Candidate Questionnaire: Lisa Borowski

Name: Lisa Borowski

Party affiliation: Democrat

Previous political experience (elective and appointed positions): I have no previous political experience.  I am not a politician, rather an interested and concerned taxpayer/parent/alumni who has been actively involved in our schools for almost ten years.

Education: B.S.  Communications/Journalism - Drexel University, 1989

Radnor High School, Class of 1984

Career: I have 20-years of experience working in non-profit communications, marketing, and development and currently work as Board Operations Manager for The Philadelphia Police Foundation.  Previously, I spent 13 years as Director of Media Relations & Marketing for Mercy Health System and worked as an independent consultant in marketing and development for non-profit groups such as Mercy Vocational High School, the West Oak Lane Charter School, The Philadelphia Zoo and The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition.

My experience also includes working with community representatives, boards of directors, government agencies, foundations, and corporations to create collaborative and strategic partnerships.   Currently, I am working on a campaign with the Philadelphia Police Department to raise $1.2 million to reinstate the Police Mounted Patrol Unit.

What are the most critical issues in the school district and how would you address them?

Our district is facing several critical issues – the largest being satisfaction with the status quo.  Radnor is an outstanding school district but over the past few years we seem to have become complacent, relying on our past reputation to carry us into the future.  The lack of focus and commitment to long-term goals in areas critical to our success, such as curriculum, professional development, technology and human resources, has forced us into a position of trying to play “catch up” with surrounding districts. 

Missing from our budget process  is clear direction from the board and administration as to where we want our schools to be when the process is over.  What do we want for our schools now and in the future, and how can we craft a budget that helps us get there.  Without thoughtful consideration of how programming cuts affect the overall education delivered by our schools is short-sighted.  This practice is starting to have a significant and measurable impact on our teachers, our staff and our students.

We need to stop reacting and start planning to best allocate our resources as that is the best way to responsibly spend the substantial investment we all make in our schools.  We need to stop letting the index drive our decision-making process and first figure out what we need and want for our schools, then create a budget that lives within our means.  This will also help set direction for alternative funding initiatives.  A clear vision of what we need and want will help us craft a compelling message to approach outside funding sources.

Another area of great concern is Radnor’s lack of leadership concerning legislative issues.  Public education is currently under fire in our state legislature.  From vouchers to charter schools, there are issues up for debate and approval that will seriously impact our schools in the future.  For those who favor accountability in our own schools, we cannot sit by and allow for legislation that will give millions of tax-payer dollars to schools that have no requirements for accountability to those who are providing the funding – us.   Radnor needs to have a much louder voice in Harrisburg, we need to press our legislature to make decisions that benefit public education as a whole in our commonwealth, to fund mandated programs, and to invest in our future leaders.                       

What skills do you have that you think would be an asset to the board?

I have long been involved with our schools from the grassroots PTO level to participating in District-wide initiatives and working with outside resources, like the Radnor Educational Foundation.  I believe that involvement has provided me with broad perspective to make critical decisions that affect our schools.   I also believe that my communications expertise and work in building strategic partnerships between community and public entities will be useful as the board looks to better engage the community.

What do you think the school district is doing right and what does it need to improve? How would you improve it?

Radnor has wonderful teachers, staff and administrators who have the best interest of our kids at heart.  I believe that Radnor does a great job encouraging students to reach their full potential and is working to offer all students a well-rounded educational experience.  I have always felt that Radnor offers something for everyone.  Whether interested in sports, theater, music, robotics, journalism or community service, Radnor teachers and students collaborate to offer a program that nurtures and inspires that interest and contributes to creating well-rounded graduates. 

Radnor can do a better job with timely and honest communications.  Whether it is test results, changes in a child’s schedule, school board or administrative decisions or even the introduction of a new in-school cafeteria policy, I believe that a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and discourse can be avoided by providing open and honest answers.  Also, we need to not be afraid to say “I don’t know, but can I get back to you.”  We need to more proactively involve the school and non-school communities.  These groups have insight and suggestions to offer, we need to give them the opportunity to do that in a forum that goes beyond a formal school board meeting. 

Curriculum in the schools has had to be altered because of budgetary reasons over the past few years. What do you think the shape of the “Radnor education” is right now and how would you improve it?

We need to carefully look at the impact the furloughs and other programmatic changes have had on our schools overall.  From staffing issues to curriculum, how have these losses impacted our ability to deliver a quality education to our students.  How has this impacted our teachers and staff?  I am concerned that changes are being made without thoughtful consideration to the impact of education throughout our school system.  We need to better prioritize what we need and where we want our schools to be.   A clear plan for the future will help drive all decision-making, including an alternative funding plan.

Do you support implementing full day kindergarten? If so, what would you do to make that happen?

I have spoken to teachers and sought input from parents regarding full-day kindergarten.  While I understand the benefits that a full-day kindergarten program can offer our students, I am reluctant to advocate implementing a new program in our district when I feel we have many other programmatic issues to address.

I feel that any additional dollars that are not already allocated to specific programming should be invested in others areas of greater need within the district – for instance, professional development, curriculum enhancements or upgrades to our technology.  I would definitely like to see more empirical information regarding the benefits of a full-day kindergarten program and as well as better understand long-term impact adding a new program would have on our overall budget.  It would be a mistake to initiate a new program that could not be sustained in the long-term.

How would you represent the interest of tax payers who do not have children in the school district?

All taxpayers have a say in how their school-tax dollars are spent.  When 90% of our revenue comes from tax dollars, our investors need an accounting of how those dollars are spent and the overall state of our schools.  Much like shareholders in a public corporation, I believe that our taxpayers deserve a bi-annual report delivered to them with updates on the state of their investment.  This does not need to be a large expense, just a simple accounting of how and what the schools are doing to best protect the shareholder investment. 

In addition, the school district could offer taxpayers the opportunity to sign up and received e-mail updates regarding the schools.  The township can do it…so can we.

I would also advocate an open door policy for all interested township residents.  Town meetings and school board representative availability sessions are other ideas to encourage sharing of ideas from the community which can serve as a frame of reference for school board directors when making decisions that impact taxpayer investment.

Tell us something about yourself that would surprise us.

Those who know me well will not be surprised by this, but I am an avid, rabid, Phillies “phan”.  I have been a fan since my family started attending games when I was in middle school.  I have a Phillies “shrine” in my kitchen and my favorite way to spend a summer day is sitting in the sun at a Phillies game (unless I’m on the beach in Sea Isle – then I am right next to the radio)!