Meet the Wayzata School Board Candidates: Gregory Baufield

Plymouth Patch asked Wayzata School Board candidates five questions about their backgrounds and important issues facing the school district.

Check back with Patch regularly to see information on each candidate and feel free to ask your own questions of the candidates below each article.

Gregory Baufield is one of seven who have filed for the four open seats on the Wayzata School Board.  The four spots are each a four-year term. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Background: (Political experience, career/job experience, family, volunteer or other civic engagement.)

Baufield: "I am employed as the Director of Business Development at TIES - an education technology collaborative located in St. Paul.  I am in contact with school districts on a daily basis, and I am in school district buildings every day.  My days are focused on what the future of education, and more specifically, technology in education, will look like particularly in the areas of Curriculum and Instruction and Operational Systems. Civic engagement includes: former coach for the Wayzata Boys Basketball and Wayzata Youth Football; a former area director for Wayzata Youth Football; former instructor at Ski Jammers; former board member for Familes First and a current board member for the International Education Center."

Budget: How do you plan to address the school district's budget issues? What are the main issues with the district's budget? What can or cannot be done at the School Board level to address those issues?

Baufield: "Long term the board will have to come to grips with changing demographics and the finance picture that comes with that. For years the district has had about 75 percent of its citizens with no children in its schools and 25 percent with school aged children. In general, the school district's housing stock is such that it encourages citizens with 'empty nesters' to leave their large homes in favor of smaller ones as they downsize. This downsizing should open up the existing housing stock to young families. It is hoped that this will stabilize our student count, but if it does not we will begin to see the same financial pain that other urban/metro districts have encountered. In general, district costs increase about 3  to 4 percent each year. To re-state - the financial issues in the near term revolve around the district managing its cash flow and the long term issues will be connected to what the state of Minnesota legislature and to good financial projections and planning on the local level."

"The Board of Education is tasked with fuduciary responsibility for Independent School District No. 284. Short term -the Board should be receiving cash flow projections from the districts finance staff on a monthly basis. Cash flow projections should show actual activity from the last 12 months, projections from the district budget for the current year and for the next fiscal year at a minimum. By fiscal year end - the Board should be in receipt of a five-year budget projection based on the results of the strategic plan. Projected spending should be tied to strategic directions."

Enrollment/facilities: How should the district address enrollment and facility use issues? What are the main issues with the district's enrollment and facility use?

Baufield: "State law demands that a district allow in-bound students to open enrollment that matches it's out-bound open enrollment. Yes, Wayzata does have a percentage of families that opt out of the district and enroll the children in neighboring school districts! As a result, we will continue to have students open enroll into the Wayzata School District. The district has several schools that now exceed the capacity that they were designed to function at. The district will need to review all of its buildings and discuss options. Building use should be tied to the strategic plan and the 'plan' should provide for students needs well into the future so that our spending is well suited to future use."

"Currently that district has done a poor job of anticipating student growth and understanding the effects of its current demographics. The district should take a look at what other districts in Minnesota are doing with differentiation of instruction and the use of Individual Learning Plans for its students. The current district facility plans focus on the historical industrial age education model that will  not serve our students and our facilities well into the later years of this century."

Curriculum/testing: What do you think should be changed with what is being taught in the classrooms today? How do you think issues of meeting state and federal student achievement standards can be addressed? What is missing to improve student achievement in the Wayzata School District? (Or do you think nothing is missing?

Baufield: "Our elementary schools appear to be doing well on the whole. Our middle school curriculum is beginning to show the same weaknesses that other districts around the country have experienced. Our high school curriculum currently ignores about 80 percent of the students in the building. As a district, we tend to take advantage of the fact that we draw really high achieving parents who are actively involved with their children. They demand high levels of results. We have short changed our students with our math curriculum and this must be addressed with the next board."

"I would like to see us move to a new model of educating our children in this district. I see a future where we do away with seat time and standard grade levels. I would like to see a girl or boy scout model where a students individual record of accomplishment is documented and we then continue to move them forward at their own pace."

"I think we can do a much better job of using the tools that we have invested in.  As an example, we have been using the NWEA assessments longer than most school districts in Minnesota. We generally test our students in the Fall and spring. The question that our staff have not asked is if we can link NWEA RIT scores to results on the state standardized tests. Other district have been using the results of a study that demonstrated a correlation of NWEA scores to MCA scores."

"We should begin to use this data immediately...its free! Every student should have the NWEA fall results (RIT scores) linked to spring test goals.  These fall/spring RIT score gaps should be documented for each student and shared with the classroom teachers so as to differentiate instruction.  This data should also be shared with parents in the parent/teacher conference so that we engage our parents in the shared goals for their children. Other districts in the state are currently doing this and it is improving student achievement."

"First, we must stop chasing "shiny objects" and get a real plan for how to use technology in our schools. Example: we spent $400K on 'clickers' for every student so that locally administered tests could could show up in a reporting system and we still do not that expenditure tied into any kind of plan. An immediate action item should be the focus on the Strategic Plan.  A  Strategic Plan that is focused on students will deliver an orderly view of goals for student achievement.  Studies have shown that we basically know by the third grade how a child will exit the school system and yet we really have not done anything to change the students trajectory. I want district wide goals to be in place for each student in the areas of attendance, behavior, grades, assessments, standardized tests and should also show if the student is "on-track" beginning in third grade."

Image: How do you think the district is perceived by those who live in it and those who do not? What do you think can be improved for the district to better communicate with the community and others? How would you address issues with the district's image?

Baufield: "Citizens will tell you that they believe we have a good school district and repeated polling of our residents supports this. I travel the state visiting with school leaders and I can tell you from first hand experience that the Wayzata School District is perceived as a well performing district. I think we communicate with the community pretty well. I would think the district should get pretty high marks for communicating with the community."

"We are starting to demonstrate 'Big District' conduct to our students, families and citizens and this needs to be addressed by our leadership team. Parents should not be regarded by staff as being the enemy....they are our customers. One of the large luxury hotels has the moto 'we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.'"

"This behavior is no longer happening with frequency at our elementary schools, but is persistent in pockets of our middle schools and is rampant at our high school. This would be one of the top three items in our strategic plan if I am elected to the School Board. This also extends to the way our leadership team treats our employees."

(You can visit Baufield's website at: www.gregbaufield.com.)