity even after constructing four schools in Ashburn during the next several years.

“We definitely need to work on a long-term plan, and at the end of it that all of our students have a school and place for them in it,” she said. “Basically we have to have all options on the table at this point.”

However, increased class sizes should not be part of the change because that could harm students and inhibit teacher retention.

Kuesters said he would oppose new programs without careful cost analyses.

“No new expensive programs without knowing the costs-to-benefits,” he said, pointing in particular to the proposal to supply all students with tablets or laptop computers. If there’s a discernable savings, he can support such a change, but that requires adequate analysis.

“If that’s the case then that’s fine,” he said of allowing the change if benefits are clear. “If it’s not the case, we really shouldn’t be taking on these programs just to take on new programs.”

Kuesters also said the school system should open itself up to more school design options.

“We don’t have to have cookie-cutter schools,” he said, adding that schools should be built with the flexibility to grow with changes in the enrollment and technology.

For example, while now may not be the time for the switch to tablets, Kuesters sees that as an inevitable move eventually, so the new schools should prepare for the change.

“We could put the infrastructure in the building now to save our costs,” he said.

In addition, Kuesters called for more focus on merit pay and having developers build more schools, or at least provide the land.

When asked whether school quality impacts economic development in the county, Kuesters said perception is key.

“For the most part that’s perception. I’m not saying that’s not true, but perception sells,” he said, explaining that people go where they perceive quality schools.  “When people know you have a good school system they want to live here. It’s critical for people that want to come here that we have a good school system.”

However, he also went back to his previous point that the school system must have better ways to measure the success it touts.

Maloney said in Loudoun it’s not just perception.

“It’s clear that Loudoun County Public Schools is providing an excellent education to our students,” she said. “That kind of thing brings businesses.”

But then the school systems must work to take advantage of the benefits new businesses bring.

“When we attract a business the first thing we should do is make sure they supporting us as well,” she said.