Age: 72
Occupation: Retired
Website: www.ronmargiotta.org
How long have you lived in Wake County? 11 years
Do you have children in the district?
Previously a grandson
Why have you decided to run for office?
[My grandson] is the reason I became interested in the school board, because of the assignment policies that my grandson went through. I think he was reassigned three times in a four-year period. If he would’ve remained in the public schools, he would’ve been reassigned in middle school and high school, so my daughter pulled him out of the public school system. That’s what got me involved and concerned about what I consider to be a failure of our public school system.
What do you think are the best and worst decisions the current school board has made?
One of the problems we’ve had is trying to get our accomplishments and initiatives out through the media. As an example, I have six pages, typewritten pages, of our accomplishments and initiatives that we’ve brought forth. We’ve accomplished more in my opinion in the past two years for the children in this county and families in this county than I’ve seen in the past five, six years all combined.
What do you think is the most important issue facing your district, and how do you plan to address it?
Assignment has been an important issue not just in my district but across the county. We in my district were one of the first hit because of the growth in this county. We suffered to a great extent with the implementation of mandatory, year-round schools, with the assignment plans that claimed that it was just done for the sake of filling schools. But, they went far beyond just filling schools.
We had a major reassignment plan four or five years ago. Only 60 percent of those students reassigned were needed to fill the opening of new schools. The other 40 percent had to do with moving kids for the sake of diversity, which is certainly something that I and the new school board are turning around right now. We’re taking all necessary steps to make sure all students are going to be served well. We have an extreme emphasis on the classroom, on achievement for every student in this county.
What are your ideas for measuring and improving teacher and student effectiveness in WCPSS?
We have me a s u r e ments based upon what we see in results. What we’re going to see in improving the test scores. I’d like to see us move beyond the state’s end-of-grade testing program and get us into some national testing program like Iowa’s. Let’s not compare ourselves just with North Carolina, because I think we here in Wake County should be the best of the state, because of the intellectual level of the community. I’d like to compare us to the rest of the country so we measure up against what might be considered some of the best across the country.
Do you support merit pay for teachers? Why or why not?
I certainly do. This pilot program that we’re instituting is performance pay … at the Renaissance schools. That’s going to be a big part of increasing the performance at that school.
How do you think WCPSS should attract more minority teachers?
I think our superintendent of schools has reached out. The problem is, there just isn’t a great pool of them out t h e r e . But, our s u p e r i n t e n dent has r e a c h e d out for the first time in a numbe r of years.
How do you feel about the new student assignment plan that’s shaping up?
It still needs some fine-tuning, but I feel very optimistic that the final result will be one that will be acceptable. Some things are never acceptable to everyone. But to the great majority of school board members and the Wake County community, because it’s going to be based primarily on proximity, choice and, extremely important, stability. Once a child gets into a school that child is going to stay there and knows that he will not be reassigned out of that school, even if a new school opens. That new school will not be opened by assignment. It will be opened by application and by choice. We have an obligation. Schools are parts of communities and communities are parts of schools, we have to make that happen.
How do charter schools fit in to your conception of a healthy school district?
This is one of the problems I’ve had here in Wake County for many years — not specifically charter schools, but with the market share that we in Wake County have lost. Even with this present economy, the percentage of children outside the public school system is between 17 and 18 percent. We are losing in many cases the best and the brightest from our school system. What we have to do is make this school system so accessible that we bring back these students to our public school system or we’re going to be in big trouble here in Wake County in the next 10 years. Try to get in to a charter school. You get in by a lottery system. They all have waiting lists 3- and 4,000 on their waiting list. That’s a sad commentary on our public school system. The biggest part of people wanting to leave this school system has been the assignment policy over these past number of years, because you never know where you’re going to school. But, I welcome competition. Having competition makes you better.
How would you address the issue of student discipline?
Although we are lessening the suspension rates, we will still have to be careful that we are maintaining discipline within our schools, because that would only work against us if that didn’t happen. We can do both. We can maintain discipline, but at the same time if we push a child out of school for an entire year, that child is usually gone forever.
What would you do to ensure that WCPSS has the funding to educate its students adequately?
I’ve said for many years, the state of North Carolina is not the greatest funding mechanism for public schools, when you look around at other parts of the country. I come from the Northeast; that part of the country probably spends double per pupil. At the present time, we’re going through a very difficult economy. At the present time, I think we have an obligation to play the cards you’re dealt. In this present budget year, we had a shortfall of approximately $64 million.
What was your favorite subject in school?
History
How long have you lived in Wake County? 11 years
Do you have children in the district?
Previously a grandson
Why have you decided to run for office?
[My grandson] is the reason I became interested in the school board, because of the assignment policies that my grandson went through. I think he was reassigned three times in a four-year period. If he would’ve remained in the public schools, he would’ve been reassigned in middle school and high school, so my daughter pulled him out of the public school system. That’s what got me involved and concerned about what I consider to be a failure of our public school system.
What do you think are the best and worst decisions the current school board has made?
One of the problems we’ve had is trying to get our accomplishments and initiatives out through the media. As an example, I have six pages, typewritten pages, of our accomplishments and initiatives that we’ve brought forth. We’ve accomplished more in my opinion in the past two years for the children in this county and families in this county than I’ve seen in the past five, six years all combined.
What do you think is the most important issue facing your district, and how do you plan to address it?
Assignment has been an important issue not just in my district but across the county. We in my district were one of the first hit because of the growth in this county. We suffered to a great extent with the implementation of mandatory, year-round schools, with the assignment plans that claimed that it was just done for the sake of filling schools. But, they went far beyond just filling schools.
We had a major reassignment plan four or five years ago. Only 60 percent of those students reassigned were needed to fill the opening of new schools. The other 40 percent had to do with moving kids for the sake of diversity, which is certainly something that I and the new school board are turning around right now. We’re taking all necessary steps to make sure all students are going to be served well. We have an extreme emphasis on the classroom, on achievement for every student in this county.
What are your ideas for measuring and improving teacher and student effectiveness in WCPSS?
We have me a s u r e ments based upon what we see in results. What we’re going to see in improving the test scores. I’d like to see us move beyond the state’s end-of-grade testing program and get us into some national testing program like Iowa’s. Let’s not compare ourselves just with North Carolina, because I think we here in Wake County should be the best of the state, because of the intellectual level of the community. I’d like to compare us to the rest of the country so we measure up against what might be considered some of the best across the country.
Do you support merit pay for teachers? Why or why not?
I certainly do. This pilot program that we’re instituting is performance pay … at the Renaissance schools. That’s going to be a big part of increasing the performance at that school.
How do you think WCPSS should attract more minority teachers?
I think our superintendent of schools has reached out. The problem is, there just isn’t a great pool of them out t h e r e . But, our s u p e r i n t e n dent has r e a c h e d out for the first time in a numbe r of years.
How do you feel about the new student assignment plan that’s shaping up?
It still needs some fine-tuning, but I feel very optimistic that the final result will be one that will be acceptable. Some things are never acceptable to everyone. But to the great majority of school board members and the Wake County community, because it’s going to be based primarily on proximity, choice and, extremely important, stability. Once a child gets into a school that child is going to stay there and knows that he will not be reassigned out of that school, even if a new school opens. That new school will not be opened by assignment. It will be opened by application and by choice. We have an obligation. Schools are parts of communities and communities are parts of schools, we have to make that happen.
How do charter schools fit in to your conception of a healthy school district?
This is one of the problems I’ve had here in Wake County for many years — not specifically charter schools, but with the market share that we in Wake County have lost. Even with this present economy, the percentage of children outside the public school system is between 17 and 18 percent. We are losing in many cases the best and the brightest from our school system. What we have to do is make this school system so accessible that we bring back these students to our public school system or we’re going to be in big trouble here in Wake County in the next 10 years. Try to get in to a charter school. You get in by a lottery system. They all have waiting lists 3- and 4,000 on their waiting list. That’s a sad commentary on our public school system. The biggest part of people wanting to leave this school system has been the assignment policy over these past number of years, because you never know where you’re going to school. But, I welcome competition. Having competition makes you better.
How would you address the issue of student discipline?
Although we are lessening the suspension rates, we will still have to be careful that we are maintaining discipline within our schools, because that would only work against us if that didn’t happen. We can do both. We can maintain discipline, but at the same time if we push a child out of school for an entire year, that child is usually gone forever.
What would you do to ensure that WCPSS has the funding to educate its students adequately?
I’ve said for many years, the state of North Carolina is not the greatest funding mechanism for public schools, when you look around at other parts of the country. I come from the Northeast; that part of the country probably spends double per pupil. At the present time, we’re going through a very difficult economy. At the present time, I think we have an obligation to play the cards you’re dealt. In this present budget year, we had a shortfall of approximately $64 million.
What was your favorite subject in school?
History
