GUILDERLAND — says he is running for a fourth term on the Guilderland School Board because of his commitment to education.

Dornbush, 58, has been on the board since 1999 and currently serves as vice president.

He said about serving on the board, “We’re all in this together and we’ve been successful in the past and will be more successful in the future if we all treat each other with respect, truly listening to each other, and coming to sound decisions.”

He went on, “I don’t believe conflict is necessary in order for change to take place.”

Dornbush, who works as the assistant director of financial aid at the University at Albany, said he is proud to have the teachers’ union endorsement.

He said of himself and his running mates, “We’re not accepting cash, printing, advertising.” And he noted the union is not using the controversial mailing list of students’ home addresses it had used in the previous two elections.

“I’ve had their endorsement before,” he said of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association. “I think the union is not — as some have portrayed it — a self-serving traditional kind of union….It’s not just about me and the teachers. It’s about the students and the schools…The district and the union have had a positive relationship.”

The school board is currently in contract negotiations with the teachers. “I firmly believe our teachers are not overpaid,” said Dornbush. “If anything, they’re underpaid. I’d like to pay them more. But we can’t. We have to keep taxpayers in mind,” he said, noting Guilderland teachers’ salaries are in the middle of the Suburban Council schools.

About the role of school board members, Dornbush said, “Board members can’t come in with a single point of view and fully serve all of the stakeholders.”

He went on, “The primary focus is the student. That’s what we’re all about. I’m a big believer in free public education…It’s also about what the taxpayer can reasonably afford….Hopefully, the community can unite around the goal of providing each student with an appropriate education for the 21^st Century.”

He concluded, “The overriding emphasis is what is good for students….We have a responsibility to a teacher, even if they are under suspicion for something, to treat the person fairly, getting as many facts as we can.”

On supervisory posts, Dornbush said, “The administration has committed to an overall review of supervisory positions in the coming year, something the board insisted on.

“A year ago, when the board agreed to the administration’s proposal to combine the positions, it seemed to make sense. The number of teachers was not out of line with science and math at the high school and other combined [posts] at the middle school.

“The year is not yet out. The wisdom of that decision remains to be seen and will be part of the administration’s evaluation.”

Dornbush had favored the full-time guidance supervisor, recommended by the superintendent.  “I suggested a better description might be director of guidance…It was someone to carry out a newer, more comprehensive vision of guidance to better serve our students.”

On the block schedule, Dornbush said, “I’m certainly an advocate of changing our current design…I’ve long been concerned about limitations placed on some students. As explained by the high-school principal, there are lots of ways to do that without taking apart the entire block schedule.”

He went on, “The block schedule has, for the most part, been successful. It’s better for students and teachers…but it can be tweaked.”

Dornbush concluded, “How to do that is not up to me. That’s why we hire…experts to make these kinds of decisions. The board can weigh in and will ultimately approve or not…but I’m convinced our current administration has the wherewithal and the creativity to make it work.”

On foreign language study, Dornbush said, “If it weren’t for the constraints of money, if we’re talking pie in the sky, I’d like to see lots introduced at the elementary level.”

The two most important languages to introduce, he said, are Chinese and Arabic.

Referring to the head of foreign language studies at Guilderland, Dornbush said, “According to Al Martino, Chinese is such a complex language, you would want to introduce it early and study it all the way through….

“China and the Middle East are two challenging areas of the world our students will have to come to terms with and interact with,” said Dornbush. “These would be the languages I’d support. How and when to do that is an entirely different matter.”

 On testing, Dornbush said, “I believe test scores should be used for two things — to help students both individually and collectively, and the other one follows: to assess our curriculum to see if it’s doing what we want it to do.”

Dornbush said tests can help the district see “where we are doing well, where we could do better…in how our students are learning.”

He went on, “I don’t think it’s any big secret about where we stack up. I think it’s sad people would simply look at test scores to rate schools. Schools do so much more. There are many other dimensions to a child’s learning….It’s unfortunate there is this over-emphasis on testing.”

Dornbush continued, “Testing can be useful to assess students and program. But it’s only a part. I can see some time spent on test preparation. But it’s taking away too much time from learning, and too much time for our teachers to administer and score these tests.

“I’d like to see testing de-emphasized and more time spent on learning that will best serve our students when they leave Guilderland.”

He concluded, “Our students are highly prized.”

On allowing leafleting on school grounds, Dornbush said, “My personal feeling was and is that school grounds and school property are a special place. It’s about the direct education of students…and, although leafleting on school grounds by candidates seems OK or harmless, once you allow that, you have declared the school grounds a public forum where everyone and anyone can espouse any views they want, even views that some of us find objectionable….You cannot control the content of speech.”

Dornbush said at last week’s meeting, when the policy was discussed, that he would abide by whatever the board decided, as has been his pattern throughout his tenure.

“Once the board has made a decision,” he said during his election interview, “that is the decision of the board.” People can look up his different views in past issues of The Enterprise, he said, but he will support the group’s decision.

“The board is not nine individuals,” said Dornbush. “We serve together and support the decisions reached by the group….You don’t have to cheer for something you don’t agree with but you don’t talk it down. That is something I was taught when I first came on the board. It’s an unwritten rule of boardsmanship.”