Newly Elected officials

Newly Elected officials

Written by Staff Friday, 20 June 2008

Lowell Moore, City Council Place 4

Profession: Retired

Living in Cedar Park: 15 years

Former positions: President of 4A board, city council two terms

Contact Info: place4@cedarparktx.us

Family: Wife, four children, seven grandchildren

Cedar Park city council

Q. What prompted you to run for city council a second time?

A. When I served on the council prior, there were a lot of big things happening in the city. [Now] the city is nearing its build out; we have the event center, the water park and a lot of commercial development. I wanted to play a role and be a part of that process.

Q. How has your time away from city council benefited you?

A. It has given me the opportunity to view the city from a number of ways. I viewed it as a member of the city council, I viewed it as a private citizen and I’ve viewed it as president of the 4A board. Being back on council now, I come to it with perspective that is freshened because of those experiences.

Q. How does your previous experience as council member and 4A board president benefit you?

A. It’s a lot like a job. The longer you work and the more experience you have, the more you know about how to do it and get things done. It does give you a different perspective on things and an appreciation for the level of effort it takes to build a city.

Q. What do you feel is the most pressing issue the city faces?

A. Our growth and how we manage that growth. We have a lot of good commercial enterprises coming in now, and they help the tax base to keep the burden from being on homeowners, and we need to make sure we’re shifting the focus of our taxes away from the homeowners so that taxes here remain reasonable and perhaps one day can be lowered.

Q. What are your feelings toward the event center?

A. I’m a real proponent. To be honest, when I started on the 4A board and the project came up, I was very skeptical about it. The more I became involved with it and the more I visited with other cities that had similar event centers and saw the successes they had and how it added to the quality of human life, I became a proponent.

Q. Are there projects in the area that you have your eye on?

A. I want to see the event center up and running. I want to see the recreation center up and running. I’d like to see us reconsider the city hall as a project. I think we need to continue to work on infrastructure: roads and water and sewer systems. Clearly we need to continue to work on our commercial tax base and retail base to provide more shopping and dining opportunities in the city.

Q. How do you envision Cedar Park in two years when your term is up?

A. In two years we should have the event center and the recreation center up and running. We will have more commercial growth, more retail growth and the city will start its maturation state. In terms of infancy to adulthood in the city, we are probably somewhere around two thirds of the way there. And so we’re going to see a lot of those things come to be during that two-year term. And if they don’t come to be, you’ll see a lot of the plans get established.

Q. What is your favorite place to eat in Cedar Park?

A. I’d have to give you a list because there are several places. I like CR Surf and Turf, Willy O’s, Rudino’s, Los Reyes, Moonie’s. There are many others, I don’t want to exclude anybody from that list because there are several good places to eat here in town.

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Leander ISD school board

Will Streit, LISD School Board Place 7

Profession: Product manager at IBM

Living in community: Four years

Contact info: willstreit@yahoo.com

Education: Bachelor’s degree from UC-San Diego; master’s from Duke University

Q. What made you consider running for the school board?

A. I have a background in education, so education has always been near and dear to my heart. Now I have children who are getting up into school age, and I have a job with flexible time. From a timing standpoint, it was a good time to take my background in education and focus it on this district.

Q. What skills do you have that qualify you to be on the board?

A. My background in education, particularly having spent time teaching, I think is an important skill. I also think my background in urban planning and financial management will help the board augment their current skills in some key areas.

Q. What do you think is the district’s biggest challenge?

A. Our biggest challenge is probably our biggest opportunity as well, which is increasing academic excellence at a time when we are also growing at an extraordinary rate.

Q. How do you propose to improve student performance?

A. [By] working with the administration on looking at our curriculum and continuing to promote advanced curriculums at each level. Not just at the top 5 or 10 percent, but the curriculum at each student level and providing more opportunities for advancement for students.

Q. How do you propose that the district promote a college-going culture?

A. There are a few ways. One is continuing to increase ties with colleges and providing students with more access to colleges when they are in high school and middle school. Our work with Austin Community College is good, and Concordia will be another great opportunity. Another way is the rigor of the classes that we are offering. I think more rigorous classes in high school prepare you to do well when you are actually in college. A lot of it is obviously one, academic, and two, cultural. How do you get students knowing that they want to go and be prepared for when they get there?

Q. How do extracurricular activities fit into the academic schedule?

A. I think extracurricular activities are extremely important for students to provide them learning experiences outside of what we normally think of in the classroom. Certainly it is a challenge for students to balance extracurricular activities with academics, but I think as a district it is important that we support that and provide avenues that students can fit it all in.

Q. How do you plan to capitalize on the growth of the district?

A. In a much smaller district, you may only be able to offer Spanish, German, French and Latin. As we grow and have a critical mass of students in the area, we should be able to provide new opportunities. You might not be able to have that opportunity at every school, so having that at some schools as you grow is good. It’s the same notion of getting a critical mass where you can offer specialized programs like language, automotive, athletics and the IB program. You can take advanced curriculum like that and spread the cost over more students, which allows you to have more specialized programs.

Q. What have you been reading lately?

A. Lately I’ve been reading a lot about education. Thankfully people with the board have been providing me with books just to stay current in education. And then I tend to be reading a lot of children’s books.