As reported yesterday, the Board of Education chose Ed Ruffolo to fill the board vacancy. I did get a chance to watch the video of the meeting. The interview process consisted of 2 rounds. The first round consisted of the 6 candidates who showed up for the meeting. [There had been 9 original candidates, but 2 officially withdrew their applications and Rahb Kettleson simply never responded to communications and did not show up for the meeting on 01/04.]
The first round involved the candidates giving their introductory statement and then answering 2 questions. The Board of Education members were not allowed to ask follow up questions in round 1, which resulted in some problems. During the board discussion that followed the first round, Gary Jahnke wanted to know which of the 6 candidates had submitted paperwork to get their names on the spring ballot. Superintendent Baseman told him that questions were not permitted during the first round. [Although questions of the candidates were not permitted, it seemed to me that the board could probably have asked Clara Kopplinger who would possibly have known the answer to that question.] At any rate, Gary was not permitted to ask the candidates, and no effort was made to find out the answer to his question another way. The result was that of the three final candidates, only Ed Ruffolo had filed paperwork to get on the ballot. That paperwork was due 01/05/2021 so there was almost no chance the other two finalists would have been able to get everything in place in time to run in the spring election. While technically, this would not disqualify them from being appointed to the board, it is understandable that the Board might not want a new member who was guaranteed to only be there for a few months.
Jim Bowman suggested that, in the future, when faced with a situation like this with sensitive timing issues the Board should make sure that potential candidates are aware of the process for getting on the ballot and the timeframe for filing paperwork. Kay Eggert said that, at the orientation in December, all the candidates were made aware of the short period of time the term would last for, but it sounded like the attendees of that meeting were not explicitly given information regarding the timeframe and process for getting on the spring ballot.
[In my opinion, the Board really dropped the ball in that respect. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to (a) provide that information and (b) find out in round 1 who was committed enough, long-term, to take the steps necessary to run in the spring election. Knowing who was running in the spring election would have been particularly relevant in light of the fact that…]
Before the interview process began, the Board was asked to consider each candidate’s interest in and devotion to public education and willingness to give time and effort to the work. The board is responsible for establishing policies that will enable the Appleton Area School district to achieve their stated vision. Working together, students, family, staff, and community, will ensure that each graduate is academically, socially, and emotionally prepared for success in life. Every student; every day.
With that introduction, here are the questions that were asked and Edward Ruffolo’s answers to them.
Introductory Statement: Please tell us a little about yourself and why you are seeking this position to serve on the Appleton Area School District Board of Education.
Edward Ruffolo: “Good evening. My name is Edward Ruffolo, and it’s a pleasure to be here. I’ve been a resident of Appleton since 1988. I have three children. Nathan and Erin have already completed their k-12 education. My daughter Maya is a Junior at Appleton North, so my family has had a child in the schools continuously since1996. I want to detail for you why I’m interested in serving on the Board. My older brother growing up was a person with disabilities, and as it turns out my own daughter Erin is also a person with disabilities. Because of my strong family connection, I’ve been an advocate for people with disabilities really my entire adult life. When this position became available I considered applying knowing how crucial education is to positive outcomes. But, you know, as I thought about it, I hesitated a bit because my principal concern was–you can’t really be a single issue member and be on a Board with such broad responsibilities, no matter how heartfelt the issue. I had to ask myself, really are my interests broad enough or would you be better off on a committee? But, you know, my 3 years of experience with the Appleton Education Foundation really has broadened my interest. Through the AEF I’ve learned much about the school systems as representatives from leadership make presentations at every meeting, highlighting different programs and initiatives, so I really feel like I can hit the ground running. And it’s also allowed me to interact with administrators and teachers outside that normal parent/teacher triangle. And the thing that I’ve enjoyed doing the most is going and actually delivering grants to the teachers right in their classrooms and hearing from the teachers how they’re going to use that grant. It’s been a great opportunity to first hand kind of see that passion and dedication and energy that the teachers have for their students, so the experience really brought home to me the tremendous impact of connecting dedicated and skilled teachers to motivated students who are ready to learn. So if I am selected to serve I’ll focus on two main topics. First, tracking, retaining, and helping develop great teachers. I have over 25 years of experience in leadership in the private sector. I know great people make great organizations. We must have great teachers to have great schools, and with a looming teacher shortage that’ll be a big issue. Second, understanding and addressing any barriers for students to be present and ready to learn. These barriers may include disabilities–obviously a passion of mine–mental health, physical health challenges, socio-economic issues, and finally just making sure that students feel safe and accepted for who they are. For example, my youngest daughter is actually a minority that we adopted from China. So I do really look forward to answering all the Board’s questions this evening, and I thank you for your considerations.”
Round One Question One: What are two or three priority areas that you feel are critical to our continuous school improvement efforts in the AASD to support student learning and growth?
Edward Ruffolo: “Okay, I see I’m number one, so I’ll jump right in. Obviously we have to recognize that Covid and the pandemic has caused a lot of disruption in our ability in how we deliver education schools to our students. Some have done very well. My daughter adjusted very well to virtual schools. Others it’s been harder for them, either academically or socially. We all hope and expect that this pandemic will be over sooner rather than later with the new vaccines and therapeutics. So we first have to get through this pandemic so it’s safe for everyone to go back to a normal school, but then I think it’s very important that we’re gonna have to identify which students maybe no have gaps–gaps in their education, gaps in their socialization, and just their attitude toward school–and do everything we can once those students are identified to fill those gaps as quickly and address them as quickly as possible, so this short term issue doesn’t become a lifelong learning issues for them. So I think that’s gonna be obviously an important short term answer. The other one is going to be–and we talked about this in my opening remarks–is making sure we’re tracking, retaining, growing, motivating our educators, our teachers, because they’re really the ones that are delivering everything that we’re working on to the students at that time. And I think it’s so important then, to identify those students–the ones with disabilities, the ones with mental health issues, that that model isn’t working for them or they’re not there and ready to learn, and helping to eliminate those barriers. So I think those are gonna be very important issues going forward and I must say through my daughter Erin’s experience we have a very excellent special education program in Appleton. Especially as I compare it with other parents across the state, and I really think with additional focus and work we can be the best. I’d love to see the Appleton Area School District be the model district throughout the state for how we interact with students with disabilities, students with mental health issues, etc.. Thank you.
Round One Question Two: Give us an example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision as a leader. What were the factors you considered in making your decision? How did you work through conflict to build consensus?
Edward Ruffolo: “Yes a number of years ago I was the Board chair of a member based not for profit, and controversy arose over the executive director who had been with the organization for decades, and basically half the board and half the membership wanted to move on from that executive director and the other half thought he or she was doing a great job and couldn’t understand why anybody would think that. So it was a really tough situation because not a lot of middle ground, something like that, and also if you don’t make that decision right and people feel that they weren’t heard or you did a bad job you could lose potentially half the organization, half the membership and then you’re no longer even financially viable. So when faced with that, and I was the Board chair trying to help guide the organization through this process, you can’t ignore it, of course, but you have to recognize that conflict is actually good and healthy for organizations. People really only get into conflict about things that they care about and that they’re passionate about, that are important to them. So you have to acknowledge that it’s okay for people to have conflict, but then you have to try to educate the folks and set up a process where you have constructive conflict resolution and destructive conflict resolution, and you really have to educate people on or help them understand what destructive looks like and what constructive looks like. Right? You want to build consensus. You want to be respectful of people’s opinions. YOu want to make sure that what you’re discussing is fact based and data based–that, data based, not based on opinion, and not beginning to question other people’s motivations etc, and not trying to make it personal. So we got the board together, really set up a process of how you’re gonna make that decision, sometimes when you have a hard decision to make, deciding how you’re gonna decide is the most important step so we really sat back and even got a little help from the outside to really guide us in that. Came up with a really good decision-making process and then worked our way through that process, made sure we had broad input from the stakeholders the people that were gonna be involved and that everybody had a chance to be heard, and that everybody really understood what the issues were and what people–and where the concerns are on both sides and then tried to come up with a best solution for the organization. Which we were able to do, I was very happy to see that, that, you know, everybody walked away still friends and still members of the organization. So I thought that was very successful and it’s certainly a process that I would use again in conflict.”
Round 2 Question 1: What do you believe is the difference between the role of a school board vs a school board member?
Edward Ruffolo: “The first one is just kind of the legal definition. I recognize that as a school board member we have no special authority than any other community member outside the–other than when you’re acting as part of the overall board. And i think that it’s so important that as a member you’re going to analyze the policies, think about the issues that come before you, reach out to the wide community and have them reach out to you to get feedback and listen to what the professionals within the organization have to say, and tehn particularly always going back to the strategic plan as a touchstone to where does this decision, where does this policy fit within that, and then kind of independently come up with what you think is the best option, the best course of direction for the board, advocate for that as strongly as you can, as constructively as you can, and then when the decision is made and the vote’s made, whatever the vote is for the Board even if I’m not on the side–even if I disagreed with the final decision, at that point the decision is made, the Board has made that decision and then because you’re part of that Board it’s up to you to support that decision even if I didn’t necessarily agree with it and do everything I can to make sure that it’s a success going forward.”
Round Two Question One Follow Up Questions:
Jim Bowman: If you have a pet issue that you feel strongly about but you’re not getting support for it from the other six members, how long do you persist with your point of view? How long do you press your point? How do you know when to shut up? How do you know when you’ve said enough or whether, if you’d just stayed with it a little bit longer, maybe you would have sold everybody else? [not a precise transcription; edited for length]
Ed Ruffolo: “So there’s–you have to know the difference between when there’s discussion and debate and people are still persuadable or they’re still looking for more information and get that sense of–hey this is my perspective have you considered this? Maybe it you looked a little deeper at this you’d see my point of view. And then there is decision time and consensus, and, you know, I’ll push an issue and advocate for an issue until that point where you know that people aren’t really asking for more information. They’re beginning to come to conclusions; they’re reaching a consensus. And if the consensus isn’t quite the view that I have, then I’ll live to fight another day. We move on from there. There’s not sense dragging the board out for hours and hours and hours and, you know, maybe I can persuade you the next time.”
Kris Sauter: How do you go about soliciting information from different stakeholders within the community? What do you see as your role being as an individual board member? [not an exact transcription]
Ed Ruffolo: “Of course as a technology person, the first thing I think of is technology. There’s so many tools available to us now–social media, email, etc, there to reach out, to make it easy for people to give you their feedback. Some of that can be kind of rough and you just have to look past that and look for the kernels that are there, so that’s a good way. And the other one which may be quite frankly more important I know as a Board member you get lots of invitations for events that happen at school and trying to be at those–trying to be active in the community, let people see you, ’cause so often people will come up to you at an event like that and maybe they have a concern, maybe they have a comment they want to make and it’s just easier for them to do it face-to-face, and I think much more constructive quite frankly. So, kind of leveraging those opportunities as they present yourself can really help find–make those connections in the community.”
Question 2 Round 2: Why are you the best choice to serve in this board appointee position?
Ed Ruffolo: “Considering the quality of the other candidates, “best” is probably a hard thing to say. We have some very good people here tonight, but the strengths I think I bring to this in general are, you know, accounting and technology which can be useful to the board, and more important is 25 plus years of leadership in business and then equally long experience serving on various boards, you know, for the last 25/30 years, so I’m comfortable in the board setting. It’s something that I’ve done a lot of, and I think could do well for the district. The one thing I could say–and of course I’ve had 3 children going through the schools and I’ve learned a lot from that–my son was very strong on the social thing, social side, social sciences. I had a daughter with special needs, and then my youngest is very strong in the STEM areas, but she’s also very good in music, so I really had an opportunity to interact with so many different teachers in so many different ways. The one thing I would say, though, is by being on the AEF every month somebody’s come in–Dr. Baseman or somebody else from the leadership, and has really taken the time to walk us through a lot of the unique things that the district is doing–like the 4 Pillars, the strategic plan, the model candidate–the model graduate, I’m sorry. The different charter schools that we have. So I kind of feel like I’ve been through a masters course on the Appleton Area School District and I think that would really help me hit the ground running in what’s going to be a very short time frame between when this term starts and when it expires.”
Follow Up Questions
Gary Janke was finally able to ask which candidates had filed paperwork to run in the spring election.
Ed Ruffolo: “I filed my papers this morning, Gary. I am running in the April election.”
Marie Waddell and Katie Van Groll had not filed paperwork.
Barry O’Connor [this is an exact transcription]: “In regard to getting input from our communities–and I say communities because there are different points of view regarding school district decision making and there are our parents, there are community members who pay the bills, including parents, and then there are staff members that are key employees. So when we deliberate on decisions there are a lot of constituencies and sometimes we make it sound like we’re just trying to figure out what the community wants, and it doesn’t always work that way. I guess, you know, the question was asked, how do you get information. My question is how do you process the information that you get in terms of potentially conflicting points of view as, you know, we’re well aware of in the current cases, but in almost every decision there’s conflicting feelings about what you ought to do, and so how do you process that? What do you look to? What’s your thought process in how you–in not only how do you collect the information–and I like the idea of the surveys which is one thing we’ve utilized. But how do you really get diverse opinions and how do you foresee making tough decisions that involve complex issues?”
Ed Ruffolo: “So Barry, you put your finger on something, of course it’s very difficult to kind of go through. It all so much depends on the decision, but you’re right. The first thing you have to do is make sure that you are hearing from stakeholder groups so that nobody feels left out of the process, and then often times it’s a recognition that there’s no one right answer, and like sometimes when I think about Covid I think the challenge is there’s not even a good answer, in that all options have negative downsides to it. And sometimes those are the hardest decisions to make, right? You look at the various options before you and you realize that while this would benefit the, potentially, teachers while it may not benefit the taxpayers and so on and so forth, and then, you know, that’s why you run for a board. At some point you’re gonna have to–fact collecting ends, you’ve talked to everybody, and you gotta kind of weigh and measure, and you gotta do what you think is best and make a hard decision and then stand by it and be willing to explain to people what your thought process was and if they disagree in three years they can vote for somebody else. But at some point you have to make those hard decisions and move on.”
The Board then had a discussion in which they thanked the three candidates for applying and said they were all good, strong candidates. 5 of the Board members then voted to appoint Edward Ruffolo, with only Deb Truyman voting for Marie Waddell and no one voting for Katie Van Groll.
You can view the entire meeting and the answers of all the other candidates here: https://youtu.be/cEOiMzeSC5s
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