Meet the West Bloomfield School Board Candidates: John Reed

The Nov. 8 election is drawing closer every day, but what do you know about those names on the ballot?

Patch will interview candidates for the West Bloomfield School District's Board of Education during the ramp-up to the election, bringing you the stories behind the names and the issues they think are important for West Bloomfield schools.

Six candidates are running for two open spots: incumbent Nelson Hersh and challengers Julie Beaty, Karen M. Faett, Carol Finkelstein, CharRhonda Moye and John Reed. The Board of Education oversees and sets school policy, hires and works in partnership with the district superintendent and oversees the district's budget. Board members are elected to six-year terms.

The Oakland County League of Women Voters held a last week at for those running for the West Bloomfield Board of Education. Five of the six candidates for the school board participated in the forum; Finkelstein was absent due to a previous engagement.

To watch the voters forum on demand, visit civiccentertv.com.

Click these links for profiles already published on Patch:

John Reed

Children in district: Two have gone through the district and graduated from , while one is currently attending WBHS and another attends

Qualifications: Master of Special Education degree from Eastern Michigan University; currently works as a teacher at Farmington Hills Harrison High School, where he has worked in special education and coaching for 26 years.

Favorite class in the district: Did not mention a specific class, but described his experience in participating in his children's education in the district as "incredible."

Reed said he believes that having experience in comparing the West Bloomfield School District with other area school districts is a valuable skill to have on the school board. Thanks to his experience as a teacher in Farmington Public Schools for 26 years and as a father of four children in the West Bloomfield district, as well as being the husband of a district parent, Reed hopes to provide those skills he learned in order to "build bridges" with the community and to establish fiscally prudent precedents.

"It's an incredible district, but a core problem that we have is that although it provides so much, it barely gets by," Reed said in reference to the district's fund balance, which went into deficit in 2009. "I'd like to think I represent the typical West Bloomfield resident — someone with kids in the district who responsibly works to get by — with the thought that maybe that person should be represented."

Reed said he used the West Bloomfield Education Association's labor dispute with the school board during the past two years as an opportunity to explore the relationships of the district's finances as well as to get to know the community. He said a key issue facing the district is working with state and federal public education departments to ensure that the district profits from the Schools of Choice program. Also, consolidating schools should be "on the radar" of the board, he said.

"The reality is that if we continue where we’re going, demographically speaking, our enrollment is going to continue to decline," Reed said. "We need to work with who we are and what we have and who we have and look at our numbers according to the students we have enrolled. We have 1,600 empty seats."

Reed said he and his wife, Elizabeth, a first-grade teacher at , frequently compared the financial situation of the two districts in which they work and found Farmington to be "far more conservative" — and they noted that West Bloomfield teachers took a significant pay cut.

Reed was one of two candidates to receive an endorsement from the

"We could be back in that boat during the next teacher contract negotiations, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen," Reed said. "Teachers are almost solely responsible for student performance in the classroom, and as a board, you need to have a great relationship with teachers."

Reed said that in his 37 years as a resident, he had never seen anything like the anger that teachers showed and that he wants to "make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I think people in the entire community felt disrespected by the lack of communication which was apparent, and that's not normal," he said. "We need to get that relationship back."