Rick Maloney
Candidate, University Place School District school board Position 5
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Rick Maloney ran for election to the University Place School District school board Position 5 in Washington. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 7, 2023.[source]
Maloney completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]
Elections
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General election
Endorsements
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Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rick Maloney completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Maloney's responses.
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With more than 24 years of school board experience, I have learned a great deal about the school board member's BOARDSMANSHIP competencies (what individual board members should KNOW and BE ABLE TO DO) to contribute to effective board performance and hence district success. I have also learned a great deal about the effective board's GOVERNANCE competencies (what a school board should KNOW and BE ABLE TO DO) to contribute to district success. I have applied my learning by leading the board as president (10 terms), presenting on governance more than 20 times at state, national, and international school board or governance conferences, and have written two books on governance (1) A Framework of School Governance: Assessing Performance and Planning for Growth; and (2) Putting Policy Governance to Work: A Self-Help Guide. Finally, I have served a leadership role as a director for all Pierce County boards in our state school board organization (WSSDA) during 2006-2015 and 2021-present.
- Put students first: Our highest priority must always be to focus on student outcomes over adult interests.
- Overall student learning has lagged during the COVID epidemic - we must retrieve student achievement at or above prior levels.
- Gaps in achievement for students experiencing poverty and demographically disadvantaged students when compared with district-wide averages must be reduced or eliminated.
Student outcomes in terms of our three major district goals:
(1) Academic achievement - what students need to know and be able to do to become successful citizens.
(2) Character and citizenship - what students must be in order to succeed in life.
(3) Health and fitness - how students must develop physically in order to live a long and healthy life. I admire Admiral Grace Hopper. She was a trailblazer as a woman officer in the US Navy during and after World War II, working on the very first application of a 'mainframe' computer, applied to problems the Department of the Navy was dealing with having to do with computing gunnery tables for warships. The women employed in that project were the first 'computers' who calculated those tables by hand. Grace Hopper was involved in developing machine-computed tables for the wartime needs of the Navy.
After the war she was involved for many years in the beginning stages of the computer industry, applying what was learned in support of the Navy and the Department of Defense. She had to deal with both hyper-masculine military culture and bureaucracy, and she excelled.
My own wife spent an entire military career in the US Army. She was privileged to attend a lecture by a very senior Admiral Hopper shortly before she retired, and was mightily impressed. I admire my wife's skill and fortitude the she demonstrated throughout her career as much as both she and I do Grace Hopper's. A few in my personal bookshelf:
(1) Becoming a Better Board Member (NSBA book)
(2) Key Work of School Boards (NSBA book)
(3) Boards That Make a Difference (Author John Carver)
(4) Great on Their Behalf (Author AJ Crabill)
(5) A Framework for School Governance (Author Rick Maloney) We owe two very high-priority obligations to our community, and to the state that created our district:
(1) Accountability to the public for performance, including accountability for careful stewardship of the students (the most precious resource entrusted to our care) the facilities and the money (also entrusted to our care)
(2) Transparency in conducting the public's business throughout our school district. We must report to the public how we are going about our business, and the results that ensue. Integrity; Compassion; Thoughfulness; Commitment to Duty
(1) Achieve outcomes that are directed by state law; and outcomes that are desired by the community
(2) Avoid unacceptable situations or conditions that would be unacceptable to the community
In order to best pursue the above two responsibilities, it is our obligation as a board to develop those whole-board governance knowledge and skills needed to become an effective school board. It is our obligation as individual board members to develop individual boardsmanship knowledge and skills needed to contribute to an effective school board. To ensure the community that they have received the best possible results for students
I remember hearing the news about Sputnik when I was 6 years old.
I was a custodian for my high school. I held that job for one year.
Maintaining a healthy balance between official duties and family priorities.
To assure, on behalf of the community that elected me, that our students become competent, contributing citizens. This means we have achieved three outcomes for our students:
(1) Academic standards - They have met high standards in academic subjects as evidenced by standardized tests, where available, and have met graduation requirements in those subjects;
(2) Character and Citizenship - They have demonstrated the character traits and citizenship skills for success in life;
(3) Physical Fitness and Health - They are healthy and physically fit, prepared to live a long and healthy life.
To achieve the above outcomes, my primary responsibility is to contribute to an effective board whose collective job is to:
(1) Listen to community members to learn their values;
(2) Write those values into policy that guides the superintendent in achieving the above student outcomes while not violating expectations as written in policy;
(3) Systematically and rigorously monitoring district performance (and the board's own performance) to assure that community that policies are being followed and reasonable progress toward desired results are being achieved. All community members, whether they vote or not, whether they have children (only 25% have children enrolled int the community's schools) or not. I am obligated to serve every member of the community, ensuring on their behalf that the community's students receive the services of the school system to result in the best outcomes that are possible.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion guide many aspects of district operations, in order to assure that ALL students benefit from what the school system has to offer. That's why we provide special efforts and targeted interventions to help those who need assistance in reaching the goals we have established for all students. As a board we have set desired outcomes for students, written them in policy, then carefully monitor execution of policy for two sets of criteria: (1) reasonable progress toward desired outcomes; and (2) reasonable compliance with policy that directs how those outcomes are to be pursued. Part of the district programs that respond to board standards, and which the board monitors, are established to provide targeted assistance for those students whose achievement falls below that for others within the district. We also monitor targeted assistance interventions to assure that results for our student subgroups exceed statewide results for those subgroups. In those ways (setting high expectations, and monitoring same for continuous progress) our district has made great progress, being rated among the highest achieving school districts even knowing that student demographics in our district might give an excuse for lower levels of achievement. For example, our student poverty rate is much higher than other districts in the top ten (Niche.com ratings) or top twenty (Schooldigger.com ratings) school districts in our state.
Our board provides for connecting with the public at every board meeting, setting aside time at the beginning of each meeting for public input. We also schedule dates/times for special meetings each year whose sole purpose is to connect with members of the community and hear their views, values, and concerns about our policy-guided goals for students. Finally, we provide feedback to the public in a very transparent way, reporting in public how well the district has done in each year, pursuing continuous progress toward our desired outcomes and complying with expectations that are written in policy. We have a transparent superintendent evaluation process, and document same, as a report to the public on the performance of the school district. We have an equally transparent board self-assessment process, documenting the board's own performance against its self-governing policies.
From a board perspective we play a part in instructional leadership when we establish expectations for that leadership, systematically monitor performance against expectations that are written in policy, and transparently account for same, year in and year out. During our annual monitoring process we schedule opportunities to review the district instructional program, to include briefings on research-supported best practices in teaching, not as experts in the classroom but within our role as a board of directors.
Our expectations are written in policy that all the resources we have in our budget are devoted to obtaining the best and most wide-ranging curriculum offerings. Where present resources do not permit us to offer the widest possible range of offerings, we take advantage of regional availability such as the Pierce County Skills Center located within the boundaries of Bethel School District, and special services available in other district with which we can contract or individual needs.
We advocate as members of our state school boards' association for state and national resources, coordinating with legislators in Olympia and in Washington, D.C. We also communicate and cooperate with community members to (1) seek local funding options (levy, bond resources that are available through the voting process; and (2) hold the district accountable and report same to the community for locally approved special funding that voters have approved.
(1) Safety is essential for the best possible learning environment.
(2) Carefully manage our resources to assure safety.
(3) Responsibly structure and manage school climate to support safe learning environment.
(4) Teach and enforce the best classroom techniques for maintaining safe learning environments. The board holds the following in high regard, and expects the superintendent to assure:
(1) Well-led instructional leaders in each building and the district at large.
(2) Well-staffed support staff in each building and the district at large.
(3) Coordinated support agreements with neighboring districts and regional agreements such as with the Puget Sound ESD. I am always reviewing policy, particularly strategic policy that directs either the superintendent or the board itself, for improvement. We have systematically planned for such reviews on an annual basis, so that we are reviewing both performance and the policy language of specific policies each month during our business meetings. Besides reorganizing policies so that the line between strategic and operating policies becomes even more clear, and numbering them to ensure they are well understood, I do not have specific changes in language to recommend at this time.
N/a - I have not sought endorsements.
Establishing a safe place to learn (both emotionally and physically safe) is among our highest priorities. Good instruction is only possible once that environment is created. Modern, well-designed facilities are essential, again to set the stage for learning. Social structures within which students can learn also involve good school leadership at the building level, instructionally well-organized and well-disciplined classrooms set the stage for instructional effectiveness and peer influences (fellow students whoa re supportive of a learning environment). The board's role in all of this is to providing broad policy guidance and systematically monitor district performance in creating and sustaining a healthy learning environment.
We did the best we could. Still, we experienced some loss of achievement due to the state-mandated shutdown and the gradual reopening of the schools. And we have implemented targeted efforts to recover from learning losses for the student body as a whole and for student subgroups experiencing differential learning loss.
In the future, I would push harder for evidence from state and regional health authorities who seemed in the recent pandemic to almost exclusively cite statistics about current health hazards without providing information and advice to decision-makers about the anticipated negative effects of a shutdown. Failure to anticipate and consider predictable downsides of a shutdown enabled simplistic decision-making that proved less-than-prudent over the course of several years.
See above. Parents come to board meetings and express their feedback, often criticizing what they see as falling short, but also praising what they see as exemplary performance in this highly regarded school district. The board listens carefully to such feedback, and after each of the special meetings devoted to connecting with and listening to the community we follow up such meetings by reporting at the next business meeting what we heard in those sessions. We also adjust policy when we determine it necessary in response to feedback. Every time we received criticism we go back and examine our policy guidance and the district's adherence to values expressed in policy, then reinforce such values as necessary. Often the feedback calls for reestablishing a commitment to respect parents and their very challenging role as caregivers and role models for their children; often the district's response is to revisit and reiterate the necessity for respecting the role of parents, the role of teachers, and the role of students in this carefully constructed relationship, and our mutual partnership engaged in bringing about competent and contributing citizens.
As a former recruiter for school districts I am well aware of the many factors in establishing a successful recruitment program.
As a board our preferred strategies are to contribute to the performance of the school district, so that our reputation is one of a sought-after place to work on behalf of students. This is our strongest connection with recruitment.
We have clearly defined our role and that of the superintendent, and have delegated recruitment decision to the superintendent. We do this intentionally, and reinforce that delegated authority when we hold the superintendent accountable for success, not only for the success of the district's recruitment efforts, but ultimately for the subsequent success of the district when we recruit and retain high quality faculty, staff, and administrators. Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Maloney completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
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