Candidate Sam Levin, left, at a Village of Whiting Board meeting. (City-Times photo)

Questions by the Stevens Point League of Women Voters

What background qualifies you for this position?

I have been involved with the Stevens Point Public School District for many years, I have represented you as a citizen member of the Long Range Planning, and the Curriculum, Learning, and Student Achievement Committees in the past. 

What strengths and interests do you bring to the board?

I bring my strength as a facilitator to the School District. I am a person that listens and also speaks on the subject with knowledge and insight. I believe in being fully informed on a subject so that I can understand and help others understand the finer points and merits of every proposal.

I believe in learning from everyone around me to enable myself to make the best decisions for the Citizens and the children of the district.

I also possess the needed leadership qualities to make people around me feel that their views are also important and to include everyone in the final decision making process.

As a board member, how would you foster a more positive public opinion of the board?

I have said from the beginning that we need to include all the stakeholders in the district in the decision making process. I would strive to include the public in this process as well as district employees and management.

We are elected to do a job, and that job is to represent the citizens that elect us. Having public input to me is a no brainer. We need the input from as many sources as possible to make this the best School District it can be.

What is your knowledge and understanding of the current public school funding situation in Wisconsin?

Public funding for education in Wisconsin is very misleading. This additional money that Madison has proposed to the schools does not even replace the massive cuts in education funding that were made in the past few years.

For example, it is difficult to understand how, when you take away $500 per pupil one year and then give back $300 two years later, that you can say you are raising the state’s share in funding for education. On top of that some of these funds are coming back as funding for voucher programs for private schools in the state.

The largest problem that we have in the Stevens PointPublicSchool   District is our school boards inability to utilize those funds in the very best way to benefit the students of the district.

We have so much dysfunction and lack of leadership in our district that we can’t seem to agree on the most important issues that face the district on an everyday basis.

Until we have proper leadership on our board and in our district no amount of funding will be enough to offset the problems that we seem to be making for ourselves.