I was asked in a comment on another post to weigh in on the Christina School District’s School Board elections tomorrow. I said my response deserved its own post; so here we go. I’ve been following the candidates over the last several weeks reading what they’ve been putting out on social media, listening to the feedback from people who attended the candidate forums. Tonight I attended the final candidate forum in person to hear the candidates first hand and I walked out feeling the same way I felt walking in.
Margaret Mason, a retired teacher and administrator from the District is running unopposed to fill the seat that will be vacated by the retiring Dave Resler.
Desiree Brady, former instructional para, current employee at the Boys & Girls Club on Rt. 40.
Elizabeth Paige, running for re-election, parent of 3 children in the district.
Candidate forums, in my mind, serve one purpose; to tell those in attendance what they want to hear. In chronological order, this is what I heard tonight:
- The district needs to be more transparent with its finances. (Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up)
- We need to hire a superintendent that wants to be in and stay in the District for a long term.
- We need changes to our educational programs: expand gifted & talented to the arts; bring back vocational programs the District was once known for, expand early childhood education, “fix” class sizes.
- Implement a K-8 and/or 6-12 model in some of our buildings.
- Fix climate & discipline
- The Route 40 corridor was overwhelmingly against the referendum because of trust issues
- Wilson Elementary should be a K-8 magnet school (?!)
- Parents choose not to engage and attend District functions
- District does not push enough info out
- The group of parents who are consistently involved with the district need to have their echo chamber broken up.
Points I feel merit some elaboration:
The district needs to be more transparent with its finances. This shit is so old and tired. (sorry for the language). I knew that would come up tonight and I knew that would be the response, so I submitted a follow up question: What would/should that transparency look like? The responses given went something like this: The district needs to be more transparent. CBOC meeting dates, times, locations should rotate. Budgets and financial reports should be open for anyone to examine.
The problem isn’t transparency. The problem is comprehension of public school finances. It isn’t a subject that everyone will understand (no matter how much it should be). It’s not for everyone, but those it is for know what they’re doing. Listen to them.
Route 40 corridor voted against the referendum because we don’t trust the district. Bull. If the 40 corridor didn’t trust the district, the schools in the area wouldn’t be bursting at the seams. All 3 candidates indicated a trust issue as the impetus of no votes. I tried to keep a poker face listening to those responses. Trust is on the list of issues, sure. I’m not sure it cracks the top 10 though. Any number of more informed responses in my mind would have been: Impoverished families voting to raise their own taxes or keep their bills paid. Impoverished families voting to raise their own taxes or put food on the table. Families trying to vote in the middle of the workday. Single parent families getting to the polls sometime between leaving work, picking the kids up from daycare, feeding them, doing homework, and other household daily things -or- dropping the kids off at daycare, going into work a mid-day shift, picking them up from daycare, feeding them, doing homework.. Transient children and families with no ability to get to the polls. You get the idea. It may be a choice, but it isn’t necessarily one the parent(s) get to make for themselves.
And the one theme I kept hearing more than anything; the need to move the district forward immediately followed by lamentation of past mistakes in the District. Which is pretty much what I hear at every Board meeting.
Now, on the positive: recognition that college isn’t the future of every student. CSD used to have awesome VoTech programs that fell by the wayside over the years. There was unanimous sentiment they should be brought back. Arts need to be a major factor in educational programming in CSD’s future. Mental health professionals should be fully funded in our schools. We need additional early childhood programs, especially on the 40 corridor. I support everything in this paragraph including the part where no one talked about how we afford all that.
This probably doesn’t sound like a resounding endorsement and that is because it isn’t. I walked out of the forum feeling exactly the same as I did walking in: underwhelmed.
Desiree Brady would make a fantastic candidate and Board Member if she had about 6 more months to get a handle on the District and our schools. I have tremendous respect for the work she does with the Boys and Girls Club and I think she has a great perspective on the impacts and effects of poverty on families, education, and overall well-being and I think that would be a refreshing viewpoint on our Board.
Margaret Mason, I heard a little too much of the Joey Wise era in some of the things she spoke about (understandable since she was in the District during that time). Not something I want to hear while being told the District should move forward, though. On the upside- she has great knowledge of education and the Christina Community.
Elizabeth Paige also knows the District well and isn’t afraid to say things that get attention; whether they should be said or not. She stands by her convictions even if they aren’t popular.
Mason is running unopposed; so in the only election that’s actually a contest, who would I endorse? No one. And that’s a pretty awful feeling. I just did not hear the spark I wanted to hear from any of the candidates. I heard plenty of grand ideas but little detail on strategy and implementation. I realize there are seven members on the Board and one member can’t make everything happen but I just didn’t get hooked by anything that was said tonight. Maybe I’m being too critical and not optimistic enough. I like to be proven wrong.
No matter the outcome tomorrow, I’m hopeful the Board can turn a corner and start leading the District. No matter how you plan to vote just make sure you get out there and do so tomorrow.
Semi-unrelated: the talk about limiting school board terms to 3 years? Pointless. You’ll take a year to navigate the learning curve of a school board, a year to actually do something, and then you’re running for re-election. Term limit to two 5 year terms if we must set a limit, fix the absurd school election system, then see if you need to shorten terms further.