My responses to Hernando Today questions: Name: Robert Neuhausen Age: 46 Education: BS Electrical Engineering University of South Florida Occupation: Component (Electrical) Engineer with Cobham Tactical Communications Surveillance/Aerotek Family: 3 children - Matt 18, Haley, 15, Zachary 13 Birthplace: Ocala, FL Years in Hernando: 22 years Political Experience: No political office held Community involvement: Chair USF Hernando Alumni Association aka Hernando Bulls Serve a Vice-chair on Chocachatti SAC, started as a parent member, and now a community member Serve on Powell SAC and act as a liaison for the Superintendent Council of Councils Served on Nature Coast SAC Member of Nature Coast Technical High PTSA Serve on the Superintendents Council of Councils (chairs/vice chairs of all Hernando County SACs) Volunteer twice monthly at Family Youth Alternatives New Beginnings Shelter (Hernando) and RAP House (Pasco) Served the YMCA Community Advisory Board Boy Scout, Cub Scout and girl scout Den Leader and assistant Cub Master Coached YMCA youth sports (baseball, soccer, basketball and football) Been a Science/Engineering Fair judge for nearly 20 years in Hillsborough and Hernando counties Endorsements: Past: Hernando Today - 2008 Tampa Bay Times - 2012 Current: Hernando - Hernando County Realtors Association James Yant - Former School Board Member and State Farm agent Maria Rybka - Former Principal of Chocachatti Elementary School Contacts: Self 352-442-6914 1. Why are you running for office and what differentiates you from your opponent(s)? We need to change how we interact on all levels within our schools. Communication is vital to understanding and being aware of what is and what will be happening in our schools. I am running because I can help facilitate bringing our community into the process. We do not do an effective or a thorough job at properly communicating within our school system, on every level from the state to the student. We need to find a more efficient method than the proverbial word of mouth approach that seems to happen far too often. There are a large number of parents/students and some teachers/administration that still do not get all the information they need until after the fact or until someone starts questioning or asking what or why something is happening. I have found that large percentage of the school population (parents and some teachers) do not know who represents them on the School Board. That needs to change. I have proposed moving some of the meetings to the schools, to more effectively connect with our community. I also proposed that our School Board needs to listen to the community by changing the Citizens Input. We have numerous issues in front of us, and the School Board needs to become a more integral part of the solution. I can differentiate myself in several ways. I have been a part of the education system from a parents and community members point of a view for almost 20 years. I started volunteering and mentoring middle school and high school students when I was a student at USF completing my engineering degree. I started by helping students with Science Fair projects and also the judging of their projects. I still participate in that process today with our local Science and Engineering Fair. I still have children in our public schools. This has given me and will continue to provide me the opportunities to interact with students, parents, and teachers on many topics. When my oldest entered into Chocachatti, although an oxymoron, we had mandatory volunteer hours; 8 hours per year. By having this policy it allowed me as a parent to become more involved and understand more of what the education process was about. As a first time parent, I was unaware of what I could do to be a part of my sons education. This was the start of my understanding some of the communication problems we face. I participate in our Magnet Schools and have deep appreciation for what they are trying to accomplish. I have never been an employee of the school district and as such I am able to see our schools as our community sees them, and have talked to other parents and a few Senior High School students on whats happening or what is missing in our schools. It was brought to my attention from a concerned high school student and a parent that the School Board eliminated the honors of Valedictorian and Salutatorian. I do not believe these honors should ever be removed or not recognized. As an engineer, I learned early in my career that to solve most problems, usually exceeds the ability of a single individual. One person is not going to be able to answer all the question/problems/issues/crisis that we have or may face. Only the collaboration with our administration and community will we be able to improve our schools. There is no agenda to start a political career here, my passion is with our kids, to ensure that they get everything and every chance to excel that we can offer them. 2. What is the biggest issue facing the school district and what would you do to address it? Financial shortfall - we are facing a large budget deficit. We will have to look at any and all options in how we overcome this deficit. For example, the recent decision to move from 7 periods to 6, I understood the thought process behind it, but I am totally opposed to it. My own son was affected by this decision at Powell Middle School. By eliminating, essentially what it ends up being, the electives for students, we are taking away a large portion of what gives them a well-rounded education. There should have been more discussion and alternate ideas proposed before taking classes away. We are going to have to be creative, for example, here are 2 proposals, one is mine, (actually a team effort with my son, his science fair project, and myself), and the other was introduced to me by a parent. 1: Fuel is very costly, driving slower saves fuel. Requiring busses to drive no faster than 5mph less than the posted speed limit will save fuel. Albeit, the amount saved will only be fraction of the budget, it will still be a savings. 2: Propose combining bus routes for Middle and High schools where appropriately located. Communication is going to be extremely helpful in helping to coordinate coming up with solutions for this. Dr. Romano is not going to be able to solve all of the issues by herself, there is not a single board member, nor the board itself that will be able to provide all of the right answers. I recently wrote a Letter to the Editor that we should look at changing the format of the Citizens Input at our Board meetings. We need to include the public, the community, parents, students, and teachers in the process. We need to hear their concerns, as well as their input, and possible solutions to the issues. There are over 100,000 people in this county, working together we can find a workable solution without taking anything away from the students. 3. Where do you stand on Penny for Projects, the 1 cent sales tax increase being proposed by the county and school district? First, we have to be clear that it is not 1 cent increase, but actually a 1/2 cent, the other is a 1/2 sales tax continuation of the existing sales tax that is about to sunset. I did not like the idea of combining the two, as I believe it puts the school sales tax portion at risk. A majority of the public tends to be sympathetic to children and schools, and I believe that had they remained separate, the school portion would have been approved easily. Our community tends to be a little bit more cynical of the County, and as such, the County proposed tax increase faced a larger hurdle to overcome. However, I am working and informing people of the need to have the proposed continuation and increase passed. The revenue generated from this, will make up $7-8M of the annual budget for the schools, and the County have listed a number of projects that have prioritized our school system to be addressed initially. By having a sales tax, we also ensure that we are not burdening the entire responsibility on our community and population. 4. With a tight budget and a list of needed capital improvement projects and technological upgrades should the school board consider raising the property tax rate? Why or why not? I hesitate to endorse a property rate increase, however, if we rollback the last decrease, it will help reduce the deficit. With that being said, when home values start to increase again, we need to ensure we one, work on lowering the rate once again, and two, and more importantly, make sure we dont overspend, over plan, or over expect that the revenue will continue coming in. I believe we did not plan for the future appropriately when property values were nearly twice as much as they are now. When the housing boom happened, we should have taken a more conservative approach, and should have taken steps then to be more concerned about savings and worked on continuing to reduce expenses and costs. Unfunded mandates from the state are something we have contended with, and will continue to have to contend with. It is a requirement to move our schools into a more digital and technological environment. We are required to do this. Initially, it will costs the county, however in the long run, it will be far less expensive. We have schools that are in need of repair, regardless of how or why or what we should have done prior, we need to implement repairs, improvements, and upgrades. This will take money, and one source of revenue is property taxes. This needs to be discussed and seriously considered so that we can meet state requirements, and ultimately and more importantly, we ensure our children are given every opportunity we can provide them to excel. 5. What is your opinion of the new common core standards that replaced the FCAT? First, the Common Core standards were adopted 4 years ago. As a result, many students, and parents such as myself have had difficulty understanding and working with the educational portion of these standards. I have an Electrical Engineering degree, I have taken 4 levels of Calculus, Physics, Statics, Thermodynamics, and I struggled to understand the middle school math my children were trying to learn. I am not a fan, and not advocate of changing the presentation of mathematics. Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus, Algebra, etc., has been around for over 2,000 years. We do not need to change the method of teaching math, we need to understand that every child is different, and learns differently. Second, in what is a broad brush approach that every child is the same and should be treated the same and expected to accomplish the same is not realistic and by forcing standards such as these, limits what teachers can help students accomplish. In a very generic sense, I believe every student should be treated fairly and given every opportunity we can afford to give them, but they are not all equal and it is not wise to treat them all equally. Now on the local school board level, we are subjected to having to implement standards when they are forced upon us, my approach will be push back whenever possible and also when forced to meet requirements and criteria, look for (or outside of the box) other options that best serve our students AND still adhere to guidelines we have to follow. Five voices on a local school board will be ignored, however several hundred thousand across the state will not. When there is something that is being dictated to the local level that I feel or when our parents feel is working against us, it is in my opinion as a school board member to present the issue to the public and make sure we all know whats happening and we all have the facts. As far as the data mining portion of the standards, these are not being implemented. We are using what is called Sunshine State Standards. Much of what Common Core is based originated with the Florida standards. We as a community and as a state need to be better informed about what is happening and work with our legislatures to help them better know what we, parents, teachers, and the population of Florida really need and desire. There were 2 bills presented this past year House Bill 25 and Senate Bill 1316 that would have prevented Core Standards from being implemented unless certain criteria had been met. But neither was placed on the agenda, and neither bill was brought up for discussion. I believe that it is not only our Representatives and Senators responsibility to present information like this to our community, but when ANY education bill is being proposed, it is the School Boards mission to get this information out as well. I have proposed moving some of the School Board meetings to our schools, so we can connect with the community about important issues. I would also like to suggest at this time, we look at moving the workshops as well, to later in the day, another night and possibly moving the location of those as well. The workshops take place in the middle of the afternoon during the week, when ironically most schools are still teaching students or parents are picking up their children. This is not conducive for an environment where we can collaborate together to present and solve issues facing our students.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:42:21 +0000
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