Michael Kocmiersky

Michael Kocmiersky

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Michael Kocmiersky was a candidate for at-large representative on the Springfield Public Schools school board in Massachusetts. Kocmiersky was defeated in the at-large primary election on September 19, 2017.

Kocmiersky participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read his responses.

Elections

2017

See also: Springfield Public Schools, Massachusetts elections (2017)

Six of the seven seats on the Springfield Public Schools School Committee in Massachusetts were up for general election on November 7, 2017. Incumbent Denise M. Hurst and newcomer LaTonia Naylor won election, defeating James Ferrera III and Ryan Hess for the at-large seats. Incumbent Barbara Gresham defeated Stephanie Murchison-Brown for the District 2 seat. Newcomer Maria Perez and incumbent Christopher Collins ran unopposed and won the District 1 and 3 seats, respectively. The District 4 race was won by incumbent Peter Murphy; he defeated challenger Zaida Govan.

A primary election was held for the at-large and District 2 seats on September 19, 2017. Four candidates advanced to the general election from the at-large primary, and two candidates advanced from the District 2 primary. James Anziano, LaMar Cook, Joesiah Gonzalez, and Michael Kocmiersky were defeated in the at-large primary, and Giselle Vizcarrondo was defeated in the District 2 primary.

Results

Springfield Public Schools, At-large Primary Election, 4-year terms, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Denise M. Hurst Incumbent	27.15%	2,538
James Ferrera III	18.09%	1,691
LaTonia Naylor	16.81%	1,571
Ryan Hess	11.35%	1,061
LaMar Cook	8.28%	774
Joesiah Gonzalez	8.26%	772
James Anziano	5.58%	522
Michael Kocmiersky	4.23%	395
Write-in votes	0.26%	24
Total Votes		9,348
Source: Springfield Election Office, "Returns: Sept. 19, 2017 Preliminary Election," September 19, 2017

Funding

See also: Campaign finance in the Springfield Public Schools elections

Kocmiersky reported $1,141.25 in contributions and $871.25 in expenditures to the City of Springfield, which left his campaign with $270.00 on hand for the primary election.

Campaign themes

2017

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Michael Kocmiersky participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 5, 2017:

“

What I will do as a school committee member is reduce the amount of standardized testing to just a single standardized test, either the MCAS or the PARCC, and get rid of the district level testing and the ANet test. We spend too much time, money, and energy on an overwhelmingly abundant amount of testing, that the students don’t like, the parents don’t like, and the teachers don’t like. A good teacher will know what areas our kids need help with if we give them the time to work with our children rather than constantly preparing for the test. The more challenging issue will be to provide more enrichment opportunities for our students. Not just by bringing back shop classes, home economics, civics, foreign language, science, social studies, art, increasing the 15 minute recess time, gym, music, band, etc.; but also by bringing in people from the community to demonstrate a skill or a technology that will wow the students, opening their vision of what’s possible and make them interested and engaged. Engagement by the students, parents, and community is the only way that we will turn our schools into great learning facilities. By presenting more variety of opportunities we engage more students, by bringing in community we engage the community, and by demonstrating our activities with open houses, sports nights, science fairs, robotics displays, craft night, trade night, etc we engage parents. Some of the easier things that can be done in the schools is to demonstrate our values; if we are saying that children should get 60 min of exercise each day, why is recess only 15 minutes? Ensure that our school lunches and Breakfast in the Classroom are healthy foods and not full of sugars. Add climate change science into the curriculum. Increase the recycling in the schools, and eliminate polystyrene from the school lunches.

”

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Massachusetts.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Expanding arts education
2	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
3	Improving post-secondary readiness
4	Closing the achievement gap
5	Improving education for special needs students
6	Improving relations with teachers
7	Expanding school choice options

“	The relevance is not really to prioritize the importance of the above list, but in how you plan on accomplishing all of the above.	”
—Michael Kocmiersky (September 5, 2017)

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.

Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.)
No. In principle I have nothing against Charter Schools that want to try something different to achieve better results. However, the playing field is rigged in that the Charter Schools can run end around of the district rules and teacher contracts, and the state reimbursement mechanism short changes the district. The end result is that the charter school hires less experienced teachers for less money, generally don't offer good programs for special needs students to push these expensive students away, and parents soon realize that the educational offerings are no better than the non charter schools.
Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement.
The state should be involved in the district routinely. the state should monitor the district constantly in its pursuit to provide quality education for all the state's citizens. However, the state should defer to the school board decisions unless there is a proven problem with the school board.
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?
No. It is an accurate measure of student achievement only in the areas that are tested. Our goal is to create grade A citizens, not just math or English specialists.
How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district?
Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students. Offer additional training options. Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district.
Should teachers receive merit pay?
Yes. This is a complicated a issue, that requires negotiation with the teachers union, but in essence I believe those that are better teachers deserve better pay based on merit, just like I would strive for in any other profession.
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program?
No. By giving money to private schools, you will establish a pay to play education system. Those parents that can afford the unmet need of the tuition will send their children to the expensive school with more offerings, while those that can't afford the school will be left behind.
How should expulsion be used in the district?
Expulsion should only be used as a last resort. There will be some instances where expulsion is necessary, due to violence, or excessive repeated infractions that are harming the learning of all other students.
What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration?
Parent involvement. Parent involvement ensures that the belief that education is the pathway for opportunity is installed in the student, and keeps behavioral issues down and engagement up.

Candidate website

Kocmiersky highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:

“	MCAS Testing - At present we are conducting three standardized tests in our schools, the ANET, District Level testing, and MCAS or PARCC. There is too much time, energy, and money spent on an overabundance of standardized test. These tests are a major burden on our teachers, disrupting the autonomy of their lesson planning, and sucking up all of their time. The tests are demoralizing to our students, whereas some of them test on material that the student has not yet been taught. This demoralization manifests itself as disengagement which in turn shows up as behavioral issues. Environmental Leadership - Our students of today will need to be the environmental stewards of tomorrow. We can help them by integrating climate change science, perhaps the most important issue of the day, into the curriculum at all levels. Part of teaching is by demonstrating, and the schools need to do a better job increasing recycling, and eliminating polystyrene from the school lunch program. Enrichment Opportunities - In an attempt to create more engaged students, and more well rounded students I want to bring more enrichment opportunities to all our students. Such programs as shop, home economics, civics, social studies, foreign language, music, art, band, and more. Some schools have some, or all of these offerings at present, but most do not. We are limited by funding, building size, staffing, and other logistical challenges. But what I propose is the creation of both during and after school programming so that all students have the opportunity to participate in nearly any enrichment activity. For instance it would be nearly impossible to put a shop and home economics classroom into every school building. However we could put it in a couple of buildings that would have daytime classes for the students at those buildings, and after school classes for those students coming from other schools. There is similar effort of resource sharing done with some schools combining their sports teams. Engagement - Engagement by the students, parents, and community is the only way in which we will turn our schools into great learning facilities. You as a parent or guardian have the obligation to be involved in your child's academic life, and to support your school. If you are a community member, ask yourself how you can help and get involved with your local school. Check out the Springfield School Volunteers website to see what they need, or offer your own ideas. If you are a business owner, consider hiring a Springfield Public School highschool student for your next intership, or if you have a mentoring program, utilize the community service requirement implemented at some of the high schools. Our graduates will soon be your neighbors, your employer, or your employee, so we all have a vested interest in creating graduates that are good citizens, do your part to help out. Recess - We've all heard so much about the Fuel up to Play 60 campaign and the need for students to get a healthy hour of exercise each day. Why are we cutting recess times to 15 minutes? Some middle school grades get their recess at 3PM when the school day ends at 3:30. This by definition is not a recess, but a shortening of the day. The lack of recess gives the students no opportunity to socialize and blow off steam, leading directly to more academic frustration and behavioral disruption in the classroom. We all have bad days and need to take a break for a while. Charter Schools - The promulgation of Charter Schools has occured because of the failure of the public school system to improve. In an attempt to allow Charter Schools to achieve success, they are allowed to operate outside of the district rules, create their own labor contracts, and get paid by the district who sends children to the school. What ends up happening in general is that the Charter school hires non union teachers at a lower pay and gets younger less experienced teachers. Although the charter schools cannot actively discriminate against special needs children, they often don't offer the same level of programs for special needs student as does the district, thus they get many fewer high cost special needs students. This helps the bottom line of the private company that is the charter school. Most importantly, the district must pay the per pupil cost for any student going to the charter school, however the state only re-reimburses the district a fraction of the cost, thus Springfield had a 39 million dollar loss due to school choice and charter school reimbursements. The real solution is not to allow some schools to bypass the overburdening bureaucracy to make money and provide education on the cheap, but to fix the bureaucracy that makes changing the course of the school district like changing the course of an aircraft carrier. District Funding - The district receives most of its funding from the Chapter 70 formula. This formula sets the minimum school expenditure and dictates how much of the district's funds are supplied from the state versus from the district. This formula has chronically underfunded the Springfield Public Schools because of the increase in healthcare costs for present and pensioned school employees, as well as a basis of 5% of the school children being special needs students. As health care costs outpaced inflation over the years, a higher percentage of the budget has gone to healthcare costs, leaving less for the remainder of the school budget. With regard to the special needs portion of the formula, our district has well above the estimated 5% special needs such that our per pupil costs will be higher than other districts, and we should be compensated fairly for providing those services. Budget Transparency - At present the 366 school budget is very obfuscated in its reporting of the financing. The budget should be front and center on the school district's website, with links to the pertinent line item ledgers. The budget explains where large portions of money, like $29 million in transportation costs, but nowhere is there a link to see where or how that $29 million is being spent. We need greater transparency with the budget. Grants - Our net school budget expenditures is about $466 million dollars, of which $44.4 million comes from private, state, and federal grants. Typically it is expected of the individual school principal to go out and get these grants whereas the school department does not have a staff grant writer. This is too much added burden to an already overworked staff of principals, not all of whom may be good grant writers or aware of grant opportunities. Springfield, as an urban, high need district qualifies for nearly every grant out there. We need to spend money on a grant writer, typically grant writers don't get fully paid unless they bring in the money.	”
—Michael Kocmiersky (2017)

Recent news

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Michael Kocmiersky - Google News

See also

• Springfield Public Schools, Massachusetts
• Springfield Public Schools, Massachusetts elections (2017)

External links

Suggest a link

• Springfield Public Schools
• Campaign website