Plano ISD Board of Trustees Candidate Questionnaire Place 6: Yoram Solomon
What are the top three reasons you want to serve as a Plano ISD School Board Trustee? First, I see children entering college without a plan. The cost of a “false start” in college is high. I want to help children decide whether they want to go to college (and which one), start working (with the right skills), or start a business (after acquiring the discipline of entrepreneurship) as part of their plan, and not as a natural, standard consequence. Second, there is a cycle of education quality, economic development, demand for housing, property value, tax revenue, funding for education, and again quality of education. This cycle works to improve education and economic development, but could also destroy them. With declining education funding, I want to help find a way to “break out” of the cycle and improve education within our means, and then use this cycle to grow economic development. Third, because I believe that all children have the right to find their passion and strengths, and pursue those to greatness. I would like to help establish programs that will allow identify those passions and strengths, and offer education paths to maximize those, instead of teaching them to mediocrity. What do you feel are the most important responsibilities of a trustee? A trustee needs to assure that proper governance exists throughout the operation, policies, and procedures of the district. A trustee needs to be able to hire the right people for the right job, starting with the superintendent of schools. However, a trustee needs to also know how to fire the wrong people from their job. The board of trustees is in charge of developing a strategy, vision, mission, and an actionable operating plan that will provide direction to the district’s administration and the entire staff. Finally, the trustee needs to inspire the district’s employees—and get out of their way. If you have the right people in the right place, you give them direction, and they are inspired—they will be creative, effective, and productive, and deliver the best education then can for our children. The “wrong” employees, or uninspired employees, are not as creative, effective, or productive. What do you see as the top opportunities and challenges in Plano ISD? The first challenge is the reduction in state funding for education. The opportunity this offers is to find how to revise the way we educate our children and bring it to the 21st century, relying more on technology, as the “old ways” of education are not sustainable within the declining budgets. The second challenge is the reduction in state graduation standards. The opportunity it offers is for PISD to replace 4x4 courses and “standard” tests with courses and tests that are geared towards offering better skills for life, better preparation for specific colleges, entering the job market, or starting a business. Part of it will have to be the identification of individual students’ passions and strengths, and then helping students improve on their strengths. It takes much less work and offers much greater positive impact to turn strengths into greatness rather than to turn weaknesses into mediocrity. We need to help them achieve the former. P a g e | 1 of 2 Plano ISD Board of Trustees Candidate Questionnaire Place 6: Yoram Solomon
Why are you qualified to hold the position of trustee? I worked as a strategist for almost 20 years. As such, the process I employ begins with identifying where we are, envisioning where we want to be, and finding the strategy to get from here to there. This is what we need to do now in PISD. I also worked as a Professor (for technology and industry forecasting) in UT Dallas. In that position I found that the children we send from PISD to colleges are not ready to make life and career choices, and risk a high probability of expensive “false starts”. I acquired the perspective of how we need to prepare the children to go into college, and make it part of a plan they own. Throughout my life I was always an innovator, and just like I challenged the industry orthodoxies whenever I introduced innovative products, I will challenge the education orthodoxies in PISD to come up with innovative education strategies that will improve the quality of education in a way we can afford it. Finally, I was an entrepreneur for many years. As such, I am “biased toward action”, quickly acquires the “big picture view”, and know that “the buck stops here” when hard decisions are required. I also understand how to deliver the discipline of entrepreneurship to our children, which is required for their success in life. What is the most important thing you want to accomplish if elected? Turn the reduction in state graduation standards into a differentiation of our education in the district. I would like to substitute “state standards” that are being reduced with electives and “skills for life” courses, preparing our children to successful and accomplished lives that are part of their plan, whether going to college, starting a job, or starting a business after school. I would like to achieve all of this within the budget we have, and think of creative ways to increase community engagement and support in achieving this goal. P a g e | 2 of 2