Letter to the Editor

Election had no losers

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Dear Editor,

On Wednesday, following the election I had several people (who must have gone to bed early) congratulate me on being successful in my bid to retain a seat on the McCook Board of Education. Although Mr. Bredvick led the voting throughout the night, Mrs. Lyons, Mr. Green and I rotated the second, third and fourth place positions all evening. At the end of the night my efforts to retain a seat fell short by 46 votes. However, I definitely do not feel as though I lost. How can you consider it a loss when you had 2,071 of your fellow citizens vote for you?

I truly appreciate the time that I spent while a member of the Board of Education. I can proudly say that we made a positive impact on our community and the children that we served.

The most notable achievement occurred during my first term as we passed a bond issue that had failed on several previous attempts. The passage of the bond allowed the board to renovate and expand the North Ward Attendance Center.

We also were able to eliminate three elementary facilities that were past the point of usefulness and were a major safety concern. The passage of the bond also allowed the District to realign the grades in each of the attendance centers and eased the financial burden on our community by eliminating costly repairs to 50-year-old buildings. The staff and children that work and attend McCook Elementary now spend their day in a controlled environment that is safer and easier to secure.

I can't say it was always fun, when state aid was reduced and the school found itself facing financial shortfalls. Tough decisions had to be made on what programs would stay and which programs had to be eliminated or cut back. I can truly say that each decision was done with compassion and consideration weighing the negative impact that the decision would have on the students, staff and community.

Through the combined efforts of the administration and the finance committee fiscal procedures are in place that has put our district's finance in order.

"Our" teaching staff salaries rose from the bottom third to the top third of our array which helps our district attract the quality teaching staff that our children deserve.

Through our efforts on the negotiation committee, the early retirement program will expire after the 2011/12 school year. I am sure that not all of the teaching staff will see this as a positive. The early retirement program was meant to save the district money by encouraging long term teachers, that are on the higher side of the pay scale, to retire early thus saving the district money by replacing them with younger teachers that would be lower on the pay scale. This program proved to be too costly, not in term of dollars, but in the loss of teaching experience.

We lost teachers such as Jim Steinke, John Gumb and Dale Lortz, to name a few. Instead of encouraging these teachers to leave, we should have been looking for a way to encourage them to stay and mentor the new teachers.

In summary, our facilities are safer and have improved in maintenance and appearenance, the staff is better compensated, the financial position of the district is sound and our student test scores have vastly improved.

We have two new Board members, Mr. Green and Mr. Johnson, who have already demonstrated their true interest in the future of our school system and children.

I would like to thank my wife, Michelle, and children for without their support this would not have been possible. I would also like to thank you for the past eight years; it has been an experience that I will cherish forever.

I don't see any losers in this election!

Mike Gonzales,

McCook Board

of Education

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