MIKE TUCKER- Bossier School Board District 12

Q. What made you decide to run for BPSB?

A. There were several things that happened in progression that caused me a
lot of discomfort. The main one of those was the protection of the children.
I found out that the company that had stolen all the money had work release
prisoners in their employ and apparently some of all of the SB
administration knew those people were on top of, inside of every school in
the parish on multiple occasions. Through my freedom of information
request I found out that the Air Repair people had been in my daughter’s
middle school at the time that she attended Elm Grove Elementary School,
the Air Repair people including their employees had been in my child’s
middle school, over a 2 year period, they had been in her school 40 times.

Q. Why do you think you’re qualified to serve on the BPSB?

A. I’m qualified to serve because I have been in private business in the
finance end of the automobile business for 20 years, I’m now in the oil and
gas business as a tax researcher. I definitely have some knowledge of the
way contracts work, and contracts are a big part of the School Board with
outside vendors. I’ve always been interested in the legal aspects and
language of contracts. I would be able to look at the documents, be able to
ask questions, and help get decisions made that would save us a lot of
money and put us back into a place where the SB is less reliant on the
federal and state government. Based on the budget that I saw Thursday, we
are not longer going to sit back and just assume that the state and federal
govt are going to provide millions and millions of dollars to the SB. We’re
going to have to find a way to be more self-sufficient. I can do that.

Q. To cushion against cuts in state funding, do you support a tax

increase, cutting spending, or a combination of the two?
A. No, I do not support a tax increase. Yes. I do support cutting spending in
the Bossier Parish School Board.
Q. What is your position on the BPSB’s addition of Graduation Coaches,
Behavior Coaches, Response for Intervention Coaches?
A. I am also totally against the School Board spending all this money for
these graduation coaches, intervention coaches, and all these coaches that,
first of all what school system did they visit which has implemented this
program and found it was effective? Whose idea was it, and how do you
know it’s effective? Second, you’re taking tenured teachers out of the
classroom and giving them the job of the truancy dept, the counselors, and
the school administration. I don’t understand that. We’re getting away from
teaching the students who want to learn and want to make something of
themselves and we’re throwing way too much money at students who don’t
care and the parents don’t care.

Q. What do you believe is the role of a School Board member?

A. The role of a school board member is to insist that our students get the
best possible education no matter if they are special needs students or in the
gifted student program. The board also has a duty to ensure the safety of all
students with no excuses or failures in this area. Drafting and enforcing
policy as well as making sure school board funds are spent properly is a
distant second to my first two points.

Q. What would you do to make the BPSS transfer policy more equitable?
A. The transfer policy can become equitable, it is definitely not at this time,
when a set of guidelines are instituted that will make sure each request is
looked at as equally as the next. Making exceptions for friends & family of
the administration is not going to continue if I am elected to the board.

Q. What are your plans to increase openness and transparency in the

operations of the BPSB?
A. The first thing that I will do is make sure that if parents and grandparents
have an issue that they want to bring before the School Board, they will be
heard. If you are there to praise the Board or praise somebody on the Board,
then you can speak for as long as you wish. But, if you are there to ask
legitimate pertinent questions of the Board about either their rules, their
decisions, or the way they are spending our money, you’ve got three
minutes. So, I believe if I was on the Board, I could allow someone at the
podium that wanted to discuss a serious matter more dialogue than just three
mintues. Also, Bossier City recently closed a walkway that lead from the
subdivision directly to the school, so the children were walking either in the
ditches or along Airline Drive to get to school. The first place that reported
on it was MyBossier.com. I talked with two school board members and they
didn’t know anything about the issue. How is that possible? How open and
transparent is that?

Q. What are the biggest challenges facing the BPSS?

A. One of the biggest challenges is the safety and education of the children.
A big close number two is getting our teachers to the southern regional
average in terms of pay

Q. If elected, what will be your top priority?

A. Let’s go back and look at some of the policies that have compromised
the safety of our students, and the quality of our teachers. Let’s make wise
decisions geared toward saving us a lot of money and put us back into a
place where the School Board is less reliant on the federal and state
government. Based on the budget that I recently saw, we can no longer sit
back and just assume that the state and federal governments are going to
provide millions and millions of dollars to the School Board. We’re going
to have to find a way to be more self-sufficient. I can do that.

Q. Are there areas in the BPSS which you believe could be better served
by privatization?
A. Yes. I know that a few years ago according to Mr. Kostelka they tried to
privatize the busses. I’m not as familiar with exactly how much it would
save, but I do know that they looked into it and supposedly it would have
saved a great deal of money. They were only able to garner three of the SB
member votes. Yes, I think there are some things that can be done.
I also think that with so many employees, I’m not sure that they couldn’t do
some sort of group health insurance program by maybe self-insuring some
areas of the health insurance.

Q. What specific measures can be instituted to provide greater protection

for BP school children?
A. Number one is doing a background check on all of our outside vendors.
We also need to get with the Sheriff and Chief of Police of Bossier and make
sure we don’t have any work release prisoners anywhere near our schools.
I’m going to find out what measures are in place to guard against this
happening, and if I don’t think those measures are substantial, I will lobby to
get them included.
Q. What specific issues would you like to see with regard to the BPSS
budget?
A. At a recent Budget Committee meeting, I was saw some serious
problems with the salaries compared to the number of employees.
The Superintendent’s salary is not far from the salary of the Superintendent
of Houston Schools. This just doesn’t seem right. A lot of people were
upset that they made Machen the Superintendent of Schools. My question is,
how do you take the man who was in charge when a million dollars was
being stolen, give him a promotion and pay him $20,000 more per year?

Q. What is your political party affiliation?

A. I am a conservative Republican. I am also pro-life, pro-God, pro-gun
and pro-family. I wear a life bracelet.

Q. What are your areas of agreement and disagreement with your

political party?
A. One thing that I totally agree with them on is the fact that there has not
been a nuclear power plant in 30 years, and we need that for energy
independence. There may be some minor disagreement with them on some
of their energy policies, but basically I agree with the platform.

Q. What is the primary source of funding for your campaign?

A. So far the primary source has been donations. Depending on whether
there is a runoff, the primary source may become my personal funds.

Q. Would your current job allow you the time to attend SB meetings?
A. Yes.

Q. What is the extent of your knowledge of the LA Open Meetings Law

and the LA Public Records Act?
A. Up until two years ago, it was very limited, but I’ve had to teach myself
what those rules and regulations are. I’ve had to wade through what the SB
told me, that turned out to not be true about those two things. An example is
the SB attorney telling me that I could not put a SB document into the record
of a SB meeting. I asked during one of these public meetings for the
document to put it into the record, and the attorney refused.