Editor’s Note: Josh Cantu is one of the four Newton Community School District board of education candidates for the Sept. 8 election. Here are his replies to a Newton Daily News questionnaire.
The Newton Daily News and the League of Women Voters are sponsoring a candidate forum to be held at 7 p.m., Aug. 27, in the Newton Council Chambers, located inside City Hall, 101 W. Fourth St. S.
The Newton Daily News will publish replies from the other three candidates as those are submitted.
Occupation: Engineering Team Leader with Pella Corporation, where I have worked for the past 13 years.
Family: Wife Katie; daughter, Emily, 3; and son, Garrett, 7 months.
Years of residence within the NCSD boundaries: 14.
Educational background: bachelors of Science in engineering, Iowa State University; MBA, University of Iowa.
Three objectives I feel the NCSD board of education should have for the four years ahead: Establish plans for improvements to the Berg Complex, gain consistency across the district in leveraging technology to enhance communication between parents and teachers and improve the project planning process to align the "whatever it takes" mentality with good financial decision-making.
The element of campus and student safety I feel needs to be addressed most urgently in central Iowa: When considering student safety across all of central Iowa, I think of bullying. For NCSD specifically, the district is spread out. We need to be aware of children traveling within and around each campus. Understanding the impacts of social media like Facebook and Twitter will also be important. I understand there is work being done to update the bus routes, and the board has approved purchasing a new camera system for the buses, which will be a nice enhancement to the current practices and policies.
My position on Newton K-8 reconfiguration, as of today: The basic idea of reconfiguration isn't necessarily bad. I believe there could be benefits in making a change. With the current situation, there are lots of details that need to be understood before a good decision can be made.
Setting a date for when this plan is to be implemented without understanding all of these details isn’t wise. With the next five years projected for very little student enrollment growth, the district has more pressing needs at this time. The Berg Complex could use the attention and resources that will be spent focused on reconfiguration.
I would also like to better understand the feasibility of developing a magnet school within the district and how that could enhance educational performance.
These tools should be utilized in Newton to get parents more involved in the educational process: When considering new tools for the district that will improve the educational process, one thing comes to mind. The district has a LOT of tools already. I'm not sure more tools are needed. In my career, I've found that when you simplify and have the communication process make sense to those involved, you become more effective.
Let’s leverage technology like Infinite Campus to make what we are doing already more effective — not more work.
Newton offering preschool without a basic monthly or annual charge to parents is important: The fundamental concept of providing Pre-K options for families that may not have the financial resources to do so otherwise is important. I'm more interested in making sure all students have the access to a Pre-K program than creating a financially lucrative preschool program within the district.
The investment the district makes in children of this age will pay dividends in the future both financially, and more importantly personally, for those students’ educational performance.