KINGMAN, Ariz. – John Venenga, also known as Mr. V, is in the run for the KUSD School Board. He said he was running because of his vast experience working in District 20 schools and because he wants to give back to the district who had so much faith in him.
“They put their faith in me as I was allowed to work as principal, athletic director, teacher and coach,” Venenga said. “Being on the school board will allow me to pay the district back for the trust they had in me and to stay involved with the district.”
According to Niche, an organization that gathers data and ranks K-12 schools, Kingman schools rank in the bottom half of the state as well as the country. the Standard asked what will he do to improve that?
“As a member of the school board we need to make sure our teachers have the best resources available,” Venenga said. “We need to make sure we actually look at the new material and textbooks that we are asked to approve for usage in the classrooms.”
“I am also willing to help recruit qualified I ed teachers and talk with our current teachers to get them too and have them stay with KUSD District 20.”
Also according to Niche, KUSD students score below grade level in reading and math. What will he do to remedy that?
Mr. Venenga replied, “This goes back to what I said before about having the best programs and materials and talk to teachers and see what they need to help them raise the scores.”
He said teachers are the experts in knowing what they need; all the board has to do is figure out how to make it happen.
Could test scores be the reason, according to Niche, that Kingman High School is the most unfunded school in the district. How can that be remedied?
Mr. Venenga said it’s hard to remedy funding shortages when that funding is coming from outside sources.
“However, as a board, we need to sit down with the finance people from the district and look at how the money is spent. We need to make sure the money is being spent wisely.”
He added, “My experience tells me that they’re doing everything they can at this time.”
The Arizona Auditor General reported that KUSD has faced non-compliance penalties from the Arizona Board of Education for failure to meet state financial reporting standards. How will Mr. V help?
Mr. Venenga said the board has made huge improvements in that area.
“The current finance director has worked extremely hard to make corrections to past problems and making sure that KUSD is doing things the right way,” he commented.
The Standard asked if micro schools affected public schools?
“Yes. They hurt public schools in a number of ways,” Mr. Venenga said. “One way is they are taking students away from public schools which takes money from the district and affects the budget. They also take qualified teachers which are hard to replace and forcing the district to use long-term substitutes which may not be qualified to teach the subjects or grade levels they’re teaching. They also take older athletes which affects the level of sports that can be offered.”
He said he hopes to be elected to the school board because of his vast experience in District 20 and because he wants to give back to the district who has had such great faith in him in times past.
Connie “Ceejay” Jones
