Meet RTM Candidate: Jim Coyne

Name: Jim Coyne

Municipality: Middletown Township

Party: Democratic

• Single largest issue is the need for a more open, collaborative approach to civic dialogue. 

• Current RTM school board seems to operate with an attitude of we'll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it.  

• Current school board members do the bare legal minimum to engage the public around such critically important matters as approving an $80-plus million budget and debt financing, making significant purchases by selectively following a competitive bidding process, signing off on class size at the early primary grades, and maintaining academic rigor. 

• Public information should be more accessible; set realistic expectations and appropriate ground rules for community engagement, and devote sufficient time that an open and meaningful RTM community dialogue requires.

How would you create a balance between spending taxpayer dollars and quality education? Are you satisfied with the cost/quality balance in an $84M plus budget?

• Present a budget in a way that enables the RTM community to really understand how and where the money is going rather than typically putting forth what amounts to little more than a spreadsheet of line item costs and arcane codes.

• Elected school board members should always ask what prudent investments are being made to create quality educational opportunities for all RTM students and with what outcomes rather than posing important, albeit simplistic, questions about what's being spent and saved.  

• True public engagement in the strategic planning and budgeting process will result in better, more informed and responsive investment decisions.  School board members and the administrators they oversee don't have a monopoly on the freshest ideas and most workable solutions.  

• Rose Tree Media School District's state-mandated contributions to pension costs will continue to increase precipitously over the coming years.

• School board members should be open to explaining their priorities and decisions and laying out their vision and strategies for rising to the challenge of paying the bills and maintaining the quality of education that make living and going to school in Rose Tree Media so appealing—and then listen, really listen to what people have to say.  

• Future decisions will be harder and more complicated, but no parent, taxpayer, student, or district employee should have to wake up one day wondering how we ended up here.  

How can you improve school district and board transparency with residents? Would you support direct email communication with board members or a live broadcast of board meetings online or on public access television?

• I feel strongly that the public should have direct access to elected school board members without the filter of first having to go through the superintendent's office.  

• Yes, school board meetings should be on the district's web site and/or on the cable access channel and I would continue to vigorously advocate for that on the school board.

• Structural reforms aimed at opening up the process are only effective if they are accompanied by a philosophical shift where every school board member truly embraces open, transparent public dialogue.  

• Too many people in the school district remain silent for fear of consequences or out of the frustration of feeling what's the point, why bother, nothing ever changes.

• Visitors to www.rtm2013.org or Facebook.com/rtm2013org will quickly appreciate a pro-communication bias.

Why should residents give you their vote?

• I approach the school board election as opportunity to earn trust and support rather than with a sense of entitlement or inevitability.  

• As one of nine school board members, I will work tirelessly and creatively to be at least one-ninth of the solution for putting the public back into public education.

• Change is hard but RTM students are worth the effort as is never shying away from asking two critical questions. What if.....?  Why not?

• Those conversations are worth having and long overdue.

• Elections at every level have consequences and carry certain opportunity costs; fondest hope is that voters thoughtfully consider them in the RTM school board race and vote accordingly on Nov. 5.

• This school board election is about sharp contrasts relating to public accountability rather than personal character and integrity.