Place 5 candidates discuss plans, district challenges in Q&A

By ASHLEY SAVA
News Editor

Residents will elect representatives for the Leander ISD Board of Trustees Places 3, 4 and 5 on Nov. 8. The three spots are being challenged.

The Hill Country News asked the following questions to each school board candidate and this week, the Place 5 candidates — incumbent Russell Bundy and challenger James “Jim” MacKay — are featured.

Last week in the Oct. 12 edition, the Place 4 responses between incumbent Grace Barber-Jordan and challenger Scott Rowe were shared. On Oct. 5, the Place 3 candidates — incumbent Pam Waggoner and Chris Remy — answered these same questions. Each response is in the candidate’s own words.

Place 5 candidates —

Russell Bundy, incumbent

1. Explain how your background and experience make you a good candidate for school board.

With 30 plus years in law enforcement and 9 years as a Leander ISD Trustee I have the experience and leadership needed to continue with the work already in motion on Leander ISDs vision. A vision to move forward with managing a fast growth district and balancing our financial needs with our new superintendent and current board trustees.

2. Do you/did you have students in the district? How many, ages and schools they attend(ed).

I have one child that attended k-12 and graduated from Vista Ridge HS and now attends college at Texas State University.

3. What are the three biggest challenges facing the district today and in the near future? How would you like to see those challenges addressed?

There are multiple challenges facing the district but, the top three would be the upcoming legislative session, managing our fast growth and maintaining our financial needs for the district. The district averages from 800 – 1200 new students a year, which is the equivalent to the size of an elementary school. I am proud to say that the Leander ISD board and staff has done an outstanding job with managing the community’s tax dollars from maintenance and operations to paying down debt at a quicker rate. The next session will have it’s challenges with the house and senate looking at public education and how they will continue to fund it state wide. Our board will continue to educate our legislative leaders on the importance of properly funding public
education.

4. What is your day job or what do you do in real life?

I am retired from the Texas Department of Public Safety with 28+ years as a law enforcement officer. I continue to work in law enforcement at the Austin Community College.

5. Why should someone consider voting for you over anyone else?

As I mentioned earlier I will continue my experience and leadership to further the work already in motion with Leander ISDs vision. A vision to move forward with managing a fast growth district and balancing our financial needs with our new superintendent and current board trustees.

James “Jim” MacKay, challenger

1. Explain how your background and experience make you a good candidate for school board.

Over the past twenty years I have been elected to or served as PTA President, District Coordinator, Booster Club President and Head Coach. I have held various Committee Chair positions including redistricting and new school focus groups. I was honored to serve as a Program Coordinator and Camp Counselor for at-risk youth. In addition, I served on the School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) in LISD and the Campus Site Based Planning Committee for Vista Ridge High School. I have been invited to speak to members of the State Legislature regarding issues directly affecting Leander ISD. I served as “The Voice of the Vista Ridge Rangers” and my wife and I created high school bowling programs at Leander, Vista Ridge and Cedar Park high schools which have enabled a number of Leander ISD students to receive scholarships the past five years.

As a Military Training Instructor for the United States Air Force I have the awesome responsibility of preparing young men and women for military service. This is accomplished through classroom and field instruction, by mentoring, listening and by holding them accountable. I have in the past or currently serve as a Suicide Prevention facilitator, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Facilitator and Resiliency Mentor/Counselor.
For more than three years I have maintained “Our Leander ISD – Facts and Analysis” on Facebook where I provide insight, analysis, opinion and commentary on issues affecting our District. In essence, I have been following our district, identifying areas of concern and then working publicly to bring positive change.

2. Do you/did you have students in the district? How many, ages and schools they attend(ed)?

Our children enrolled in 2012 and our son graduated from Vista Ridge in 2016. Our daughter is a Sophomore this year at Vista Ridge.

3. What are the three biggest challenges facing the district today and in the near future? How would you like to see those challenges addressed?

My number one priority is to be a visible and vocal advocate for our children, teachers, parents, residents and community. To be successful in that quest there are some areas of concern that must be addressed.

First, we must continue to focus on debt. This year Leander ISD will pay $261,626.69 PER DAY to service debt. The debt service payment is $95,493,743.00 and is more than 22% of our entire budget for 2016-2017. For perspective – $95 Million is enough to hire an additional 150 teachers and pay them $125,000.00 per year for five years.

Another priority for me would be to harness the collective power of diversity and inclusion. Being a Military Training Instructor has given me invaluable experience in effectively addressing the devastation caused by racism, hate, discrimination and bullying. I would like to apply the human relations training I have received from the military to create or enhance programs designed to celebrate our diversity and use our individual strengths to maximize our children’s education.

And rounding out my top three priorities is supporting our teachers in new and innovative ways. We need to direct more resources directly to the teachers, classrooms and students. We need to give our teachers the flexibility and latitude to “teach”. Too many times I have heard that teachers are being forced to spend their own money on basic classroom necessities and their workload outside the classroom is negatively impacting their work-life balance to the point of driving many outstanding educators out of the teaching profession. We are also forcing teachers to teach to a test. This must stop! If elected I will work with the rest of the Board of Trustees and our teachers to develop a better working environment, seek to better support teachers by looking for ways to offload some of their non-classroom responsibilities and work with them in creating a fair, consistent and scalable means to measure performance. I will adamantly oppose any efforts to tie student success on high-stakes tests to teacher evaluations. There is so much more to education and learning than simply being taught to a test and I believe that our children deserve an education that encourages exploration of the world in which they live. Our teachers and our children should not be limited to the narrow confines of a standardized test.

4. What is your day job or what do you do in real life?

As a civilian I work as a Regional Sales Manager in the Public Safety sector. I interface with all levels of law enforcement, fire, emergency management and first responders. In addition, I am a certified firefighter and medical first responder and served with the Texas Air National Guard until being hand-selected for Military Training Instructor (MTI) duty with the Air Force Reserves. Currently I am serving on active duty as an MTI in support of increased recruit accessions. When not “earning a living”, my wife and I tend to our organic ranch where we raise chickens, turkeys, ducks and tilapia.

5. Why should someone consider voting for you over anyone else?

If I am elected to Place 5 I will work diligently to:
• Restore local control of our children’s education and fight to put an end to high-stakes testing.
• Support and protect our teachers by rejecting any attempts to tie assessments of educators to student performance on standardized tests.
• Make customer service a focal point by making it easier for parents to engage, connect and participate in the governance of our District.
• Be a good steward of our tax dollars by continually assessing how we do business and look for opportunities to streamline processes and eliminate inefficiencies and redundancies.
• Work to create and enhance partnerships with local industry in an effort to expand and strengthen our Vocational Education program.

My adult life has been one of service to others and I possess a wide base of knowledge and experience that I believe can help lead our District to a brighter future. While I applaud the efforts of our current Board of Trustees I feel that there are areas of opportunity that would be best explored with a fresh perspective, renewed vigor and honest self-assessment as a governance team. I am not a politician and have no desire for political office beyond serving my community as a member of the school board. If elected, my goal is to effect positive change in a single, four-year term and then step aside to afford another member of our community the opportunity to share their experiences and strengths. Depending on the circumstances at the time I would consider serving a second, final term. I have and will continue to be direct in my approach and will ask the difficult questions as opposed to going along to get along. I will bring a new level of open and honest communication between the school board and the residents (something I have been doing consistently for more than three years via social media). Thank you for your consideration.