Richfield School Board Candidate Woody Duvlea: 'I Think All Organized Educators Are Failing'

Editor's Note: , Patch will be interviewing candidates before the Nov. 8, 2011 election.

Woody Duvlea, 80, has lived in Richfield for approximately 50 years and is a semi-retired real estate appraiser. A former officer in the Air Force, he formerly worked for HUD in the Twin Cities. His son graduated from in the 1980s. His grandson went to public schools in Richfield at one time as well.

Richfield Patch: Why did you decide to run for the Richfield School Board?

Woody Duvlea: I had been interested in local politics for 12 years. The biggest reason is what everyone else has, and that involved the education of children. I think all organized educators are failing. As a consequence they’re taking money and not spending it wisely in my opinion.

Basically I don’t think that our leadership is doing an adequate job, and unfortunately of the 15 candidates, two of them are already running for re-election ... essentially they are in the system, and I think they’re so close to it, they really have become indoctrinated in the process, and really can’t see what they’re doing from the outside in.

Richfield Patch: Do you think the Richfield School Board needs to go in a different direction then?

Duvlea: I’m not up on the precise issues. However, the general issue is that they’re taking in monies and that has never stopped because of the system. That’s part of the way the system and government overall works—it's built on a budget system where everything they look for is predicated on the previous year's budget. They’re never in the position to reduce what they asked the taxpayers for, so it’s bound to go up.

And they have what are valid reasons, but here again they’ve been in the system so much they’ve been corrupted from the outside in. It’s like sitting in a car with fogged up windows.

Richfield Patch: Are you against passage of that will be put before voters in November, which calls for an additional tax levy to fund public schools in Richfield?

Duvlea: I’m against the levy as it’s structured and as they’re asking [for it]. If a levy is in fact a good requirement—if they have a need for it--they should be able to explain it better, and should be able to do it in a shorter period of time and with defined goals.

Richfield Patch: What would you like voters to know about you? What do you think makes you qualified above other candidates?

Duvlea: My qualifications are really a question of, "Who am I representing?" And that’s primarily the children’s educations and the taxpayers, and not necessarily the process itself.

If you look at whoever has been put on a school board, you can ask that and there are no other questions than spending and choosing wisely. There’s usually no conflict when you’re trying to make the decision between a right and a wrong answer. The problem comes in [with the question], do you have a person who can come in and analyze between two right answers and come up with the best one?

Richfield Patch: What do you anticipate will be the primary issues facing the Richfield School Board during your potential term?

Duvlea:  It will always be how to spend not-enough money. It seems to be always the issue. It’s not the children and the educational process ... the issue is money and how it’s spent. Do we need a new football field?

It’s not a question of picking the best of two rights. I’m not necessarily saying anything they’ve done is wrong, I’m just saying they could have done it much better.