001another video. Today we are going to be interviewing no other than Peter Gusterson, a candidate for the school board. What inspired you to run for a position on the school board? Well, I have four kids here, so I'm vested in the community and the school and I want to make sure that um you know, we're doing our best to to help our students. Um, I guess one of the things that I'm interested in is uh developing a like a long-term strategy for the district because um our school levy, a lot of the community members um didn't seem to be aware of all the maintenance problems that we've had at the school. Um and so I think if we have a plan that address maintenance and uh teacher retention um the big sky issue like I
002don't know what kind of funding problems we may have with that. Um and then growth of the student body. So I think those are all things that we can we need to be cognizant cognizant of and um have a plan to address. Um, how do you plan to support students success both inside and outside of the classroom? Um, well, one of the ideas I have and I've talked to some of the community members are like a kind of a I don't know if you want to call it a work study program. I know for me when I was going to college or getting ready to become an adult and not necessarily college, um, just exploring different career options and what you're going to do in the future. And we have a lot of different businesses
003around town that I think could, you know, provide maybe a summer job or just an unp unpaid internship or something where they can um explore those different career opportunities. I would like to, you know, try and help that because I think it would be beneficial to a lot of students. Yeah. Are there any specific programs or curriculum changes you would advocate for? Um, there's not really anything that I'm aware of that we need to address. I mean, I'd be open to any suggestions from the from the school leadership and be supportive if that's if that's something they want to pursue. Okay. Would you say you are someone who listens to the students and keeps their opinions in mind? Can you give us an example of the situation where you would where I would a hypothetical?
004Um, well, I think there are four stakeholders to the school district. So, the students, the teachers, the parents, and then the public or the taxpayers. So the board should be um balancing the needs of all those. So um a specific example of I don't know did you have anything in mind? No. Um that's fine. Say that. Um what are your opinions on the 4 day school week? Um personally I like the hybrid one because uh my kids and I like to ski so I take them up on Fridays and we've seen Sam up there. Um, so I personally like it, but I think one thing that a thing that we should be considering is just academic success too. If it's impeding that, then we should change direction, but like I said, personally, I do like
005the hybrid. Okay. The spring version. What are your plans for the levy or your thoughts on the two levies going into the community this spring? Well, I hope that the community supports it because obviously we need it. We shouldn't have to take out a loan to fix the roof. You know, like I said earlier, um we should be addressing all our maintenance problems and and issues um ahead of time, not have to be reactive. And that goes back to where I think if we have a long-term plan, that'll help us to not be reactive. And then if we know that we have a big capital expenditure like a a boiler or something that has to be replaced, we can communicate that to the community ahead of time so it's not a surprise because it the
006feedback I've received in the community is they feel like it's a surprise. They weren't aware that we had a lot of problems with the school. Um and the last maintenance um levy that we had was from my understanding was from 2017. those quite a long time ago. Yeah. So, you know, moving forward, we don't want to do that. Okay. Um, what is your opinion on the dress code? Are you going to enforce it or let things slide? Uh, well, I I I wouldn't get involved with that. Um, I think that's up to the superintendent. He's the manager of the school. If SB 260 were to pass, what would your suggest suggestion be to the school? Um, well, it sounds like the superintendents have worked out a plan to address the funding. So, I'm not sure
007that there's anything the board really has to do other than if we have a shortfall in funding, we have to look at, you know, are we going to be able to afford the money? you know, the programs that we have and the personnel that we have to um provide for, are we going to have enough funds to do that or if there's going to be some impact? Okay, that's it. Thank you. Okay, perfect. Thanks. That's it.