Each Thursday, we put one of our local newsmakers On The Spot. This week: Auburn school board president Charles Cator

This week's question: What lessons from the past year as vice president will you apply now that you're president?

I believe Auburn isn't much different than other small cities across the country; we all want our children to have the best education at an acceptable cost. What does that mean, exactly, and how do we accomplish this?

I've seen how spiraling costs for health insurance, and now energy, have impacted our district's spending. In response, the district established a repair/ replace schedule for our vehicles and equipment, to control spending with a routine upkeep schedule. When scheduled for replacement, we install window units that will save energy and toilets that conserve water.

Lighting and temperature controls automatically switch to energy-saver mode when there is no activity in a room. To help manage rising health insurance costs, the district now self-insures, which also helps in planning. As chair of the Audit Committee, I know all of our systems, from personnel records to inventory management, to club funds, are scrutinized. It is true that many of our expenses are dictated by the state and federal mandates, but that doesn't mean we can't exercise good judgment and make good choices in every place possible.

The lesson here? An acceptable cost is the level of spending below which we begin to compromise our ability to provide equitable quality education for our children.

What about the students? After all, we are in the business of education. I work in business and I learned very quickly as vice president that the business model to improve outcome or increase production doesn't always work in education. We work with the students we have the privilege to educate. This includes students with a wide variety of gifts and challenges, and we owe every one of them a good education.

Looking ahead, knowing now what has transpired over the past year, I plan to get back to some of the things that used to happen in our district, such as community forums. I am reminded of a senior executive who has said, “a plan without an execution is a daydream; an execution without a plan is a nightmare.” The plan will be to listen for “the pulse of the community”; the execution will be accomplished through more community involvement. And as long as we share the common mission of educating our children, I will always listen.

If you have an On The Spot question, call news editor Mike Dowd at 253-5311 ext. 234 or

e-mail michael.dowd@lee.net