Catherine Huddle, Lexington Richland Five

Name: Catherine Huddle District: Lexington County Seat on the Lexington-Richland Five School Board

Contact Information:
Email: Admin@HuddleForD5.com
Phone number: 803-665-3109
Website: www.HuddleForD5.com
Social Media: www.facebook.com/HuddleForD5

School Board Trustee Duties

1. Why are you running for School Board Trustee?

Because our schools are failing our children and our taxpayers. There is more than enough funding for our schools but those funds are being squandered on unproven programs that do not improve educational outcomes. All children deserve a quality education. We need to get politics and indoctrination out of our schools and focus on the fundamentals of education.

2. What is the most important issue facing your school district today or a key problem you want to address?

The single most important issue facing our district is that over 50% of our students do not read at grade level. Children who do not read on grade level by 3rd grade are twice as likely to drop out before graduating.

If you could make only one change, what would you advocate?

I would take all of the funds that are spent on social emotional learning, associations, excess legal costs, hold over federal Covid money, consulting, etc and use it to develop a comprehensive program focused on K-3 to ensure that every child reads on grade level by the end of third grade. This program would include addressing all of the reasons children don’t learn to read, including discipline.

4. What knowledge and skills are currently lacking that you will bring to your School Board of Trustees?
I am currently on the board but I am the only board member with a finance degree and executive financial management experience.

5. What does the word “stakeholder” mean to you?

Stakeholder means all of the people with a vested interest in an outcome. When it comes to public education, to me the primary Stakeholder is a child’s parents. When the child comes home from school every day to when the ultimately graduate, it is the parents that are caring for that child and the parents who have the greatest vested interest in the outcome of their education. The child themselves is obviously also a very important stakeholder as they have to make their way in the world using their education, once they become an adult. The community is also a stakeholder because we are paying for the education that will hopefully allow the students to become contributing members of society.

6. How do you plan to communicate with constituents and how accessible will you be?

I have a Facebook page that I use to notify people about upcoming board meetings, including the agenda and the link to watch online. After each board meeting, I post a summary of the meeting on the Facebook page along with the video link so people can watch the full recorded meeting if they would like. When there are particular items of interest or I need feedback from people, I will make separate posts. I take and return all calls and all emails – including emails to my district email and personal email.

7. Have you supported millage increases in the past and what are the circumstances where you would support them in the future?

To-date I have not supported any millage increases because they were not needed. The school district currently overestimates the millage rate due to the formula they use (something that I have addressed and objected to every year). As a result, the district builds an excess operating fund balance and an excess debt service fund balance and then finds ways to spend these funds on unplanned projects – projects which typically have no direct educational impact.

I might support a millage increase in the future but only after the district a) uses the existing excess fund balance to reduce the millage, b) uses the correct formula to set the millage, c) cuts the existing fat out of the budget and d) uses the increased millage in the classroom. Therefore, I don’t see a reason to support tax hikes in the future.

8. What should be the top funding priorities?

Teacher pay, smaller classrooms and reading.

9. It is difficult to get an IEP or 504 for Special Education. How would you address this and how would you support Special Education?

I’m not sure how difficult it is to get an IEP or 504 and have not heard issues with that. However, I have heard many issues from parents with their child’s IEP or 504 not being followed. I believe a lot of the issues stem from teachers being overwhelmed and us not having good processes for following the IEP/504 plans. I would like to see better processes in place for teachers as well as teaching assistants expressly assigned to help teachers with the IEP/504 plans and parent engagement.

10. What are your thoughts on the budget proviso requiring use of restrooms and changing facilities based on birth sex?

Obviously, this proviso should be followed and every school district should implement a policy ASAP that follows the requirements of the proviso.

11. Would you make any changes to your district's policy on challenging instructional materials, and if so, what would those changes be?

Our district has implemented the state’s new regulation on instructional materials and officially stated that it replaces our current policy on “library and media”. We should update our policies to match over the next several meetings and ensure parents and the community are informed about the new policy and procedures.

12. Teachers often complain about the lack of discipline in the classroom, stating that many times students are sent to the principal’s office and promptly returned to the classroom, where the student continues to disrupt the class. As a board member, how would you address student discipline through policy?

Our discipline policy has not been updated since 2018 and a lot has changed in six years. The policy needs to be updated to include more details on bullying and use of cell phones (as required by state proviso). Input from all teachers should be used to revise the policy and the policy needs to include required quarterly reporting to the board. We must have policies that ensure our classrooms are safe and conductive to learning.

Experience

13. What has been your involvement at a school level and at a Board of Trustee or district level?

When my children were school-age I actively participated in the PTSO. I also volunteered to serve as the mentoring coordinator for an elementary school. I have served on the board of LR5 for nearly four years and served as the chair of the Procurement Committee. I also regularly attend parent advisory council meetings. I have never missed a regular board meeting and prepare extensively for each meeting and post a recap online of each meeting.

14. How many board meetings have you attended in person and over how long?

I have attended every regular meeting since I was elected in November 2020. Prior to my election, I started attending meetings in person and virtually in 2017.

15. Have you spoken during citizens’ participation? If so, how often and what topics did you address?
Yes, prior to my service on the board, I spoke in public participation twice about financial transparency and issues with wasteful spending.

16. Have you made SC FOIA records requests for information? If so, what information were you seeking?
Yes, I made requests for financial information and contracts prior to being on the board. Since I have been on the board, I have made several requests to obtain financial information and information regarding classroom libraries.

17. Have you served on any district boards or committees? If so, which ones?

In addition to the board, I have served as chair of the Procurement Committee and I was on the Policy Committee and Facilities Committee.

Get to Know You

18. Do you have kids currently enrolled in Lexington-Richland Five? If so, which schools do they attend? If they have graduated, what schools did they attend?
My children attended LR5 schools from first grade through graduation. They attended Seven Oaks Elementary, Chapin Elementary, Chapin Middle and Chapin High. Both of my daughters are now dentists.

19. What is your current occupation and are your hours flexible?

I am retired and I spend a lot of time on school board service. My hours are flexible.

20. What other occupations have you held, if any?

I have 39 years of business and executive management experience in the insurance and software development businesses, including Assistant VP Financial Operations, VP of Operating, VP of Sales and Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer.

21. How much time do you plan to invest each week in board-related activities?

I spend an average of 5 hours per week.

22. Please list your community involvement – previous and current.

25+ year Meals on Wheels volunteer, Women in Philanthropy and Chapin Woman’s Club Community Service chair.

Politics

23. In an age where partisan politics have crept into K-12 classrooms and boards, how would you describe your position on partisan politics?
My personal politics are conservative. I used to think that school boards should stay non- partisan but the reality is that politics have firmly entered schools from the left with concepts like bathrooms based on gender beliefs, not birth sex. I believe school boards should be partisan so voters (should) know what they’re voting for. I believe schools themselves should be free of politics. Students should never know the politics of their teachers and schools should focus on the core curriculum taught by qualified teachers and not on indoctrination.

Other

24. Please include any other relevant information not mentioned above.

Lexington-Richland Five - Specific

1. Do you support districted school board of trustee seats within each county? Why or why not?

I support having a fixed number of seats in each county in order to ensure a representative government.

2. Are you in favor of electing officers by secret ballot or voice vote?

I am in favor of voice vote as I don’t think any votes by public officials should be private.

Do you support standing committees? If so, what would those committees be?

Yes. I believe we should have a standing Audit Committee and Facilities Committee and other committees as needed.

4. Do you support hiring an internal auditor? Why or why not? Do you support being briefed on district finances during monthly meetings?

Yes, I think it is very important to have an Internal Auditor who reports to the board anytime your organization is responsible for as much public tax money as school districts spend. Yes, I support being briefed on the district finances during monthly meetings.

5. What are your thoughts on redrawing attendance lines to accommodate more students?

Our district is not growing in total but it is shifting west toward Chapin. I am in favor of redrawing lines to help offset that movement, provided that the new lines do not move a neighborhood materially further than their current schools. Other alternatives include closing older schools and consolidating should be considered. While these are painful decisions, it is very expensive operationally to operate schools that are well below capacity and to increase your total number of schools when overall enrollment is flat. Doing so causes a greater portion of operating expenses to be spent on building and therefore less on teachers and students. As such, it is very important to minimize our non-teaching operating costs while still ensuring all students are taught in safe and clean facilities.

6. What are your thoughts on the $240M bond referendum on the November ballot?

As a trustee, I voted against the bond referendum because I did not believe we had the financial guardrails in place (at the time we did not have a CFO and we still don’t have an Internal Auditor or an Audit Committee) and because the project does not increase capacity at Chapin High School, which is our school with the greatest enrollment challenge. I would be in favor of a scaled down referendum that addresses our building shortcomings, security needs and expands enrollment capacity at Chapin High School.

7. Do you support the current millage rate for operations? Why or why not?

I do not. The current millage rate is too high because it was calculated assuming an incorrect collection rate. This has been happening for years and it why the district keeps having excess operating fund balances and moving those funds to building projects.

8. Do you support the current millage rate for bonds? Why or why not?

I do not. I believe that the county Auditor, not the board, should be determining the millage rate per Attorney General’s opinion and it should be based on simple math that includes the current fund balance. If this were done, the current millage rate would be considerably lower.

9. Do you believe Lexington-Richland 5 would benefit from engaging in another forensic audit? Why or why not?

I don’t believe a widespread forensic audit is needed at this time as the audit completed in 2022 was expansive and the district has implemented most of the recommended practices. There were areas of the previous audit that were not covered by the Office of the Inspector General in his report and I would be interested in the services of another out of state auditor to review and determine if the district is owed any money for those issues.

10. Would you make changes to how the district chooses legal counsel? If so, how?

Yes. The board changed the way the board’s chief counsel is selected (through RFP, Martindale-Hubbell scores and board approval) and it has worked well. However, an incredible amount of money is still spent annually on a host of other attorneys. I would like to see similar revisions to our policy regarding all of our lawyers, to ensure we have the best lawyers and not just “school” lawyers (there really is no such bar designation) and an annual review by our chief counsel to see if it is possible to reduce the overall spending on lawyers.