Candidates were asked to limit their responses to each of the following questions to 200 words or less.
Name: Robert Busby
Age: 50
Profession: Director of IT & Cybersecurity
Incumbent: No
Do you have children or grandchildren who attend(ed) USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden schools? No; my children are grown college graduates. I was never assigned in the area during their school years; they graduated from a DoDEA public high school in Germany.
-Why are you running for school board? I’m a fierce advocate for public education because I personally know its power to enable a person to overcome great obstacles. My mother grew up very poor and missed high school to raise me. I graduated from Manhattan High in 1991, served 28 years in uniform, earned a STEM master’s degree, taught and developed career technical education, and served on several community and education non-profit organization boards. I can never thank my terrific teachers enough for the difference they made in my life. It's time to give back through leadership, service, and advocacy for them and the next generation.
I’m running to improve fundamental literacy outcomes for our students, so they are prepared to live and lead in a rapidly changing world with an uncertain future. I believe we need to equip our students with the tools to adapt as occupations change, and to become the next generation of the world’s greatest inventors, creators, story tellers, engineers, musicians, physicians, entrepreneurs, and teachers. I believe we can do this in a way that rewards our innovative educators and makes responsible use of public resources.
-Parental engagement and community involvement are crucial for the success of any school district. What strategies would you implement to increase collaboration between parents, citizens, and educators? Communication is key to engagement and involvement, and I think the district does this well in the general sense. Parent-Teacher conferences, especially in the elementary grades, are well-attended. The district has excellent resources available for communication with each group where they are, whether it be the parents’ online portal for direct communication or social media platforms for both parents and the community at large. The key to success with each of these is to provide balance for relevant information and avoid losing important messaging in a sea of information overload. A proactive communications approach can also provide the transparency necessary to maintain community trust. I believe there may be community partnership opportunities to better engage and support parents of students with greater needs, risks, or disadvantages.
-If you had one thing you could change about the USD 383 school district, what would it be? I would make better use of available data to know where we are truly making progress toward academic success of the students. Education insiders are too quick to defend the status quo, either arguing that standardized tests are unhelpful measures of success, or missing the reality that our performance declines predate COVID by several years (and predictably accelerated during COVID). I believe standardized testing is an effective holistic measure of the system’s overall effectiveness but agree that it misses some key data points with individual student success, which is much harder to measure. How are we doing with individual students in longitudinal terms? What do our system numbers look like when we account for the unusually high mobility of our community? These data already exist but are hard to tease out and report given current processes. I believe we have the technology and brainpower in our district to change that and to use better data to apply targeted resources for continuous improvement to achieve ambitious goals.
-What is your opinion of the USD 383 administration? Do you think you could work with the current administration moving forward? The best decision the current board made was the selection of Mr. Eric Reid as Superintendent. He is a terrific leader and skilled administrator. As I’ve taken the opportunity to observe and get to know him and other members of the administrative team, I’ve been impressed and believe we have an outstanding administration. I look forward to serving and working with them.
-What is your opinion of the current school board? Do you think you could compromise with the incumbents who will remain on the board? I hold the current board and my fellow candidates/prospective colleagues in high esteem. Each person has made personal sacrifices to volunteer and serve this community. From what I can tell, no two members or candidates hold identical opinions on every topic, and I believe this diversity of thought is a tremendous asset to our schools. I respect and value their opinions and perspectives, reminding me to consider unintended consequences of our decisions. I expect that most decisions will continue to be made with unanimous votes, but I also expect that there will be areas where one or more members disagree. The earlier in the deliberative process those differences of perspective are shared, the easier it will be to account for our blind spots and ideological diversity to improve the final decision. This means compromises are sometimes made to achieve an outcome that no one finds perfect, but everyone finds acceptable. In situations where this is not possible, I believe each member must vote according to conscience but must also accept the result of the final vote as the established policy of the district.
-What do you think the board’s role should be in the day-to-day operations of the district? The primary functions of the board are to establish vision and policy, provide resources, supervise the execution of those policies, and supervise the use of those resources, to ensure the outcomes align with the vision and match the needs and expectations of the community. The board hires a competent administration to lead and manage the day-to-day operations of the district and, aside from the supervision mentioned above, it should generally avoid interfering with district administration leaders’ ability to do the job the community is paying them to do. Day-to-day involvement beyond that should be to advocate and show support to the students, families, teachers, and staff, promote collaboration, and communicate with and rally support from the community at large for the success of the district.
-Have you received money or in-kind donations from individuals, businesses, groups or PACs outside of the school district? I have not received any money or in-kind donations from any businesses, groups, or PACs inside or outside the school district. All donations received from outside the district are family and friends whom I personally know. Most of my campaign has been self-funded.