Steve Day Runs for the Plano ISD School Board

My name is Steve Day.

I am  running for the Plano ISD School Board, Place 4.  I am a father of two daughters. My oldest girl is Alex, a senior at PESH.  My youngest is Jackie who is a sophomore at Clark High School.  They have been in Plano schools since Pre-K.  I have resided in my current house in Plano for 15 years.  I’ve lived here in Dallas for 27 years.

I want to share a little background on myself.  I went to High School in a mountain community named Evergreen outside Denver. I went to college at University of Colorado at Boulder. Going through ROTC I became a Second Lieutenant in the US Army serving for 3 years in northern Italy.  I got out after 5 yrs as a Captain and took a job with Texas Instruments in 1984.

Some people might think I’m a bit old fashioned.  I grew up as a military brat, so patriotism, respect, courtesy, and honor are high on my list of important traits.  I learned these at home, in my neighborhood, in church, and in the schools I attended.  I would continue to advocate for these traits if elected.

I think that Plano schools are some of the best in Texas and probably the United States.  Our children score well on their college entrance exams and attend the finest universities in America. 

I see a lot of good things that are working well.  When you have a winning formula you seek to sustain them and you seek to further make improvements around the edges.  This said I still feel there are areas for improvement and areas to put added focus. 

I would like to see increased emphasis on the priorities of education: reading, writing, and arithmetic.  We need solid, analytical, and logical thinkers, well grounded in the core subject areas.  We want our kids grounded in skills and knowledge that set them up for success.  Many will go on to college and many will not.  But a fine education in the Plano Schools will be foundational for all our kid’s futures.

I want to see the public funds we receive from taxpayers efficiently and effectively used.  Our resources need to be concentrated in the classroom with our teachers.  We need to take a very careful and deliberate look at monies spent on non-instructional budget items.  In light of our current budget shortfall we need to find areas of overhead and operational budgets to bear the brunt of our reductions. I have an MBA from the University of Dallas and will apply my 27 years of business expertise to help manage Plano's budget challenges.
Steve Day