Why are you running for school board?
To continue the strong traditions of excellence and help raise achievement for all students, educators and families by raising expectations for all.
How will you use your experiences and background to approach your role as a member of the school board?
As an experienced educator, school reform facilitator, and teaching coach, I have learned that cognitive, emotional, and social development is a complex process that requires sound information, patience and persistence. And we all must listen to one another throughout that process to make sure every student continues to have the opportunity to learn and grow.
Which do you believe is more important for achieving higher academic achievement: greater funding or better reforms? Briefly explain.
Better and smarter funding can put more educators in classrooms with fewer students to provide the kind of differentiated and, when needed, individually tailored instruction that each student deserves. Reform efforts can be effective, but only when all parties – leadership, educators, families, and students – engage long enough and consistently enough to reach their clearly articulated goals.
Name 1 or 2 changes or policies you will support that will raise the academic achievement of all students in your district.
Fewer standardized tests; too much instructional time is taken for those assessments. Understand that assessing who is learning what, several times each lesson, is an essential part of masterful teaching; but that should be primarily how we measure student growth. Too often, students don’t take standardized tests seriously enough to give a true measure of what they have learned. And reporting a school’s, district’s, or state’s average scores gives misleading information, especially in cases where families choose not to have their children participate and their “scores” become zeros. We must trust our trained educators to assess and report progress.
What changes should be made at schools to make the classroom a more effective environment for maximizing learning and instruction (teaching)?
Minimizing cell phone activity during school hours and having all educators and families support that would go a long way to improving students’ focus on why they come to school. Creating engaging, active learning experiences for all students can bring them from just being present to being agents in their learning. Engaged students don’t disrupt learning. Those who do disrupt too often carry issues into school from outside. Using “time-out” spaces and professional staff members to deal with those moments in another room can minimize lost instructional time.
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?
Regular one-on-one contact with families from teachers, administrators, and board members to both celebrate the positives and discover how to improve on the negatives goes a long way to sustaining a strong learning network. The board must continue to encourage that practice of continual outreach to families and community leaders.
Recent federal executive orders for K-12 schools prohibit schools from promoting gender and radical ideologies. Another order prohibits boys from girls' sports and restrooms. Schools that don't comply could risk federal funds.
How do you believe the school board should respond to these orders?
Those decisions about curriculum and gender policies are best left to state and local governments, unless, of course, it involves basic civil rights issues. We still have much to learn about gender identity and have to carefully adopt humane and inclusive policies along the way; but the current furor over that issue is overblown and ill informed. Also, what some call “radical” ideologies are just what is outside their own views of history and beliefs about human nature. We can never legislate our beliefs on others.
More information
Frank has also answered surveys from ACLU. See his responses here.