Candidate Q&As 2023: Mark Thayer for Newton School Board

Name: Mark Thayer

Age: 53

Occupation: Practice administrator at the Newton Clinic

Elected offices held: Newton Community School District Board of Education

Office seeking: Newton Community School District Board of Education

1. Introduce/Reintroduce yourself to voters and explain why you are running.

I have lived in Newton since August 1996. My wife Michelle, NHS Class of 1991, and I have two kids who have attended NCSD; Maddison graduated in 2019 and Mitchell is in the class of 2024. One of my favorite parts of my job is physician recruitment. In the 15+ physicians that I have recruited to Newton over the years, one thing that’s constant that always is asked is the quality of its schools. I strongly believe that quality education is the cornerstone to any sustainable community. Simply put, our school district is directly tied to Newton’s long-term growth and success.

2. What is most important to you regarding the current configuration discussions for Newton Community School District’s elementary buildings?

First, it absolutely breaks my heart that we can no longer financially support neighborhood elementary schools. This is no fault of the teachers, administrative staff or anyone. This is more symbolic of the times that we are living in and the significant inflationary costs that have occurred in the past years. With identifying a solution to the configuration, I hope that the board will identify a solution where we can fix the problems as identified with the least number of disruptions for the children. I hope that the board will also anticipate any new problems that may occur as the result of the reconfiguration and have such fixes identified to avoid or reduce any new problems. Areas that are potential concerns to me are parent dropoff/pickup as well as security and safety concerns. There should be multiple lessons learned from Berg especially with regards to parent pickup and dropoff.

3. Several legislative actions this past year affected public schools. How do you feel about these and future actions from lawmakers? Do they affect Newton?

I have been supportive of Governor Reynolds and Jon Dunwell. Although I don’t agree with every policy that has come forth. I would point out that many of the policies passed in the past four years are directly the result of some school districts in the state not prioritizing the kids and families. Sadly, we have some kids in the state who are significantly behind kids the same age from other school districts. One area that I disagree with is the fact that kids can open-enroll out of a school district during the school year. Although there may be some situations where this may be warranted, I do see this as being problematic for school districts. I am a firm believer that kids should never be “stuck” within a school district, especially if the child or its family believes that the level of education is underperforming expectations.

4. Do you think the school board does a good job involving the community in its decision making processes? Please explain.

I do believe that the board has tried to reach out to the community and its citizens regarding feedback. This can be extremely challenging as open forum sessions are rarely attended by a large block of the community. I can tell you that I have appreciated every session that was held with the community and felt like the community had an opportunity to get their questions answered and provide feedback to the board. Personally, I do pay attention to and take into consideration feedback from the community that is delivered via either email to me, or at a public forum.

5. Declining enrollment continues to be a major hurdle for Newton. What do you think the district can do to attract and retain students?

Enrollment continues to shrink and has shrunk significantly over the past five years. For example the 2023 certified count will likely be 100 fewer students than the 2022 certified count. Just this one year alone will result in over $700,000 in lost revenues for the district. I am hopeful and optimistic that this trend should soon be ending. I think we have to continue to invest in the schools and its infrastructure. Although we have made significant investments in the past, we need to continue this trend and continue to share our story. One of my favorite events of the year is the scholarship awards assembly. It absolutely amazes me that Newton literally provides a scholarship to every senior who applies. This is something that is likely rarely known yet affects almost every student. I do think that as our community continues to grow and innovate that this will lead to increased enrollment within our school district. I also believe that with a successful school reconfiguration, that this will lead to better cultures and lead to fewer long-term issues that sometimes occur when the 5th graders coming from the four elementaries all combine at Berg Middle School.

6. In your opinion, is Newton schools meeting the academic needs of its students? Please explain.

I believe that we are; however, I also believe that there is more that can be done. Although we have seen recent improvement in our scores, sadly, we are still below the statewide averages. I am a bit encouraged to see that we have improvement recently; however, our scores are still not on par from what we were seeing pre-pandemic. I do believe that we are succeeding at helping our kids be better prepared upon graduation to succeed either at a post-secondary education, enter the trades or honorably serve our country.

7. What is the best quality of Newton schools? What can the district improve on?

The best quality of the school district is its teachers, paras and support staff. These individuals care deeply about the school and its kids being served. I would like to see us continue to involve and engage parents and other family members as key components to the education of our children. I would also like to see continued focus on the transition to 5th grade and to 9th grade. These transitions can be difficult and can lead to challenging outcomes at best.

8. What other school issues are you most passionate about?

I love to see the school district and its students supporting the community. Red Pride Day is one of the most impressive things that I believe we do for the community. I remain very passionate about improving our facilities as well. Recent improvements to the baseball facility, softball facility are examples of what we can do to improve our infrastructure.