Rober: I am in agreement with the reintroduction of step increases for teachers but would like to better understand the criteria for these increases and understand how merit is evaluated if they are merit based. I do not necessarily believe that they should be solely based on service time.

Rober: While I am glad that there is concern and a willingness to fund security, I do not believe they have a spend plan for that money and fear that it will not be well directed. I think we need to have a greater understanding of what the threats are and where the soft spots are in our schools. From there a we need to come up with a comprehensive spend plan that improves on those things that are already in place. I am certainly in favor of additional SROs but think that we need to couple them with air-locks for visitors and better adherence to existing policies on Visitor entrys. I am not convinced that metal detectors and the like are the answer and fear they will unintentionally provide targeting opportunities. Hopefully the new schools that are on the drawing board now will incorporate smart security measures that might be able to be retrofitted into existing schools.

Rober: I am very concerned about bullying in our schools. I am concerned about bullying in our society. I fear that bullying is so prevalent that it will be hard to control. The School Board will have to fully investigate the depth, breadth and impact of bullying on our schools. Bullying will have to be defined and categorized and then the board will need to discuss and develop policy that better addresses consequences for identified behaviors. I also believe that our educators need to be more sensitive to bullying and their roles in it as well. Some teachers are, perhaps unconsciously, perpetrators of bullying actions. Of course, bullying extends well beyond the school walls and parents/custodians also need to be part of a preventative plan, perhaps through better outreach from the schools.