Question 2: What do you want to achieve during your term on the Verona BOE and what is the biggest impediment to making that happen?
John Quattrocchi: I’ve been on the Board for 15 years and the most important aspect of that experience is to understand the sequence of change in a school district. The cycle of budget and financial planning, new residents moving to town, the planning for curriculum changes, scheduling of building repairs, staff training, and accommodating the needs of over 2,200 students are examples of the sorts of variables and scope of issues we manage through.
For the coming three years we must focus on the objectives of the new Strategic Plan. The Plan covers the continued evolution of our curriculum, course offerings, and staff development to support those changes.
With that, we are focused on dynamic learning, incorporating authentic experiences for students, across the grades.
Continued focus on our finances to properly fund these efforts, maintain our facilities, and keep steady control of our budgets is critical to smooth and consistent progress on all fronts.
We need to always evolve and expand learning opportunities for our students. On-line and other forms of distance-learning may allow us to offer students incredible choices of courses that are very challenging to provide today. The investments we have made in our facilities, technology and networks – together with support for our staff – put us in a great position in this space.
There is no “one-hit wonder” element to great schools. Great schools are the result of sensible, long-term focus and strong alignment across these and many other aspects of our district and community.
