Susan Taylor-Demming​ For IPSD 204: Patch Candidate Profile

Name: Susan Taylor-Demming

Age: 57

Position Sought: Indian Prairie District School Board Member

Family: Albert - Spouse; Daughter - 21, Junior in college; Daughter - 18, Waubonsie Valley High School Senior

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? No one in my family works in politics or the government

Education:

BA - Rice University; M.B.A in Marketing/Management. - Columbia University

Occupation:

Marketing and Workforce Development Consultant - 8 years; Former corporate marketing executive

Why are you running?

My father was a Deputy Base Commander and in support of his responsibility, my mother spent a great deal of time serving military families, most often women and children. Her commitment and her passion were infectious, and she instilled in my brothers and me the responsibility of service.Earning my BA-Rice University and MBA-Columbia University, often involved extensive urban youth mentoring. An Illinois resident of 21 years, I’m a proud member of St. John, AME serving as a Church school teacher. I’ve served 8 years as a Girl Scout Leader and past Girl Scout Board Member. A 15 year PTA member, I’ve served as past committee chairs and board officer. In 2007, as our district grappled with tenuous d boundary decisions, I ensured school board communications were transparent, constant and immediate, as IPSD Citizens Communications Advisory Committee member. Professionally, I have a strong corporate background and significant Not for Profit experience. As a Viacom Marketing/Sales Director, I had responsibility for a $33 million budget negotiating contracts for network distribution (MTV, VH1/Nickelodeon) and understanding the importance of arts in schools, provided financial donations to large urban school systems via VH1’s – Music In School’s /Save The Music initiative. More recently, as a consultant, I have gained an astute understanding of state budgeting and grant implementation, as I have developed and directed initiatives for Youth Education and Workforce Development.

My desire to serve as an IPSD 204 School Board member is a direct result of many of the areas I’ve shared from my background and I am confident position me to serve in an exemplary manner. My service commitment has often surrounded children in the community, so I understand the needs of upper middle class children and am especially attuned to the needs of economically disadvantaged students in our district.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office: N/A

Campaign Website: www.susantaylordemming4D204.co...

What do you hope to accomplish in office?

Definitively, the greatest public policy challenge we face in our district and state is the non passage of a state budget and the severe impact the current impasse has on education throughout Illinois. Our district is dependent on almost 15% of our budget from state revenue sources. Not receiving these revenues, puts us tremendously behind the eight ball in providing previously budgeted line items to positively impact our schools and students. IPSD 204 budget cuts are $44MM since 2010 and our district operates at very low revenue/student and expenditure /student ratios. We are owed approximately $10MM from the state which can directly influence instruction for our students. We aren’t a district that has significant liquid resources to cover severe revenue losses, so the impact is immense.

I’m extremely concerned about the academic achievement gap between socio- economically disadvantaged students and the overall average academic attainment of students in our district. I strongly believe an increased ability to tackle this issue will allow all students in our district to soar even higher and allow us to academically see standardized test scores increase whether indexing ACT/SAT high school scores or elementary/middle PARCC scores. Our loss of state revenues directly impacts our ability to address this critical educational issue in IPSD.

I am also very interested in continuing to attract high quality, diverse teachers to our district. Ensuring our students have the best and brightest teachers more reflective of our district population is imperative in today’s educational environment. As our students navigate post secondary education and workforce scenarios, more and more they will be faced with classmates and co-workers from various backgrounds and cultures. The more we can challenge our students to operate in classrooms where increased exposure to teachers and students from different backgrounds are an everyday occurrence, cognitive skill sets can be enhanced, as critical thinking and problem solving mastery evolve, especially as diverse group project collaboration occurs. Emulating future education and workforce settings, especially with increased staff diversity at an early age, will help our students be prepared to easily navigate the blending of cultures they are certain to experience as they mature.

I am eager to work on behalf of our district with administration, our local legislators, the business community and other school districts to be a voice in Springfield, entreating our elected officials to finalize a budget. As a parent, a resident and hopefully a board member, I will be committed to talking to residents, staff, and administrators, providing research to our local elected officials what this stalemate is doing to our students, our schools and our communities. My background provides me an opportunity to understand this dilemma from a middle class perspective, an educational perspective and the harm imposed even more on those who are economically disadvantaged.

How would you hold local government employees accountable?

As a board member, it is vital that the board have policies and procedures that ensure staff and administration understand expectations and consequences for inappropriate actions. I will strive to ensure the board follows policies and procedures put in place in all pertinent situations.

Explain your attitudes toward fiscal policy, government spending and how taxpayer dollars should be handled by your office (or board)?

The most recent state report card shows that high schools in the Chicago area with similar graduation rates and academic achievement spend significantly more on instruction and maintain much smaller class sizes than District 204. For example, Deerfield invests $13312 per pupil and maintains an average class size of 19 while Neuqua Valley invests only $7183 per pupil and maintains an average class size of 28.

Is investing 90% more per pupil and maintaining class sizes more than 30 % smaller than ours gives a district like Deerfield high school students an advantage over District 204 high school students?

Smaller class sizes often are touted as definitively a positive for classroom environments. While teachers do have the potential to provide students more individualized attention in smaller settings, student success is most determined by the creativity, qualitative teaching style and experience of their teachers. In other words, classroom size is not the #1 determinant of student success – it is the quality of the teachers. That said, would I as a parent and board member, like to see our district have more flexibility in reducing class size, hiring additional talented and diverse teachers? My answer would be a resounding YES if we had a surplus budget. But comparison of Deerfield, with a $120 MM budget for 2 schools and 3750 students, vs. a $322MM budget for 33 schools and 28,500 students is indeed a difficult comparison. Our FY 16 of $11, 467.51/student vs. Deerefield’s $13, 312 investment shows that IPSD is aggressively competitive at 24.7 ACT avg vs. Deerfield at 26. I indeed applaud our teachers with the wonderful job they do with challenging student ratios. One of the most important tenets of my candidacy is to see the Academic Achievement Gap reduced in our district and I do feel smaller class sizes can play a vital role in reaching that goal, benefitting all students.

Do I believe this disparity is an indication that we need to find more revenue to invest in instruction for our students? I feel we need to continue to find more creative ways we can provide additional academic enrichment for our students. For example, seeking opportunities to engage corporate personnel who have firsthand experience in various areas can assist with the real world classroom knowledge that can be so vital for our children. As a parent, this type of experience would be extremely worthwhile to me.

What would I do to increase revenue for instruction in our schools?

We must look carefully at our budget and find any areas that are not fully beneficial for the maximum # of students possible. Do we have investment in programs that only benefit a small number of students? If so, is it wise for us to continue that investment? We must carefully seek to find areas we can free up additional revenue from our current budget.

Would I support a referendum so that we can close the gap in spending and help our students be more competitive with high schools comparable to ours?

At this time I would not support a referendum to be taken to the public. I want to ensure we continue to pay down the bonds issued for Metea Valley, ensure we look carefully at student populations at each high school campus, work with demographers and determine if we will have to make any boundary adjustments to meet ideal capacities for each school. Only after we have taken those steps, would I feel it necessary for the board to consider referendum discussions.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Once an Army Brat, Always an Army Brat………

My father was a Deputy Base Commander and in support of his responsibility, my mother often spent a great deal of time serving military families, most often women and children. Her commitment and passion were infectious, and she instilled in my brothers and me the responsibility of service. I moved often and one of the best ways to meet new persons and to learn about our new surroundings was by getting involved in service to the community. I learned to embrace Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” As an adult, service has remained an important cornerstone of my life. An Illinois resident of 21 years, I am a proud member of St. John, AME, where serving as a Church school teacher provides great joy. Once my girls entered IPSD schools, PTA at the elementary and secondary levels has been important, and I have served in committee chair roles, as well as a board officer. I am a charter member of the Project Arrow PTA and co-authored the initial by-laws for the organization. In 2007, as our district grappled with tenuous discussions surrounding boundary decisions, I tried to ensure school board communications were transparent, constant and immediate, serving on the School Board’s Citizens Communications Advisory Committee. Professionally, I have a strong corporate background and as a Viacom Marketing and Sales Director, I had responsibility for a $33 million budget negotiating contracts for core product distribution (MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon). An entrepreneur in the Fox Valley area, my husband and I owned Demming’s Hallmark, hiring both students and adults that live in our school district. From 2006-2009, I had the pleasure of being an IPSD Substitute Teacher, and more recently, as a consultant, I have gained an astute understanding of state budgeting and grant implementation, as I have developed and directed initiatives for youth education and workforce development programs.

I have been married 23 years to husband, Albert and have 2 daughters that have attended Indian Prairie School District 204 schools (Taylor is a 2014 WVHS graduate and Briana is a senior at WVHS). My BA in Business is from Rice University and I received my M.B.A. from Columbia University in Marketing/Management. My desire to serve as an IPSD 204 School Board member is a direct result of my passion to serve and work with children, as indicated by many of the areas I’ve shared from my background. I am confident my experience positions me to serve in an exemplary manner representing all IPSD children. I thank you for your consideration and will be honored to receive your vote.

What else would you like voters to know about you and your positions?

I'm happy to share my thoughts on a variety of subjects with PATCH readers. I am also pleased to share that I have been endorsed by the Naperville Chamber of Commerce - Political Action Committee and the Daily Herald. Both endorsements can be found on their websites. The Daily Herald's comments are:

Taylor-Demming is a consultant in marketing and workforce development with excellent experience in volunteer programs involving kids. She will bring a clear-eyed and reasoned approach, be willing to dig in and do the necessary work and, when needed, be able to clearly articulate the challenges facing the board and how it plans to address them. Taylor-Demming is endorsed.

I invite voters to view my website, facebook and candidate forums to learn more about me and my candidacy.

Thank you......Susan Taylor-Demming

Photo provided by Susan Taylor-Demming