1) As a member of the SPSC, how would you work to restore the broken trust that many people (parents, teachers, taxpayers) feel after the negative events of the past year?
2) Also, what do you believe the SPSC owes to the community in terms of communication and explanations for its decisions.

As a member of the SPSC what would be your strategy to move the communications into the current century? Although money is spent upgrading the technology in the schools, teachers are not required to use widely accepted current technology such as websites and on-line posting of information regarding assignments and student progress as is done in some 'less affluent' districts. It has been stated that as long as it is not in their contract they are not required to do it.
Last I checked fewer than half the teachers have websites and of the ones who do, many are not maintained to be up to date with the current information. This situation exists to the great detriment of students, particularly those with impaired executive function (organization of time, space and materials). Team administrators have much better things to do with their time than to go around and gather information regarding assignments for students who, due to illness or some other reason, are missing several days of school. Time is wasted in IEP meeting trying to develop individual tracking systems for homework completion as an example, where a reliable systemic approach, including up to date on-line information regarding homework assignments, and for the students who require monitoring, an on-line posting of missing assignments would both eliminate redundancy in these meetings and an excellent way to track progress of goals. In essence how do you propose to change the culture regarding technology?

My Question:

As a candidate for SPS school committee you will be working with members that are already on the committee. Do you feel the current committee has done a good job for the people of Sudbury? Also, do you think things need to change on the school committee or are you content with the performance you currently see?

Where do you stand on consolidation of SPS, L-S into a k-12 system?

Do you like popcorn chicken?

I hope this isn't seriously what people care about. How about the education of your children? How do you expect to deliver quality education that the taxpayer expects? What are you as a School Committee member going to do to ensure all aspects of that excellent education are provided? How can we improve? What do you think of Ed.Reform mandates? MCAS testing?
Come on parents!! You are much smarter than to fall into another trap where the real issues are dismissed in favor of this type of baloney.
Mr. Stein, aren't you on the FinCom? How about you take a powder on this one? Talk about an agenda!!!!

Sudburycitizentoo & Karoles (aka, members of Mensa) - obviously you both have an agenda/ax to grind as well. It's pretty easy to see how budget, technology, communications, personnnel management etc. affect educational standards. I'm a taxpayer-SPS parent and like Lauura, want to make sure that we have smart people who can tackle all this representing us. I think the current SPSC has major room for improvement on all of these issues.

Also - Mr. Stein deserves huge credit for taking a stance on something beyond his board. Do you really want a fincom member who just shrugs with indifference over how money is spent? Seems odd.

Karoles, Sudburycitizentoo and Laura,
Imagine that, you criticize Bob Stein for promoting financial and fiscal responsibility! It is no wonder why Sudbury is the financial train wreck that it is today. Too many people think there is an endless well of funds.

Both candidates have agreed to this forum. Comments/questions will close at the end of next week, then they will get two weeks to submit their answers.

What do you see as the top actionable challenges?
What new directions would you pursue?
Where can we save money?

School systems and teacher unions are struggling to find an answer to teacher accountability in our classrooms. Many would argue that quality teachers are a significant contributor to student success, but consensus on measuring the "quality" of a teacher has been elusive. What is your position on teacher accountability and how might you work with the district administration and teacher's union to establish equitable and fair assessments?

I would like to vote for Nassa, really -- but I only know him from his comportment at meetings and from reading the email that he sent to his opponent in the last election. While the actions of the current SPS member and her pals were reprehensible, the content of the email was just as bad. In the current climate, fighting city hall is difficult and I have heard several stories about the behind-the-scenes dirty pool they play during election season. Their behavior could cause anyone to go off the rails.

That said, I hope Nassa will address the email and make an effort to ensure voters that he is the right candidate.