Candidate Tom Tran said he did not attend due to a scheduling error.
While each candidate took a similar tone on their commitment to education and the community and their motivation for helping guide the district, they varied when it came to their assessment of Lakota’s financial health.
Shaffer, who was elected to her first term in 2011, described district finances as stable.
“We’re still always looking at every dollar and how we can re-purpose and reallocate funds, but we had gotten to the point where we were hemorrhaging and having to cut significant programs and staff to (now) where we’re able to make positive, thoughtful decisions with our money and where we want to invest to make this district better going forward,” Shaffer said.
Gause, who is making his first run for political office, said the district’s financial health is “challenging.”
“Over the next five years, the district is projected to lose $20 million,” he said. “Payroll is projected in 2015 to be up $2.1 million and so I think the challenge is that as a district there needs to be more financial control.
“We’re healthy right now but if we continue to lose $5 million a year, we’ll be back to another levy.”
O’Connor, who was elected to the first of two terms in 2007, said the district’s budget is balanced and has been for four consecutive years.
“We’re expected to continue that trend for the next several years,” she said. “As far as wages go, our wages are below 2012 and they’re expected to remain that way through 2019.”
Lakota also now has a cash reserve in place that has doubled since 2012 in order to handle cuts to state funding, like the $10 million cut initially put forward by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one that eventually became a $3 million cut.
“We have the ability now to look at those kinds of issues and it might have knocked us to our knees several years ago, but it won’t now,” O’Connor said.
Gause repeatedly emphasized that the district must look to partner with the region’s 17 Fortune 500 companies as a way of securing deals that would cut district expenses, including sponsored technology such as routers.
Both O’Connor and Shaffer said that was an unlikely path to success, as such companies were far more likely to partner with districts where families faced greater economic challenges.
Instead they suggested Lakota continue to increase opportunities for it to partner with area companies and governmental agencies for student internship programs aimed at expanding educational and workplace opportunities.
The three candidates also differed on how they would help improve the district’s place in state rankings.
Gause said he favors talking to the district’s chief technology officer and its director of curriculum to discuss how to merge both areas to “do innovative things.”
“That’s what we need to do is be innovative, creative and do things that we haven’t normally done,” he said. “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.”
Shaffer suggested Lakota continue to leverage technology gains already made and building on them through professional development, as well as working with staff to allow them to capitalize on individual instruction through technology.
O'Connor said the district's Innovation Council has the potential to be "tremendously impactful" in the areas of technology, programming and professional development for teachers and staff.
“Partnerships are important and I know the Innovation Council is working with Miami University Farmer School of Business and with Xavier University in order to bring that voice to the table as well as to develop this process,” she said.
The West Chester-Liberty Chamber Alliance’s next candidate forum is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 14 and will feature candidates for the boards of trustees of West Chester and Liberty townships.
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