School Board Election: William Dargan Jr. Answers Our Questions

Editor's note: Candidates for and have been asked to complete questionnaires about who they are, why they're running and their positions on some of the key issues. Plainfield Patch will run them as they are received and they will be available up through the April 5 election.

These are the candidates' own words, written specifically for the benefit of those who are deciding how they will vote.

PLAINFIELD DISTRICT 202  SCHOOL BOARD QUESTIONNAIRE

Name: William P. Dargan Jr.

Address: 16157 Burgundy Drive,  Plainfield 

E-mail address: bdargan@att.net

Age: 50

Marital status: Married

Name of spouse: Lisa

Names, ages of children: Jennifer  25,  Sarah  23,  Patrick  20

Education (please name degree attained and school): Bachelor's degree, Western Michigan University

Profession and employer: Market unit sales manager,  Hostess Brands Inc.

Community (non-elected) groups of which you are a member: Plainfield High School Athletic Boosters, 11 years -- two years as president, two years as vice president and seven years as concessions chairman. Coached in PAC, PJC and PSA. Sponsored four French foreign exchange students for a month at a time over the past years and last year participated with Rotary International in the sponsorship of a German exchange student for a 9-month time period.

Previous and current elected political office history (please include the years of terms):  This is the first elected political office that I am seeking.

Why are you seeking this office?

Over the course of my family's 16 years in the Plainfield community, I have been involved in youth organizations, religious education programs at St. Mary Immaculate Parish and most recently, the high school booster organization. My children have all graduated from high school in Plainfield School District 202.

I have stayed active in the high school despite not having a child in the school the past two years. I have the time, knowledge and commitment to the youth and people of the community to work with school district officials to provide the education our children deserve and need to compete in their post-high school careers.

Why should someone choose you instead of those you are running against? 

I have been involved in PSD 202 for the 16 years that my family and I have been a part of this community. The main goal of the board should be to provide an atmosphere where we develop our children to the best of their abilities to enable them to succeed through all of their years in the district and prepare them for the future. I believe my business knowledge and my ability to listen, gather the facts and make sound business decisions based on those facts will enable me to bring some stability and cohesiveness to the existing board and provide the opportunities that our children need to be successful in the future.

What do you see as the issues in this election? 

Continuing to provide for the growth and development of all within District 202 in a strong, long-term, sustainable financial position.

What would you like to accomplish if elected to this position? Please be specific. 

First and foremost would be to work with the administration, teachers and board to develop a long-term strategy for the district that balances the budget but also provides the highest quality of education for our children to help them be successful year after year and well into the future.

What is your opinion of the current budget deficit? What would be your proposal for how to eliminate it? What budget cuts do you support? Be as specific as possible. 

The budget deficit is built out of what has transpired over the past two years through the tough economic times. The board and administration have made difficult budget cuts resulting in $30 million in budgetary savings while continuing to see the performance levels improve through most grade levels.

For the next school year it will be a matter of understanding the overall funding elements available from the state and federal levels and then doing a deep dive to understand the impact of all of the programs and their impact and benefit to the development of the children. Delivering budget savings can come through more than cuts. Savings can come through combining underutilized programs, centralizing the specialty programs that are offered in multiple schools, etc. 

The key will be to see what transpires in the coming nine months that give us the opportunity to evaluate from the top down all aspects of the district to come up with a long-term solution that stabilizes the district yet still provides for the continued growth and development of all of the children in the district that we are here to serve.

What is your opinion of the school board’s recent decision to use federal grant money to retain jobs for a year instead of using it to pay down debt owned on land purchases? Please explain. 

It appears to be a good short-term solution to the upcoming school year's budget deficit. The difficulty is the long-term impact on the health of the overall school district, community and educational process involving the long-term development of the people we are supposed to be here to help develop, our children.

The question I would as is, was there more of a middle-ground approach that could have been taken that would have provided a better long-term solution while maintaining most of the positions that were reflected in the original budget proposal and given us the opportunity to pay down some of the long-term debt obligations?

Do you think the school boundaries need to be redrawn because of shifts in enrollment? If yes, how would you propose doing so? If no, how can you ensure that every school provides the same opportunities if one has more students than another? 

We have schools in the system now that were built to educate 1,000 students yet some have up to 1,200 students and others have 800 students. I question whether those schools with the 1,200 students would be providing the same quality of education that the smaller enrollment schools are. I would like to see a balancing of the schools to ensure that they stay within the student population that they were created for to ensure that all receive the highest quality of education in the best possible environment. If we can balance the boundaries by geography (subdivision), we can hopefully minimize the impact on the individuals involved in any potential move.

Would you support a switch in school funding that would increase income tax in exchange for a drop in property tax? 

I would not support any measure that has the potential to either raise taxes or potentially reduce the local tax support that is currently being received by District 202. That being said, if there is a better more equitable way to fund education I would not be opposed to exploring it.