Welcome to our online chat with school board candidate Sue Morgan.

The chat took place on Thursday, February 13, at 5:30 PM and is now closed, but you can read the full transcript on this page.

Moderator: Welcome, everybody, to tonight’s chat with school board candidate Sue Morgan.

Moderator: Let’s take our first question.

Question: Why do you think you’re qualified to be on the school board?

Sue Morgan: MY background includes a master’s degree in public administration and experience in human relations and financial administration. Probably more important is that I am running — again! — for what I think is the right reason. I care about kids and I think giving them a safe, healthy and educated start in life is critically important. Schools play a major role in that, so I’m willing to give my time and energy to that effort. My school board experience over the past four years has provided me with a lot of knowledge and understanding of the issue as well as a lot of exposure to differing perspectives in the community. The learning curve is pretty steep the first few years on the board. I think I can use that background for the benefit of kids and the community if I serve for another 4 years.

Question: Tell me, really, is the district’s administrative staff bloated?

Sue Morgan: Not in my opinion! We have cut about $600,000 of administrative positions in the last two years. I guess that could be interpreted as saying it WAS bloated at one point!

Sue Morgan: Part of our challenge in administrative staffing is that the mandates that continue to come at us from the federal and state governments require someone to respond… and lots of the “response” required is administrative in nature! If you compare our district to other school districts across the state you’ll find we stack up very well in terms of administrative efficiency.

Mark: Sometimes I think I need a Ph.D. to understand the school closure debate. Do you think vulnerable children in elementary schools will be harmed if they are moved to other schools?

Sue Morgan: If I thought vulnerable children would be harmed, Mark, I would not be supporting the consolidations. In fact, it is my concern for those very children that is at the core of why I support the consolidations. We need to provide teacher and support staff resources that can meet the many needs that these kids have and I believe the consolidations being proposed will enable us to do that more consistently.

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Sue Morgan: I understand your sentiment about needing a PhD! The issues facing us ARE complicated and I applaud your recognition of that. There are folks out there who are proposing very simple solutions! “Fund the schools!” “Get the legislature to change the laws.” Hey, it’s not like thousands of us across the state have not been trying. But the fact is we need to deal in the reality of NOW. We need to do what will best provide for all kids in our community, and especially for the most vulnerable kids. Small classes, ability to differentiate instruction to individual needs, more resource staff – those area the kinds of things that will make a difference. The facilities plan will help us get there.

swingin’ single: I don’t have children in the Lawrence district. Why should I vote for the bond issue?

Sue Morgan: Do you depend on workers in the community to serve your needs? Medical personnel, the people who handle your retirement, the guy or gal who fixes your car, etc. etc. How well they perform is in large part dependent on how good an education they got! Hey, we’re all in this together! Quality education is critical to economic vitality in a community, it’s critical to having a knowledgable and involved citizenry. It’s pretty foundational to most of what we value and reward in our society.

Sue Morgan: The bond issue is one part of supporting education for the kids of this community. Someone supported education while YOU were in school. Now it’s your turn to do it for the next generation…. whether you have kids or not!

A. M.: What do you think is the real reason so may parents have chosen to home school or private school for their children?

Sue Morgan: I think it’s a combination of reasons including reaction to publicized incidents of school violence like Columbine, religious beliefs and a desire to integrate these into children’s education experience, and the desire of some parents to give their children a different curriculum than what is offered in public school. Many private schools can offer smaller class sizes and they are not held to the same statutory requirements and standards that public schools are. That flexibility is appealing to some.

Skeptic: How can proponents of the bond issue get away with their gloom and doom projections should the bond not pass? They are simply using scare tactics to intimidate voters–any (if any) operational savings wouldn’t come for at least a few years…

Sue Morgan: The fact is that whether the bond issue passes or not, we are facing some hard times! I try to tell things like they are, not like I wish they were! The fact is the one benefit == certainly not the only one! — of the bond issue is the operational savings. We are exploring how these could be realized sooner rather than later by looking at the feasibility of moving kids into East Heights and Centennial while construction is going on at New York and Cordley IF the bond passes. This addresses safety concerns during construction, saves money on construction, and lets us reap some of the operational savings more quickly.

Jill: I’m in favor of many of the projects outline in the school bond proposal, but I have a real issue with the packaging of it. In these difficult economic times, why couldn’t the school district and the board identify what the most pressing need is and submit before the voters a more reasonable request?

Sue Morgan: I certainly don’t deny that $59 milion is a boatload of money! But the cost per household for a $100,000 dollar house is about $5.70 per month – the cost of a fast food lunch! What seems overwhelming as a total figure becomes doable when we break it down. This bond is very reasonable in comparison to what districts around us are proposing and passing! Our debt to assessed valuation is among the lowest in the area. That means we have been very conservative in our bond proposals over the years. Unfortunately, that also means we have gotten behind in maintaining our older buildings. It’s time to catch up if we want to preserve those schools that serve our kids in our established neighborhoods.

Jason: Being fairly new to the community, what other issues can we expect to hear from you on…in other words, what are your real passions in fullfilling this position?

Sue Morgan: Thanks for asking, Jason! My passion is that we have high expectations for ALL kids, that we offer a challenging and aligned curriculum, and that we provide quality teachers and staff to enable every kid to continually grow in achievement level. That means that we need to meet a whole variety of needs that can stand in the way of a child’s learning, e.g. special ed services, counseling, social workers, etc. And it means we need to deliver instruction in a variety of ways because kids learn differently. If we could succeed in doing this, we would solve a whole host of societal problems down the line!

Lion: Do you think extracuricular activities should be cut?

Moderator: (We’ll take one more question after this one.)

Sue Morgan: I know that extracurricular activities are good for kids! There is plenty of research that shows kids perform better academically when they are involved in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. So do I think they should be cut…. no! But the fact is that if we don’t have enough money to continue to do all the things we are doing, something will have to be cut, and extracurricular activities will be on the line just like everything else. It is incredibly difficult to watch an educational system that has been built over the years based on successes of student now being dismatled piece by piece because of inadequate funding! But that is what is happening.

Jason: I believe the district’s resources should be concentrated in the elementary school classrooms. That’s where the real battles will be won or lost. Why not cut spending in the high schools by trimming obscure classes before closing elementary schools?

Sue Morgan: We are currently reviewing high school course offerings and looking at the very possibility you mention, i.e. reducing course offerings. Some reductions have already been made in the budget cuts last year. We will continue to look into possibilities for such savings. We also increased the student/staff ration slightly at the secondary level last year and focused on primary elementary grades for reducing class size and eliminating combination classes. I agree with you, Jason, on the critical nature of the primary elementary years!

Moderator: That’s it for our chat with Sue Morgan.

Moderator: Thanks, everybody, for joining us, and be sure to tune in for our upcoming chat with Michael Pomes, which should be starting in a few minutes. (Note that it’ll be in a different chat window/page, not this one.)