{"id":5470,"date":"2011-11-01T16:07:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T20:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=5470"},"modified":"2011-11-01T16:07:03","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T20:07:03","slug":"dupuis-seeks-to-be-calming-influence-on-school-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=5470","title":{"rendered":"DuPuis seeks to be calming influence on school board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Region A candidate says he wants to continue Sweeney’s legacy<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Victor DuPuis, candidate, Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tone and method make a difference \u2014 and being more interested in proving one’s self right rather than listening to others could be the wrong approach in these difficult times, says one candidate for school board.<\/p>\n

If elected to the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education, Victor DuPuis said he hoped to follow the example of Dr. Corrine Sweeney \u2014 the long-time board member retiring after 18 years on the board \u2014 in conducting himself: thoughtful, level-headed and someone who listens to the broad population of the school district.<\/p>\n

DuPuis, of East Marlborough is seeking a Region A (East Marlborough, West Marlborough) seat on the board for the second straight election cycle, losing a bid in 2009. In May, 2011, he came within six votes of sweeping the Democratic and Republican nominations for the seat over Rob MacPherson. MacPherson did win the GOP nod (his profile will run later this week).<\/p>\n

After a number of divisive issues have split the community, whether it be over the high school renovation, the teachers\u2019 contract or discussions about reworking the districts\u2019 four elementary schools, DuPuis said he thinks the district needs a calm voice, someone who will listen to the various constituencies and understand that there are any number of folks that still aren\u2019t happy with the school district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is still some latent anger about the school renovation project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite a year or more of controversy \u2014 and some in the community would argue a number of years, dating to before the high school renovation project \u2014 DuPuis said he thinks the current board has made progress on a number of fronts, specifically citing communication, internally, and to some extent, externally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re listening to each other better,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s also been a more ample opportunity for public comment. For all of the anxiety with some of these big issues, at least there has been a willingness to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

DuPuis also makes it clear that he thinks Dr. John Sanville is an excellent choice to replace the retiring Sharon Parker as Superintendent of Schools.<\/p>\n

He says he doesn\u2019t feel that he\u2019d bring a sea-change to the district if elected, but would want to continue the steady approach shown by Sweeney.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrine has never insisted on being right,\u201d DuPuis said. \u201cShe worked hard on being effective as a board member.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, he acknowledges that the district will continue to face major challenges \u2014 that issues such as the next teachers\u2019 contract, looking at reconfiguration of the elementary schools, revenue drops and other issues that have plagued the board for the last couple of years will continue. In addition, he notes that a combination of overcrowding and building age means that Patton Middle School will have to be addressed at some point in the near future. And there will likely be some controversy over the idea of allowing sponsorships and\/or naming rights for school district facilities to increase revenue.<\/p>\n

And of course: taxes.<\/p>\n

DuPuis makes an interesting argument about school taxes: he suggests that one could argue they\u2019re actually down \u2014 at least for some members of the community.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s clearly the case for those who have had their property reassessed \u2014 typically those property owners have seen their taxes drop by about 10%. Between those reassessments and drops in the transfer tax \u2014 a tax paid when a property changes hands \u2014 the district cut spending. So while those who have not sought a property tax reassessment are paying more, those who have are paying less. By his example, a homeowner who got a 10% reduction in assessment (the typical figure seen in Chester County) and then saw a 2% increase in millage would still only be paying 91.8% of their previous tax rate, DuPuis notes.<\/p>\n

He also thinks that another problem this and other districts are working through may begin to resolve itself in the coming years: because districts such as Unionville needed to staff up rapidly in the 70s and 80s, as the area rapidly grew, a large number of teachers were hired at that time and many of those same teachers are now approaching retirement.<\/p>\n

DuPuis said he thinks that as much as 30% to 40% of the teaching staff will retire in the next few years, potentially dropping payroll and benefit costs for the first time in memory, as highly paid experienced teachers are replaced with younger, less expensive teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that will give us less pressure on the revenue side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And he made it clear he supports the idea of finding additional outside revenue from naming rights and carefully-vetted public\/private partnerships.<\/p>\n

DuPuis has lived in Unionville since 1990. His wife Faith is a Unionville High School graduate, as are three of his four children. A fourth currently attends Unionville High School. DuPuis has been active in coaching various sports groups, working music and performance groups. He owns a financial planning business, which is currently in the process of relocating to Unionville.<\/p>\n

EDITORS NOTE:<\/strong> This is the second in a series of profiles of the Board of Education candidates. Next up: Kathleen Meehan Do.<\/em><\/p>\n

Previously run profiles:<\/p>\n

Region C<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sharon Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Region A candidate says he wants to continue Sweeney’s legacy By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com Tone and method make a difference \u2014 and being more interested in proving one’s self right rather than listening to others could be the wrong approach in these difficult times, says one candidate for school board. If elected to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[182,44,24],"class_list":["post-5470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-election-2011","tag-school-board","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}