Candidates for Anne Arundel County school board

A: The top three budgetary priorities that I believe we should focus on are teacher and staff recruitment and retention, mental health resources, and student safety. We need to have enough teachers, mental health professionals, special education educators, nurses, food service workers, bus drivers, and all other positions that are critical in order to meet the needs of our students. Additionally, all of our students and staff should feel safe within our schools. School systems, including AACPS, should have a budget that prioritizes student outcomes, safety, and the well-being of our students and staff.

A: I think we need to have a look at our approach to discipline to ensure that it is producing the desired result — an end to the negative behavior through proper interventions. I believe that discipline should be restorative in nature. Measures that remove the student from the classroom may be necessary for the immediate safety of our students, however, we still need to consider that suspending a student further puts them behind academically, possibly leading to a cycle of poor behavior and poor academics. Negative behaviors stem from a root cause and care needs to be taken to ensure that student behavior is addressed with concern for the student.

A: I am very interested supporting a Grow Your Own Educator program. Programs like this attract prospective teachers in our own communities through partnerships between school districts, colleges, and community organizations. Besides providing wrap-around services and financial support, it encourages diversity in the workforce that reflects the diversity of the student population. We also need to prioritize making sure that our current staff has the tools they need to be successful. We should leverage all of our resources, including advocating in our county and state government, to ensure that we have affordable housing so that those who work in our community can also afford to live in our community.

A: I trust our educators and librarians to choose a wide range of age-appropriate books that reflect the diversity of our student population. Reading instills a love for learning, develops a creative imagination, challenges our mindset, supports us through tough times, and teaches us about the world around us. We are all unique in what speaks to us and we have the choice to read a book or leave it on the shelf, but we need to maintain diversity in book choices so that we all have access to the books that spark our interest.

A: Redistricting is a challenge. On one hand, we need to meet the growing population in our school district and ensure that we are utilizing our resources well and keeping class sizes manageable. On the other hand, there will always be someone who is disrupted and disappointed by a move to another school. I feel for the students who have to change schools due to redistricting but I am confident that our staff will work to make the transition as smooth as possible for those affected.

A: I value your tax dollars that help fund the education of our children. I believe it is the duty of the stewards of the money invested in our children to spend wisely and to provide a good return. While recognizing that there are many moving parts and important projects and initiatives to fund, I am budget-conscious and fiscally responsible. We all want our children to have access to the best education, which sets them up for greater success in life. This does come at a cost, however, it is money well spent as an investment in the future of our community.

A: I would be a valuable asset to the Board of Education because I feel I can make a difference in our schools and our community. I am thoughtful in listening to concerns, engaging in conversation, and in collaboratively coming up with effective solutions when issues arise. Through countless field trips, scout camp outs, career day, working in the classroom, being a cheerleading parent, helping out with the Chesapeake High School Robotics Team, and in my mentorship positions as an adult leader, I have consistently shown up for our children. I truly believe that they can make the world a better place. I want to support that. I want to be a part of that. Helping our children to rise to challenges, come up with creative solutions and watching them soar would make me so proud. I think we are headed to a better future, led by our children, guided by our teachers, and supported by our parents and community.

A: In order of importance, 1. Academic Excellence. Every dollar should be spent with that goal in mind. 2. Teacher retention. Number one can’t be achieved without exceptional teaching. 3. Technology: We are preparing students for an unknown work force in an ever changing technological landscape. We must prepare them to be flexible in its use and adaptation.

A: My slogan is Back to the DRAWING board. D is for discipline, which is out of control in our system. I see it and hear about it every day. Teachers cannot be effective if they spend a portion of their class dealing with disciplinary issues. The BoE must support the teachers, principals and Superintendent and uphold penalties placed upon the disruptive students. We must work with families and mental health professionals as well, to determine those students acting out for reasons of emotional trauma.

A: During my 36 years with the system, I once developed a public private partnership with a developer and the county government to provide low cost housing for young teachers. That program was denied by AACPS administrators at the time. Housing costs are some of the most named reasons for losing teachers. That program needs to be revived. We also need to find ways to fund salaries. Pie in the sky unfunded mandates from the state are meaningless if we don’t have the teachers. Rather than creating a billion dollars in taxes and fees to implement them, we get back to the basic fundamentals of education and use that money to pay the teachers.

A: I believe content that is age inappropriate should not be in our school libraries. By inappropriate I mean that of a descriptive sexual nature (including those with graphic illustrations involving sexual acts,) above the general comprehension of the students age. I do not support the removal of books because they generally make someone uncomfortable. Sometimes reading should be uncomfortable, but never of a nature of a sexually explicit nature.

A: Having ran the redistricting program for AACPS for 17 years, the number one priority should always be balancing enrollment to bring schools under state-rated capacity.

A: Every new home in this county pays an impact fee that is to go toward the school(s) in the assigned attendance area. Sometimes, those dollars are shifted and they shouldn’t. Though I like the current process of outside vendors rating our schools and ranking them in order of need, to take politics out of the equation, we have a unique issue in our county. We have amazing custodial staff and maintenance workers who keep our schools looking and working well. Occasionally, those efforts can sometimes hide the true exhaustion of a building. The cosmetic appearance masks the outdated usefulness of a school and at those times we must go off the list and change priorities as we know exist.

A: Coming to an end of a 36 year career with AACPS, I have been behind the the security doors and have participated in many facets of our system. I’ve been in the meetings, helped shape our budgets, developed our instructional program. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly and understand better than any other candidate, what changes need to be made to bring AACPS back to Academic Excellence.

A: 1. Improving pay and benefits to teachers and staff in order to retain high-quality educators. Every child deserves an excellent teacher, and we will only keep excellent teachers in the classroom if we support them properly. I have worked to increase teacher & staff compensation throughout my term, one of the many reasons I’ve earned the endorsement of our teachers in this race. 2. Expanding mental health support in schools, hiring additional counselors and psychologists to ensure all kids are supported. I have worked to hire more mental health staff in schools every single year, but there is more to do. 3. Expanding access to full-day Pre-K. Investing in a strong start for our youngest kids will pay off down the road. This is one of our most important priorities in the coming years.

A: The AACPS Student Code of Conduct applies progressive discipline for infractions made with a nexis to school ranging from warnings to extended suspensions. The consequences are dependent on the behavior. Restorative justice practices, which focus on resolving conflict, repairing harm, and healing relationships and support a positive and safe school climate, prevent bullying, and reduce disciplinary incidents are employed throughout the system. While I believe AACPS employs a robust disciplinary system outlined above, students of color and special needs students have disproportionately higher discipline referral rates than their white, general education counterparts. This is unacceptable and one of the myriad reasons why my Board colleagues and I pursued the hiring of Dr. Bedell. Beyond closing the discipline gap, another aspect of the code of conduct that needs work is in middle school. Unlike high school, where behavioral and academic consequences exist that remove privileges such as participating in athletics, music, and drama extracurriculars, the same doesn’t exist in middle school. This is one item I hope to address during a second term.

A: My support for our educators is clear. I fought relentlessly for, and successfully restored, compensation previously frozen during the Great Recession. As of the start of the 23-24 school year, AACPS is now 4th in the state in new teacher compensation (when I joined the Board, we were 19th). Likewise, I successfully advocated for additional planning time for all elementary educators. I’ve always encouraged the school system’s HR department to think outside of the box when it comes to recruitment of new teachers - crucial in Maryland which is a net importer of teachers. AACPS recruited candidates at 70 job recruitment fairs during the 22-23 school year in 11 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the HBCU national virtual job fair, partnering with nearly 30 colleges and universities. As a result, we’ve seen a 13% increase in our applicant pool this year, with the largest class of teachers of color our district has had in years. Finally, I approved several new high school education courses as part of an initiative to “grow our own” future educator workforce. I am proud to be endorsed by The Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County (TAAAC).

A: The lion’s share of the curriculum used in AACPS is actually dictated by MSDE. Beyond that, I wholeheartedly trust our Librarians and Media Specialists, experts in the field, whose job it is to review and approve books in accordance with AACPS policy and regulations to make decisions regarding the age and developmental appropriateness of books and other reading materials available to AACPS students. Without exception, I am entirely against another parent or group of parents’ ability to make decisions regarding what my publicly-educated child and her peers can and cannot read or what her teachers can and cannot teach. Censorship, white-washing curriculum, the omitting of historical facts, and other regressive policies must never find a home within AACPS. Make no mistake, extremists are trying to bring these policies to Anne Arundel County, and I will always stand against them, one of the reasons why I have earned the endorsement of more than two dozen local and state elected officials. The book bans happening in Florida and elsewhere will not happen here. Not on my watch.

A: Phase 1 of 2 of the first AACPS systemwide redistricting in decades concluded November 2023 with implementation fall 2024. The second phase will kick off spring 2025 with voting in November 2025 and implementation fall 2026. The rationale for redistricting is to either balance enrollment (either over or under-utilized schools) or to open a new school facility. The two most important points when considering any redistricting are the data and constituent input. Both of these were highly prevalent during phase 1 of redistricting and will be again with phase 2.

A: As Budget Committee Chair for three years, I worked to transform the budget amendment process, creating transparency and additional oversight of taxpayer money. School construction/renovation is part of the AACOS capital budget and includes funding from the state. The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County has zero say in taxes levied by the state. That would be under the sole purview state government. I will always; however, put forth budgets that ask our funders to properly and fully fund AACPS and meet the needs of our students, teachers, and staff. Furthermore, no school system in Maryland, including AACPS, is a funding authority. AACPS does not have the power to levy taxes or pass bond bills. In Anne Arundel County, The Board passes a budget that then goes first to the County Executive and then to County Council who are the final arbiters of the county’s budget. Providing world-class public education to nearly 85,000 students costs money, and costs will rise as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (state law) is implemented. It will be the job of the Maryland General Assembly to ensure that funding is adequate for AACPS to implement the Blueprint with fidelity.

A: Over the past 5.5 years, I have focused on improving four student outcomes: high-quality teachers, research-based math and curriculum, good leadership, support for mental health, and social-emotional development under the leadership of Dr. Bedell, a nationally-recognized superintendent, whom my colleagues and I unanimously hired. I championed new policies protecting LGTBQIA+ students and students with food allergies and improving our bullying, bias, and special education policies. I added dozens of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers to our schools and lobbied successfully for flex periods in all high schools as well as for JROTC magnet programs with transportation. In a second term, I will fight to ensure that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is implemented with fidelity and will represent the interests of District 5 residents during the second phase of the county-wide redistricting. If we elect my opponent, who has said publicly that she will ban books, that increasing pay is not important to retaining teachers, and who supports sending our tax dollars to private schools, our school district will go backwards. Let’s keep things moving in the right direction and elect me to a second term on The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, representing District 5.