School Board Candidate Mark Stoner Plans to Be Taxpayer Driven, Student Focused

Mark Stoner, who grew up in Humboldt, IA, has lived in the South County area since 1993. After getting his wife’s blessing, Stoner decided to run for the school board.  

“We talked about it a great deal before we did this because it is a big time commitment,” he said. “I do have her support, and she thinks I’ll do a great job.”

Stoner is running as a slate with fellow candidate . Besides the fact that he’s always been interested in education, he is running for two reasons.

First, he believes that the school board needs to be more student focused.

“I believe that we need to get back to teaching the lost art of learning to our children,” he said. “I believe learning is a skill, and given the right set of skills, students can learn for the rest of their lives.”

He said his second reason for running is to get more parents involved in their children’s education.

“If you can’t get the parents involved in the school district, the students will suffer,” he said. “And I do have a plan for that.”

Stoner also thinks that the school board needs to be taxpayer driven. He said that he firmly believes that the district has not heard what the taxpayers have said about tax increases.

“We need to do a better job of educating our students at a lower cost,” he said. “And I guarantee you it can be done.”

Stoner was born in Iowa Falls, IA and grew up in Humboldt. He said his father was in the restaurant business and was the president of the Iowa Restaurant Association, while his mother worked as a restaurant association volunteer. His parents, now both deceased, owned an A&W Restaurant and had five children, including Stoner.

He first got a degree in data processing and computer programming and then his bachelor’s degree in business operations management at the University of Northern Iowa.

“That’s the same place Kurt Warner went,” Stoner said with a grin. “He just makes about $40 million a year more than I do and is a lot better looking.”

Stoner has been married to his wife Terri for 21 years. They have three kids, ages 20, 17 and 11. Stoner’s 17-year-old, Cameron, attends Mehlville High School and plays on the basketball team. His 11-year-old attends private school, which Stoner said gives him a unique perspective on the Mehlville district. Patch asked him why he put one child in public school and the other in private school.

“We made our decisions based on their individual personalities and needs,” Stoner said. “I want to do what’s going to be best for each child at the time.”

His philosophy in his family is to take a look at his kids’ individual abilities and skills and try to nurture them so that they can become the best possible versions of themselves.

“One loves to play the piano, one is a sports fanatic and one is a complete bookworm,” he said of his children. “I want to expose them to everything and then support their talents and the things they love.”

Stoner said his only weakness in relation to serving on the board is that he can be impatient at times.

“I take a rather pragmatic view on things,” he said. “And I like things to occur at a faster pace than other people do.”

Among his strengths, Stoner said that his problem-solving abilities will help him most on the school board. Plus, he said that his experience in process management will be a benefit to the board if he’s elected as his whole career centers around it.

“With process management, I can help improve the standards of education and help Mehlville become a nationally-recognized school district,” he said. “If you take a hard look at the process of what we’re doing in our school district, you’ll see that we can do it better and at a lower cost.”

In fact, Stoner said he wants to see Mehlville schools nationally recognized for having the highest quality math scores, reading scores and comprehension scores—and to be one of the lowest-costing schools in the nation at the same time.

“We compare ourselves locally, but we don’t step back and compare ourselves to different states,” he said. “We set the bar too low.”

He said that the district needs to take action and dig in further to find out what it can do better.

As far as Stoner is concerned, the biggest problem he sees now in the district is the $4.8 million budget shortfall that will be hitting the books in 2012.

“We have about two years to fix this problem, or we will become a distressed school district and our operating fund will fall below 3 percent.” he said. “It would be devastating for everyone involved. That’s the immediate need in the district.”

He said he sees no problem with working alongside the current board members.

“There’s bound to be different views,” he said. “I think there is some some education that would have to take place, and some give-and-take would have to take place.”

Stoner wants to see the board look at things from a logical rather than emotional perspective. He thinks he would be in the minority opinion, but said that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think it would stir things up,” he said. “Controversy can be good. It’s not good to sit on your laurels and ignore the elephant in the room.”

He said that stirring up controversy can improve things, and that his goal is to make the district better for both the students and the taxpayers.

“Ultimately, I think it would be well received,” Stoner said. “And not only by the board, but also by the teachers and the community, because that’s who we’re serving and who’s paying.”  

As far as budget cuts go, Stoner said that he thinks the district may be looking at an across-the-board cut.

“Everything should be on the table. I can’t say I’m in the position to comment on every program that’s out there,” he said. “I don’t think the goal is to cut programs—I think the goal is to be more efficient with what we have.”

Stoner said he has a plan that would begin with running a process map on the whole school to see which positions are adding value and which aren’t. He said that if a program or position isn’t adding value, the board needs to do what it can to add value, or consider cutting it.

“We need to be evaluating each position as you go through, starting at the top and going to the bottom,” he said.

He said the process could cost a bit, but it’s about focusing on the school to make it better for the students and more cost effective for the taxpayers at the same time. Stoner also feels that the school district needs more corporate involvement.

“We have huge corporate clients in this town,” he said. “I don’t know why we don’t have more involvement with them, and we need someone in the school to work with these corporations.”

He added that there are plenty of corporations out there that would build the district a whole new school if someone would just ask.

“It would be great PR,” he said. “I think we need a full-time director position that deals with community involvement.”

Stoner said that right now, community outreach is delegated among 50 different people. He feels that no one is taking responsibility to make sure outreach is effectively handled.

Regarding oversized classrooms, Stoner said that while classes aren’t currently oversized, he thinks that bigger class sizes wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

“It’s something you have to keep tabs on,” he said. “I think it’s up to the individual teachers to decide if they can handle up to 30 kids.”

He noted that oversized classrooms can’t be mandatory district wide. Instead, he said, individual principals should make the decisions.

“They should know their teachers and know who has the ability to do it and who doesn’t,” he said. “It should not be a mandated situation from the union.”

Stoner said he voted against Prop C because he disagrees with the basic philosophy that you need more money to do a better job in education.

“On the national, state and even local levels, there are schools spending less money per student and doing a better job,” he said. “For instance, the state of Utah averages $6,500 per student—the lowest in the country—but they perform best in both math and comprehension scores.”

In contrast, Stoner said the District of Columbia spends more than $28,000 per student and has the lowest scores in the nation.

“Based on spending per student, I think the idea is that spending does not directly correlate to student improvements,” he said. “You can see that on national, state and local levels.”

If a district student, teacher or community member would approach Stoner with a problem or concern, Stoner said that he would first listen with empathy, but that if the issue wasn’t one the board would normally handle, he would advise them to go through the proper channels.

“It’s unlikely that a student would come to me anyway,” he said. “Realistically speaking, the board supervises the superintendent, who supervises the principal, and so on. The board mostly deals with policy changes and the like.”

Stoner said one thing that really bothers him is when people accept that a school doesn’t perform well due to the financial restraints of the parents and the communities.

“I will hear teachers say, especially for younger students, that maybe one school performs less well because they have parents who aren’t as advantaged or don’t have the same family background as those from another school,” he said. “That makes me very sad, because it seems like they are giving up on that child because of their background, position in life or disability.”

Stoner said this mindset is unacceptable, and that it is one thing that needs to change in the district. He said he has no interest in politics, just in education, and that’s why he’s running for the board.

He wants district voters to know that if he’s elected, his plans will be taxpayer driven and student focused. He said the even though being a member of the board is an unpaid position, he hopes that district voters hire him.

“I care very deeply about the students,” he said. “I think we can do things in a much more efficient and managed way.”