THE ISSUES

Some of our newer schools have had updates to them while schools that are much older have not received the same attention and care over time.  We are starting to see some progress but when decisions are being made paying attention to the ages of our school buildings needs to be taken into account.  We also need to ensure that we are doing our due diligence in having scheduled maintenances on facility needs so that when something needs to be taken care of it's not at the urgency level every single time.  Often we have staff and students going without heat in the colder months and A/C in the warmer months at various school sites.  This makes it difficult to learn and teach. 

All students and staff deserve to feel safe on our campuses.  It is crucial that our schools are working together with our first responders, community partners and families to accomplish this.  I fully support and will advocate for our School Resource Officers.  I want to ensure that we continue to have them on our campuses.  Yes, SRO's are there to help support our admin but also to build positive relationships with our students so that they are not only seeing students when there is a situation.  I would like to take a look at our safety plans to see what we can do to better address ongoing issues of bullying, drugs and violence against staff.  I will also advocate for continued training for our campus monitors and our yard duty staff.  

We have such a diverse student population and they all have different needs when it comes to support. Let’s ensure that while we are continuing to work on putting extra support in place for our students that we are providing extra support for our staff as well. 

We have many schools within one community with above average ratings in regards to academic progress, equity and test scores compared to the majority within the other community having below average ratings within the same three areas.  We must ask ourselves a question.  What can we do to close the gap?  Let's take a look at what our schools with the higher ratings are doing at their sites and then see what could be implemented at the other sites to get those above average ratings across the entire district. 

Parents want what's best for their children.  They should always feel comfortable with voicing their concerns as well as being a part of what takes place both inside and outside of the classroom.  There are so many ways for parents to be involved and to partner with our schools.  Let's make sure to remove barriers that can prevent our families from having more involvement and that parents always know their rights when it comes to their children's education and well-being.