Challengers:
Sean Brian Connally, Nichelle DeWitt, Richard A. Forsten, Elena Brenner, Britney Mumford
Website: heckforappo.com
Why do you want to serve on the school board, and what qualifications do you bring to the role?
I have served my country, state, and community for over 40 years as a member of our armed forces for over 34, a board member of the largest credit union (Dover Federal) in Delaware for 7 years, and currently as a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor at Glasgow High School. These positions over the years have given me the insight and tools essential to provide service to the voters, parents, students, administration, and staff a more financially stable and successful learning environment for Appoquinimink.
What specific changes would you want to bring to how the school board currently operates?
The board has absolutely have to become more transparent. The audit describing the failure of the board acknowledging the $5,000,000 dollar shortfall/misappropriations is something that should have been made public much sooner as a lot of the other metrics utilized to describe the health of a district. School Board meetings consist of an “Executive Session” that lasts for hours behind closed doors with the board, while the actual meetings for the public consist primarily of student awards and recognition. Involving stakeholders on important district issuesin the early stages to find solutions is paramount.
What specific action is required to address student achievement gaps and support underserved populations (students with disabilities, English language learners, and those from low-income families)?
First and foremost identifying issues early is the best defense. If you identify students with these issues affecting learning outcomes you can put the right resources with the correct population group. Examples are identify multilanguage learners early to get them into the program to pass the WIDA ACCESS program, establish early MTSS programs for students that are having difficulty in attaining success in academic programs, and establishing IEPs for students needing additional support and resources. The programs are not new and are already budgeted for, but early identification of need is key to successful outcomes.
What specific changes should be made at schools to make the classroom a safer and more effective environment for maximizing learning and instruction (teaching)?
The school board approved large expenditures for additional safety measures particularly for sporting venues. The majority of the problems with classroom safety and teaching effectiveness however is student behavior. Inappropriate student behavior is increasing at a frightening rate. Changing inappropriate student behavior, must be swift and consequential. If a students behavior doesn’t change the parent should have to be forced to be involved. Once parents are forced to be involved in their child’s behavior in school that is when you see the most change in a student’s behavior.
Many educators say that not all parents are engaged enough with their children's education. How can the school board create policies that help forge a closer relationship and involvement among parents, their children and educators?
Christina School district has school engagement nights. It’s not about parent/teacher conferences but about participating in fun events where students, parents, and teachers come together in activities. Of course conversations take place about student achievement and behaviors that are well worthwhile while not under the umbrella of a formal “let’s talk about your kid” format. Engagement rates are much higher, and you capture a larger percentage of the population you really need to communicate with.
How do you plan to address chronic absenteeism and student retention, especially in early grades and high school?
Chronic absenteeism is an increasingly alarming statistic. There are procedures in place that the district must really to push to alleviate the problem. Increased and quicker responses to the beginning of an absentee to problem, to more aggressive truancy actions to force parent compliance with their students attendance.
School districts oversee multi-million dollar budgets, supported by taxpayers. What steps will you propose to ensure that the money is being spent wisely and efficiently on student instruction?
Obviously, the Appoquinimink School District has the most recent referendums in Delaware in conjunction with the 10% increase on top of our latest referendum. The school board is constantly asking for more, and the loses misappropriates $5 million dollars. All residents in the district to include elderly that live on social security or residents with limited incomes are being pushed to the limits on the constant pressures of more, more, more. The lack of transparency and trust in the board needs to be rectified. A starting point is initiate correcting a lot of the deficiencies identified in the auditor’s report.
What is your stance on standardized testing, and how would you ensure that assessments support student learning rather than drive instruction (“teach to the test”)?
Standardized testing is the best metric in identifying educational outcomes. Reading, writing, and math are extremely difficult to teach to test. In other words the ability to read, write, and do math problems is the ability to see if the child can read, write, and do arithmetic. If a standardized test says were only going to teach subtraction, then you could teach to the test. While true that students learn at various speeds with differing methods the outcomes should lead to equal success on standardized tests. If standardized tests were inefficient they would no longer be utilized to measure outcomes.
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