Roger Webb
for
Dayton School Board
"RESPONSIBLE BUDGETING
MEANS MORE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR STUDENTS"
MEET ROGER
Welcome! I’m Roger Webb and I’m a Candidate for Dayton School Board. I’ve been living, working and farming here in the County outside of Dayton for almost a decade now. I’m a husband and father of 3 Dayton students, working as a Software Engineer while raising poultry and sheep here in the Dundee Hills. When I’m not “on the clock”, I enjoy exploring the mountains, rivers, valleys and coast of our beautiful State as an avid sailor, kayaker and hiker.
We live in a data-driven world. I’ve been working as a Software Engineer and Data Scientist for over 20 years, using my tools and expertise to help my clients in critical decision-making processes in a variety of industries from Insurance, Real Estate, Marketing, Education, Finance and Vertical Transportation Systems. Dayton Schools have a variety of challenges facing us, financial, administrative, academic, and more, and the same data-driven decision-making processes we employ in the business community can be used to help our school district leadership make the most effective and collaborative decisions possible.
Having served on Dayton School District’s Budget Committee for 6 years now, the need to modernize our Budget Process is clearly evident. With a Budget that is ballooning in amount and complexity in the uncertain financial future our State is facing, the need to have the right mix of people and modern tools is imperative. Buried in these pages of numbers and figures are our childrens’ futures.
As a father and coach, I am very much tuned into the needs of our students and have a firm commitment to our community, our kids and our collective future here. It gives me a great deal of empathy for our teachers, their commitment of time, on and off the clock, and being forced by circumstance to invest our own money in equipment and tools because we’re under supported and our calling to serve our community demands it. As a taxpayer, I want to ensure we’re putting the best possible effort into being good stewards of the financial investment our citizens are making in our schools.
ISSUES THAT MATTER
1
Budget Committee Experience
Being concerned with the financial condition of the State, I had concerns about voting for the Building and Improvement Bond. It started with an online conversation that led to a discussion over coffee with an existing School Board Director. My concerns with the State’s unmanaged liabilities continued but the conversation led to a greater understanding of Dayton School District’s budgeting concerns and issues. A few months later, when the same School Board members asked if I’d be interested in filling a vacancy on the Budget Committee, I readily agreed. The way I figured, whether he said it outright or not, it was “put up or shut up”. 6 years later, I’m still here and still eager to serve.
2
Our Academic Crisis
We are in crisis! According to the Oregon Department of Education's Online Report Card, Dayton School District is failing, catastrophically, in English Language Arts and Mathematics. We need strong community effort to correct this for our students. If we want our students to succeed in Language Arts, we need our library open full time with a dedicated full-time librarian providing a full program of library services. With late-start-Monday's and 'no-school-November', our student's are missing out on crucial class time and curriculum. Let's get our students back to school full time and provide them with the tools they need to learn.
3
We Can't Teach Hungry Children
A child who is worried about food cannot focus on their studies. According to the same District Profile referenced above, 37% of Dayton Students are experiencing poverty. We are in danger of losing our Federal School Lunch Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Funding. If this occurs, families will have to apply individually and we will need staff on hand to help ensure every eligible family gets their application submitted and approved. We will also need a plan for families who don't meet the federal criteria but aren't able to keep up with meal plan payments. NO STUDENT SHOULD EVER GO HUNGRY.
4
Careful and Strategic Budgeting
According to the Local Budgeting in Oregon Manual, “Budgeting isn’t something you do once a year. It’s a continuous operation, and it takes 12 months to complete a cycle.” and “Citizens in your district check to see that programs they want and need are adequately funded. This makes budgeting in Oregon a joint effort between the people affected by the budget." The Oregon Local Government Budgeting Law already provides a, legally mandated, framework for maximizing cooperation between the School Board, District Staff and the Taxpaying Citizens and Parents. With proposed changes in State Funding guidelines and uncertainties in Federal Funding, careful and strategic budgeting is more important now than ever.
5
The Path to Responsible Budgeting
As a member of the School Board, I can help direct these policies. I would like the District to attract qualified and enthusiastic Budget Committee Members and invest more in their training and ongoing professional development. I would like to establish a year-round process of training, familiarization with Dayton’s Budgeting and Accounting Practices, Monitoring our Pacing against the Proposed Budget and discussion of as much information as possible relating to what changes in circumstances and District direction that Budget Committee Members may encounter related to a Budget that is proposed with, often, little more than a week or two notice before the hearing they are expected to vote on it. In short, I want to establish policies that have Dayton fully embracing the Letter and the Spirit of Oregon’s Local Government Budgeting Law in order to build the best qualified team possible to help the District navigate the complex and turbulent financial times we find ourselves in.