JOSEPH SPALLA
March 29, 2011 12:50PM
Spalla
Office Sought: School District 159 Board member
Name: Joseph Spalla
Address: 11400 Stratford Road Mokena
Date of Birth: 8/29/65
Contact Information:
E-Mail: joe.spalla@gmail.com
Web site: http://sites.google.com/site/joespalla
Facebook: N/A
Twitter handle: N/A
Education: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Master of Business Administration
Occupation, Employer: Sun- Times Media Productions
Please list all sources of Income: Sun-Times Media productions
Spouse, Spouse’s Employer: Marie, Independent Mary Kay Beauty consultant, MJHS Food Server
Children, age of Children: Catherine (11), Mary (18)
What other elected offices have you sought? None
Have you ever been arrested or charged with a crime? No
Do you have any criminal convictions on your record? No
Political experience: None
In your view what are the two most important issues facing your constituents? How would you address those issues?
1. Obtaining accurate and timely information from the school board on the issues it is facing. I plan to address this by providing consistent and accurate information regarding our schools by having board meetings televised live, and by having a podcast of all open meetings available.
2. Providing the children of SD 159 with the quality education they need to compete in the new world economy. I plan to work closely with the administration to reduce costs to meet the revenue price point set by the community with the highest priority being our children’s education, specifically reducing class sizes and updating educational materials.
Please explain something significant you would like to accomplish within the next two years if your are elected to the office to which you aspire.
There are a few significant things I would like to see accomplished in the next two years.
1. I would like to publish an updated five year strategic plan along with a balanced budget within my first year on the board.
2. I would like to put in place a committee to address the concerns related to closing MIS, with the goal of closing MIS at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.
3. I would like to upgrade the school’s technology and at the same time reduce costs. This can be done in two ways:
A. By moving away from older legacy technologies to lower costs technology like Google.
B. By reducing excess technology infrastructure capacity and negotiating lower cost contracts with our providers.
Please explain how you believe the office you’re seeking can help in creating local jobs.
At this time we are currently reducing the budget so, unfortunately I do not foresee any job creation occurring within the district. However, I plan to preserve jobs that contribute to the education of our children in as many ways as possible. In addition, should we be able to hire in the future, I would prioritize local candidates.
Do you believe the current way Illinois pays for education is working ? If so, why ? if not why not? What would you change?
I find the way Illinois funds education to be deficient. From what I have learned the formula to determine how much money a school district gets per student is very complex and does not appear to be equitable to all children across the state. I would like to see the funding be determined in a much simpler and straight forward manner. I would also like to see changes that would not allow the state to delay their funding of the schools. Would you make any changes to the budget of the governing unit to which you are seeking elected office? If so what?
Yes, as I stated above, I plan to work closely with the administration to reduce the budget to meet the revenue set by the community, with the highest priority being our children’s education.
Are there other issues you want to bring to the public’s attention if so what? N/A
