Voters in Slippery Rock School District’s Region 1 will elect one school director for a two year term from two candidates: David Hutner, a Democrat, and Mark Taylor, a Republican, in the Nov. 5 election. The region includes Harrisville, Slippery Rock Township and Mercer Township.

The Butler Eagle posed the following questions to the candidates:

QUESTION: Why are you running for election?

HUTNER: I have served in many different roles and committees during my 4 years as a member of the school board, and I am able to utilize my experience to better effect positive changes. I hope to be able to continue serving my school district in the capacity of school director. The team that I have been privileged to be a member of has been able to guide our district through some difficult times, and I hope to continue to be able to contribute.

TAYLOR: As with most people, I believe that our children are our legacy and our future. Our job as adults is to provide them the tools to advance and improve their lives and make the world a better place. We do that through education. I want to be involved with helping our youth develop themselves into productive members of our society.

QUESTION: What are the top three priorities if you win election?

HUTNER: Continue to provide quality educational opportunities for the children of our district. Through the selection of curriculum, educators, and administrators, the school board can continue to provide for and improve the educational experience for all students in our district.

Provide a safe environment for our students to learn in.

Maintain fiscal responsibility through responsible spending. We have areas that we can curb spending while achieving and exceeding our educational goals.

TAYLOR: 1. Help in providing a better education for our children. Specifically, teaching the kids how to think instead of teaching them what to think.

2. Enforcing fiscal discipline in our district. This is a new day and age. Our teachers and administrators need to understand that there is a finite amount of money available and it needs to be used wisely.

3. Bring common sense back to the way we run our district. While our rules are written in black and white, how we apply those rules needs to be well thought out. The decisions we make can have far reaching consequences to the kids we are charged with educating.

QUESTION: How much weight should school boards place on the new state-based rankings of schools called School Performance Profile?

HUTNER: I do not think those assessment standards are an accurate measure of our student’s educational retention, but we are required to maintain those levels. Our students should be educated so that they gain the tools they need to succeed and positively contribute to our society.

I am not certain the state and federal rankings accurately represent that goal. With that in mind, we have to respect their ranking system.

TAYLOR: If it works out the way it was designed, it can be a valuable tool in improving how we educate our youth as well as rate the overall effectiveness of our teachers. I like the idea of having standardized benchmarks to rate our district.

As it stands now, we don’t have enough information to fully appreciate its value. I think the system needs to be in place for a while so that the “bugs” can be worked out and streamline the process.