Introducing Rob Hardy, Candidate for Northfield School Board

According to Minnesota statute, the role of a school board is to “superintend and manage” the school district (123B.09, subd. 8). This is a role with which I am already well familiar, and in which I have already had considerable success.

From 2008 to 2011, I served on the founding board of directors of the Cannon River STEM School (CRSS), a K-8 charter school in Faribault. As chair of the board, I wrote or revised nearly all of the school’s policies, and worked closely and effectively with the school administration, its financial services provider, auditors, and authorizers, as well as with representatives of the Minnesota Department of Education and fellow board members. I helped to hire and subsequently evaluate the school's executive director, and to hire all of the teachers who staffed the school in its first year.

As chair of the CRSS board, I wrote the school’s fund balance policy to conform with the latest GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) guidelines. During my tenure on the board, the school ended each fiscal year with a strong positive fund balance, despite substantial state hold backs. In my first year as chair (the school’s second year in operation), CRSS was awarded a School Finance Award from the Minnesota Department of Education.

When I joined the CRSS board, the school existed only on paper. When my term ended, it was a thriving and innovative K-8 school—financially stable and meeting or exceeding state academic standards.

Now I’m eager to bring my experience to the school board of the Northfield Public Schools. I will bring to the position the same fiscal responsibility, the same attention to detail, and the same spirit of collegiality that I brought to CRSS.  As a member of the Northfield school board I will:

• cast my vote for decisions that are both fiscally responsible and educationally sound;
• support the integration of new technologies and other innovations in the schools, provided that the benefits are assessed and reported to all stakeholders, and that further decisions are made on the basis of such assessments;
• work to foster a school community and culture that integrates and supports all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, socioeconomic background, or sexual preference, in the belief that that our public schools are intended to provide equal educational opportunity for all students;
• stand always for excellence, accountability, fairness, and civility.

Mindful of the limits of a school board member’s governance role, I will always be available to hear the concerns of parents, students, and local taxpayers, whose interests I will always serve within the statutory limits of my power. This is a roundabout way of saying that I know I cannot work miracles, but I will always work diligently and accountably for the constituents whose interests I have the honor to serve.

If I should happen to lose this election, I will wish the winners well, and find other opportunities to serve, as I have always done in the past.

In my years in Northfield, I have also served on the Northfield Public Schools’ District Educational Program Advisory Committee (DEPAC), as chair of the Prairie Creek Community School charter reauthorization review committee, as chair of Northfield Citizens Online/Northfield.org, and as secretary of the Northfield Public Library Board.

In over twenty years as an educator, I’ve taught in the Northfield, Minneapolis, and Edina Public Schools; I’ve taught at Gustavus Adolphus College, University of St. Thomas, and Carleton College; I’ve taught homeschoolers (in Edina, St. Paul, and Apple Valley); I’ve volunteered at Arcadia Charter School (formerly ARTech), Prairie Creek Community School, and in the Northfield Public Schools; and I’ve taught in the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium.

I also spent eight years as a stay-at-home father.

My wife and I moved to Northfield in 1990. Our two sons were born here, attended school here since kindergarten, and are both recent graduates of Northfield High School (2010 and 2012).  My older son spent a year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Thailand, and then returned to Northfield to attend St. Olaf College. He told me, "I'm pretty sure Northfield is the best place in the world." I agree. My poetry is stamped into the sidewalk in Bridge Square. My heart is here.  I am proud and privileged to be a member of this community, and I hope to have the opportunity to serve it as a member of the Northfield school board.

See also:

• (ARTech);
• ;
• my 2010 Northfield.org story about charter school funding;
• my 2005 essay about how I failed as a middle school Latin teacher in Edina, about which teacher and nationally-known education reform advocate Susan Ohanian said, "This message is so on-target and so well expressed that I have goose bumps. Thank you, Rob Hardy."