The Newberg Education Association, the union representing teachers in our district,
sent out an excellent questionnaire to all the candidates. I hope they all answered the questionnaire, and will share their answers publicly.
Here are mine, with some emphases added on this copy. They probably give as good a picture as anything about what I think are the top priorities in our district.
Why are you seeking the position of School Board Director?
The Board's increased diversity of viewpoint is an asset to the district, but only if the Board can find a way to function as a team. I have been the Board member most ready to embrace differences of opinion, and have worked in the meetings and behind the scenes to build trust and promote constructive outcomes.
I supported the equity resolution last summer, and am on the Board's equity committee. I believe we can make strong progress in eliminating barriers and discriminatory practices, possibly with unanimous support of the Board, if we can focus on the goal of giving every child access to the fullest education we can offer, and quit replicating national political polarization and arguing with each other from political tribal stances.
I am always conscious of the different constituencies the Board serves: students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators, taxpayers, the entire community -- and the nation.
I am also the institutional memory for the Board. Bob Woodruff, the second most senior member, has withdrawn from the race. All the top administrators have changed since I joined the Board in 2012.
Describe your personal experience and involvement with the public school within the past five years that qualifies you as a School Board Member.
I've been on the Board since 2012, currently serving as Vice-Chair. I have been on the Policy Committee the entire time. I was on the search committee for both Kim LeBlanc-Esparza (in my first four months on the Board) and Joe Morelock. I am the Board member most likely to ask probing questions without exhibiting hostility toward staff. All four of my children graduated from NHS, the first in 1997, the second in 2002, and the last two in 2020.
What are your top five objectives if elected? What would be your highest educational priorities for the school district?
1. Get the schools back on track after COVID, but in ways that incorporate the best things we've learned during COVID.
2. Promote the development of programs/practices/systems to get kids caught up from what they lost during COVID.
3. Improve our ability to assess student progress reliably and efficiently, so we can set meaningful growth and achievement goals (including closing gaps) and effectively measure our district's performance (and have clearly documented and meaningful improvements we can tout!).
4. By the end of my new term, draw more students to NSD than we are losing to other districts.
5. By the end of my new term, have NSD be known as a district which made impressive headway on eliminating inequities in student experience in a way that reduces political polarization rather than enhances it.
What do you see as the district's current strengths and weaknesses? Please be specific.
Strengths:
1. Our elementary schools continue to perform better than average for the state, at least as far as we can tell pre-COVID.
2. Our administration and staff did an outstanding job of adapting to COVID, equipping kids with the computers and wifi access they needed, creating on the fly an unprecedented mode of delivering instruction. Also, the district did marvelous work continuing to offer nutrition many of our families rely on for their kids.
3. Despite some disagreement over what "collaboration" means, the collaborative approach initiated between Dr. LeBlanc Esparza and the previous association officers has continued with Joe Morelock and the current officers. I especially appreciate this, because it means we can work together and use our disagreements as assets in building a better district.
4. Catalyst (the alternative program for high school students) has improved greatly since 2012.
5. Our finances are better now than they were in 2012-2018.
6. We passed the bond.
7. Graduation rates have improved, both across the board and, at least to some degree, for traditionally underserved groups. (But see below.)
8. COVID created a pathway (Zoom) to much-enhanced community involvement and input in Board meetings. The Board is now much better serving its crucial function as a catalyst for community deliberation about our schools. If we can play this role without alienating a big fraction of the community or stalling in making improvements, this will pay off big time for our district and our children.
Weaknesses:
1. We are flying blind as to whether achievement and growth are improving. Data has always been too inconsistent, and goals have been too vague, and too many voices have been left out of the process of defining and setting goals and metrics. And COVID has knocked a two-year hole in our data.
2. Our kids are not thriving well enough when they transition to middle school, and even worse when transitioning to high school. For too many, gains made in elementary school are not carrying through secondary school.
3. The behavioral issues we had before COVID are unlikely to have been resolved by COVID. Initial improvements we may have been seeing in 2019/20 may not carry over to 2021/22.
4. Our improved graduation rates are not matched by clear data showing improved achievement and growth. And the data we do have for 9th grade readiness to graduate has worsened significantly in the last three or four years, even before COVID. This is very troubling.
What do you see as the most critical issues facing a teacher in the classroom today?
1. What clearly seems to be a long-term decline in how well our kids are thriving. I am referring to their general mental, emotional, social and (I would say) spiritual health, apart from schooling. American family structure is steadily fraying, especially for people of average or lower socio-economic status, and where parents do not have college degrees. This shows up in the classroom with behavioral issues, poor achievement, etc. The Board and the Superintendent needs the teachers' help in identifying successful and sustainable ways to change how we do things to meet this challenge without leaving kids behind.
2. We need to make learning completely accessible for every child.
EVERY Child.
I am ready to make any change that will make this more possible.
3. In higher education we noticed that the scope of the professor's work kept expanding, to include more involvement in recruiting students, tracking their non-academic welfare, advising, etc. Even the routine process of getting reimbursed for out of pocket expenses has become hideously difficult. I am pretty sure a parallel trend applies in public K-12 school. This is partly tied to points 1 and 2, but also things like unfunded mandates and enhanced expectations from parents and the public.
How can elected officials make sure the interests of most people are best served when some people are very vocal and often claim to speak for the majority?
Or even when Gail Grobey is berating the Board, boldly and in person, for not skipping a search and hiring Dave Parker? (:-) (I am a Gail Grobey fan, by the way, both for her service to the association, and her role in my sons' lives.)
The Board has to ALWAYS remember the many different groups it represents. Some of those groups don't get heard as well as others do. It's hard to know the scope of views when some don't have access, or time, or a sense of being welcomed to the conversation.
I have both a strength and a weakness in this area. My strength is having thought about (and taught about) this dynamic for decades. I never forget the people not in the room.
My weakness -- and I consider this my biggest weakness as a board member -- is I am not a gregarious person. I don't circulate in the community like a Joe Morelock, or a Polly Peterson or a Brandy Penner. I don't crawl through the mud at the Mountain View Middle School outdoor celebration. So I do not do my share of sampling a wide variety of views in my daily life through normal daily conversation.
Some of this maybe gets made up for by my advancing age. I have been around for a relatively long time, including 30+ years living in the district. The best I do to compensate for my introversion is read a lot, from a fairly wide range of viewpoints.
The School Board at times must deal with issues in which parents and teachers are at odds. What will you do when this occurs? *
My best for kids. After I listen to both parents and teachers (and others) -- if the issue reaches the Board.
If the issue is a specific case about one or some kids, I refer the parent to the established process according to policy: the teacher first, then the principal, etc. As a recovered lawyer, I deeply believe in the necessity for the Board not to intervene in (or, if possible, hear anything specific about) a dispute between parents and teachers until the issue reaches the Board. Every party to the issue has the right to be heard without being prejudged.
We have not had a formal appeal to the Board in my 9 years. This is a good thing. But if one happens, I'll be ready.
What is your understanding of collective bargaining within the public school sector and your understanding of due process as it pertains to the collectively bargained agreement Newberg EA has with the district? *
I am not sure what you mean by "due process." I will assume you mean "due process in the context of a grievance or dispute being handled under the procedures contemplated in the bargained agreement." As I've said, I have deep respect for the value of due process in getting conflicts resolved justly.
Now as to collective bargaining: collective bargaining in the public sector has an added dimension that failure to get an agreement puts the public at risk of losing its services. If Amazon shuts down without a contract, UPS can pick up the slack. It's an inconvenience, not a calamity. But if the schools (or the police or the fire department) shut down because there's no contract, that's a calamity, because they have a monopoly on providing that service (at least for free).
And in the schools, it's a doubly tragic calamity because the ones suffering most are children, who are powerless to do anything about it.
This means the unions and district management negotiate with higher stakes than in most private enterprises. Both sides can be tempted to use this fact as a bargaining lever, threatening to lock out or walk out. This is, in my view, a grievous breach of stewardship for the welfare of the children, no matter which side uses closing the schools as a bargaining lever. If it happens in my tenure I will be vocal in my criticism, as a Board member representing the students, parents, and community (including teachers and administrators).
So far, though, in my years on the Board, I've been impressed with how things have gone. I especially appreciated having the negotiations be open to the public in 2019. I attended several of the sessions, often for hours. The work was hard, and sometimes people said things I wish they hadn't, but in general it was solid work on both sides. I hope we keep that collaborative attitude (and I don't mind if the two sides' definitions of 'collaboration" don't exactly match).
What role do you see school district teachers having with regard to providing their professional opinions as a group to the board?
They are always welcome. Generally it works best if the professional opinions are part of the package Joe presents to us, meaning he has already worked with you and incorporated your input (collaboratively!!). But on some occasions (Gail Grobey again springs to mind) it is appropriate for the teachers to address the Board directly.
Here I have a comment on your internal operations: I do not think it serves you, or the district, to present a united single message about Board policy, budget, etc., when there are disagreements in the membership. I know this probably contradicts the association playbook, but my Quaker preferences are going to peek through here: I wish you would present the majority view on policies and budget, with provision for a "minority report" with some indication of the size of the minority (or minorities) reporting.
Sometimes this happens already. On some occasions we get emails or comments from teachers which don't all agree. That's helpful, but it doesn't tell us the proportions in which teachers hold various views.
I am not asking for this to undermine the association's strength. I am asking for it because, as I've said a couple of times already, the Board needs to hear every voice, and if possible, needs to know how widespread every view is.
What is your opinion of the current school district policies toward students with special needs (i.e., mainstreaming students with behavioral problems, English as a Second Language, Bilingual Students, etc.)? *
In general I am in favor of mainstreaming kids as much as possible. Separate but equal has been tried, and it failed. It fails in school because, as I understand the data, gaps widen when those getting left behind are actually left out.
Every. Child.
I believe we need to keep looking for innovative ways to do the mainstreaming, so I encourage teachers NOT to just shut up and deal with it. Whatever chafes and cracks needs to be addressed. We can't tolerate just living with a broken system. We have to fix it, so every child has access to a full education.
Which groups of students do you see as being underserved and what should the district do about it? *
I don't think we can think about it in terms of groups. There ARE patterns indicating that kids from poor families, or broken families, or who were not read to as toddlers, or whose parents both work long hours outside the home, or who are homeless (all of which can happen to a kid of any ethnic, racial, cultural, or other background) often fall behind. It's also true that racial and ethnic minority kids tend to fall behind, and tend to feel less welcome in the school.
But those are trends that apply to masses of people. We need to work on eliminating barriers that apply to masses of people. But education is consumed individually. It is meant to open opportunities for individuals. I want the focus to be primarily on individuals. What does THIS kid have going for him or her, and what does THIS kid have going against him or her. And how can we best serve THIS kid.
So I am reluctant to define special programs or interventions as applying to demographic categories. I want them defined as applying to THIS kid, or THAT kid, because of what is true in each individual's life.
As for what to do: tailor things as much as possible for each student.
Do you have any specific changes you want to make in the curriculum or programs offered in our district? If so, what and why? *
It would be a bad idea to implement my ideas. If you clearly wanted to hear my individual opinions, I would tell them to you as an individual. But if I thought you would implement anything on my say so, I'd shut up completely.
Mostly I want high expectations for kids, and the means for them to reach them.
I get sick every time I hear a student or a parent tell me that a teacher was packing it in, not really pushing the kids, not really engaging with them. I have heard parents (and even teachers) say that a class was a waste of time, that nothing was learned. I have seen my own sons take some classes and come away after an entire semester without any evident learning. The alleged waste upsets me deeply.
As a lawyer, a mediator, and an educator, I know not to treat a disgruntled opinion as gospel truth. And I understand that any such classroom experience would grieve most teachers as much as it grieves me. But if I could snap my fingers and change anything it would be this: no teacher who is wasting kids' time would be allowed to stay on the staff.
I don't know how to implement this. I don't even know the scope of the problem. But that would be a "change in a program" I would like to see. This is a change that would probably have to come from the association -- or at least with full support of the majority of the association -- to have any chance of being fair, and thus successful.
Given the limitations in funding, what recommendations would you make regarding priorities for fund allocation in Newberg / Dundee? *
#1: Successful, innovative instruction.
How would you respond to a parent who wants the district to limit access to or remove books or instructional materials from the library or classrooms? *
This is the kind of thing that would need to follow the complaint process. So I would listen with empathy, but direct the parent to talk with the teacher or staff member responsible, then the principal, etc.
I generally favor having a wide range of age-appropriate literature available, wider than might be comfortable for some parents (or even for me). In general, I would prefer that parents have notice of what materials are available, and they should be allowed to direct that their child not be exposed to things they find objectionable. In general, I want the schools to partner with the parents, not be adversarial to them.
In the education of students, what do you see are the parents' responsibilities? The school's responsibilities? *
The parents get to decide fundamental values, including religion, during the child's upbringing. The parents are responsible for creating a culture at home that values education appropriately to their fundamental beliefs.
The PUBLIC school is responsible for educating the child in subjects the state and the district voters believe are necessary for the child to be a contributing member of society, including economically, socially, politically, etc.
The public school is most kids' only access to their equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The tension and/or balance between the parents and the school is critical. The student needs to be prepared for life in the community, but has the right not to be pressed into the cookie cutter.
FINAL NOTE: I wrote all these responses without paying attention to word count. I apologize.
Thank you for these excellent questions.
sent out an excellent questionnaire to all the candidates. I hope they all answered the questionnaire, and will share their answers publicly.
Here are mine, with some emphases added on this copy. They probably give as good a picture as anything about what I think are the top priorities in our district.
Why are you seeking the position of School Board Director?
The Board's increased diversity of viewpoint is an asset to the district, but only if the Board can find a way to function as a team. I have been the Board member most ready to embrace differences of opinion, and have worked in the meetings and behind the scenes to build trust and promote constructive outcomes.
I supported the equity resolution last summer, and am on the Board's equity committee. I believe we can make strong progress in eliminating barriers and discriminatory practices, possibly with unanimous support of the Board, if we can focus on the goal of giving every child access to the fullest education we can offer, and quit replicating national political polarization and arguing with each other from political tribal stances.
I am always conscious of the different constituencies the Board serves: students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators, taxpayers, the entire community -- and the nation.
I am also the institutional memory for the Board. Bob Woodruff, the second most senior member, has withdrawn from the race. All the top administrators have changed since I joined the Board in 2012.
Describe your personal experience and involvement with the public school within the past five years that qualifies you as a School Board Member.
I've been on the Board since 2012, currently serving as Vice-Chair. I have been on the Policy Committee the entire time. I was on the search committee for both Kim LeBlanc-Esparza (in my first four months on the Board) and Joe Morelock. I am the Board member most likely to ask probing questions without exhibiting hostility toward staff. All four of my children graduated from NHS, the first in 1997, the second in 2002, and the last two in 2020.
What are your top five objectives if elected? What would be your highest educational priorities for the school district?
1. Get the schools back on track after COVID, but in ways that incorporate the best things we've learned during COVID.
2. Promote the development of programs/practices/systems to get kids caught up from what they lost during COVID.
3. Improve our ability to assess student progress reliably and efficiently, so we can set meaningful growth and achievement goals (including closing gaps) and effectively measure our district's performance (and have clearly documented and meaningful improvements we can tout!).
4. By the end of my new term, draw more students to NSD than we are losing to other districts.
5. By the end of my new term, have NSD be known as a district which made impressive headway on eliminating inequities in student experience in a way that reduces political polarization rather than enhances it.
What do you see as the district's current strengths and weaknesses? Please be specific.
Strengths:
1. Our elementary schools continue to perform better than average for the state, at least as far as we can tell pre-COVID.
2. Our administration and staff did an outstanding job of adapting to COVID, equipping kids with the computers and wifi access they needed, creating on the fly an unprecedented mode of delivering instruction. Also, the district did marvelous work continuing to offer nutrition many of our families rely on for their kids.
3. Despite some disagreement over what "collaboration" means, the collaborative approach initiated between Dr. LeBlanc Esparza and the previous association officers has continued with Joe Morelock and the current officers. I especially appreciate this, because it means we can work together and use our disagreements as assets in building a better district.
4. Catalyst (the alternative program for high school students) has improved greatly since 2012.
5. Our finances are better now than they were in 2012-2018.
6. We passed the bond.
7. Graduation rates have improved, both across the board and, at least to some degree, for traditionally underserved groups. (But see below.)
8. COVID created a pathway (Zoom) to much-enhanced community involvement and input in Board meetings. The Board is now much better serving its crucial function as a catalyst for community deliberation about our schools. If we can play this role without alienating a big fraction of the community or stalling in making improvements, this will pay off big time for our district and our children.
Weaknesses:
1. We are flying blind as to whether achievement and growth are improving. Data has always been too inconsistent, and goals have been too vague, and too many voices have been left out of the process of defining and setting goals and metrics. And COVID has knocked a two-year hole in our data.
2. Our kids are not thriving well enough when they transition to middle school, and even worse when transitioning to high school. For too many, gains made in elementary school are not carrying through secondary school.
3. The behavioral issues we had before COVID are unlikely to have been resolved by COVID. Initial improvements we may have been seeing in 2019/20 may not carry over to 2021/22.
4. Our improved graduation rates are not matched by clear data showing improved achievement and growth. And the data we do have for 9th grade readiness to graduate has worsened significantly in the last three or four years, even before COVID. This is very troubling.
What do you see as the most critical issues facing a teacher in the classroom today?
1. What clearly seems to be a long-term decline in how well our kids are thriving. I am referring to their general mental, emotional, social and (I would say) spiritual health, apart from schooling. American family structure is steadily fraying, especially for people of average or lower socio-economic status, and where parents do not have college degrees. This shows up in the classroom with behavioral issues, poor achievement, etc. The Board and the Superintendent needs the teachers' help in identifying successful and sustainable ways to change how we do things to meet this challenge without leaving kids behind.
2. We need to make learning completely accessible for every child.
EVERY Child.
I am ready to make any change that will make this more possible.
3. In higher education we noticed that the scope of the professor's work kept expanding, to include more involvement in recruiting students, tracking their non-academic welfare, advising, etc. Even the routine process of getting reimbursed for out of pocket expenses has become hideously difficult. I am pretty sure a parallel trend applies in public K-12 school. This is partly tied to points 1 and 2, but also things like unfunded mandates and enhanced expectations from parents and the public.
How can elected officials make sure the interests of most people are best served when some people are very vocal and often claim to speak for the majority?
Or even when Gail Grobey is berating the Board, boldly and in person, for not skipping a search and hiring Dave Parker? (:-) (I am a Gail Grobey fan, by the way, both for her service to the association, and her role in my sons' lives.)
The Board has to ALWAYS remember the many different groups it represents. Some of those groups don't get heard as well as others do. It's hard to know the scope of views when some don't have access, or time, or a sense of being welcomed to the conversation.
I have both a strength and a weakness in this area. My strength is having thought about (and taught about) this dynamic for decades. I never forget the people not in the room.
My weakness -- and I consider this my biggest weakness as a board member -- is I am not a gregarious person. I don't circulate in the community like a Joe Morelock, or a Polly Peterson or a Brandy Penner. I don't crawl through the mud at the Mountain View Middle School outdoor celebration. So I do not do my share of sampling a wide variety of views in my daily life through normal daily conversation.
Some of this maybe gets made up for by my advancing age. I have been around for a relatively long time, including 30+ years living in the district. The best I do to compensate for my introversion is read a lot, from a fairly wide range of viewpoints.
The School Board at times must deal with issues in which parents and teachers are at odds. What will you do when this occurs? *
My best for kids. After I listen to both parents and teachers (and others) -- if the issue reaches the Board.
If the issue is a specific case about one or some kids, I refer the parent to the established process according to policy: the teacher first, then the principal, etc. As a recovered lawyer, I deeply believe in the necessity for the Board not to intervene in (or, if possible, hear anything specific about) a dispute between parents and teachers until the issue reaches the Board. Every party to the issue has the right to be heard without being prejudged.
We have not had a formal appeal to the Board in my 9 years. This is a good thing. But if one happens, I'll be ready.
What is your understanding of collective bargaining within the public school sector and your understanding of due process as it pertains to the collectively bargained agreement Newberg EA has with the district? *
I am not sure what you mean by "due process." I will assume you mean "due process in the context of a grievance or dispute being handled under the procedures contemplated in the bargained agreement." As I've said, I have deep respect for the value of due process in getting conflicts resolved justly.
Now as to collective bargaining: collective bargaining in the public sector has an added dimension that failure to get an agreement puts the public at risk of losing its services. If Amazon shuts down without a contract, UPS can pick up the slack. It's an inconvenience, not a calamity. But if the schools (or the police or the fire department) shut down because there's no contract, that's a calamity, because they have a monopoly on providing that service (at least for free).
And in the schools, it's a doubly tragic calamity because the ones suffering most are children, who are powerless to do anything about it.
This means the unions and district management negotiate with higher stakes than in most private enterprises. Both sides can be tempted to use this fact as a bargaining lever, threatening to lock out or walk out. This is, in my view, a grievous breach of stewardship for the welfare of the children, no matter which side uses closing the schools as a bargaining lever. If it happens in my tenure I will be vocal in my criticism, as a Board member representing the students, parents, and community (including teachers and administrators).
So far, though, in my years on the Board, I've been impressed with how things have gone. I especially appreciated having the negotiations be open to the public in 2019. I attended several of the sessions, often for hours. The work was hard, and sometimes people said things I wish they hadn't, but in general it was solid work on both sides. I hope we keep that collaborative attitude (and I don't mind if the two sides' definitions of 'collaboration" don't exactly match).
What role do you see school district teachers having with regard to providing their professional opinions as a group to the board?
They are always welcome. Generally it works best if the professional opinions are part of the package Joe presents to us, meaning he has already worked with you and incorporated your input (collaboratively!!). But on some occasions (Gail Grobey again springs to mind) it is appropriate for the teachers to address the Board directly.
Here I have a comment on your internal operations: I do not think it serves you, or the district, to present a united single message about Board policy, budget, etc., when there are disagreements in the membership. I know this probably contradicts the association playbook, but my Quaker preferences are going to peek through here: I wish you would present the majority view on policies and budget, with provision for a "minority report" with some indication of the size of the minority (or minorities) reporting.
Sometimes this happens already. On some occasions we get emails or comments from teachers which don't all agree. That's helpful, but it doesn't tell us the proportions in which teachers hold various views.
I am not asking for this to undermine the association's strength. I am asking for it because, as I've said a couple of times already, the Board needs to hear every voice, and if possible, needs to know how widespread every view is.
What is your opinion of the current school district policies toward students with special needs (i.e., mainstreaming students with behavioral problems, English as a Second Language, Bilingual Students, etc.)? *
In general I am in favor of mainstreaming kids as much as possible. Separate but equal has been tried, and it failed. It fails in school because, as I understand the data, gaps widen when those getting left behind are actually left out.
Every. Child.
I believe we need to keep looking for innovative ways to do the mainstreaming, so I encourage teachers NOT to just shut up and deal with it. Whatever chafes and cracks needs to be addressed. We can't tolerate just living with a broken system. We have to fix it, so every child has access to a full education.
Which groups of students do you see as being underserved and what should the district do about it? *
I don't think we can think about it in terms of groups. There ARE patterns indicating that kids from poor families, or broken families, or who were not read to as toddlers, or whose parents both work long hours outside the home, or who are homeless (all of which can happen to a kid of any ethnic, racial, cultural, or other background) often fall behind. It's also true that racial and ethnic minority kids tend to fall behind, and tend to feel less welcome in the school.
But those are trends that apply to masses of people. We need to work on eliminating barriers that apply to masses of people. But education is consumed individually. It is meant to open opportunities for individuals. I want the focus to be primarily on individuals. What does THIS kid have going for him or her, and what does THIS kid have going against him or her. And how can we best serve THIS kid.
So I am reluctant to define special programs or interventions as applying to demographic categories. I want them defined as applying to THIS kid, or THAT kid, because of what is true in each individual's life.
As for what to do: tailor things as much as possible for each student.
Do you have any specific changes you want to make in the curriculum or programs offered in our district? If so, what and why? *
It would be a bad idea to implement my ideas. If you clearly wanted to hear my individual opinions, I would tell them to you as an individual. But if I thought you would implement anything on my say so, I'd shut up completely.
Mostly I want high expectations for kids, and the means for them to reach them.
I get sick every time I hear a student or a parent tell me that a teacher was packing it in, not really pushing the kids, not really engaging with them. I have heard parents (and even teachers) say that a class was a waste of time, that nothing was learned. I have seen my own sons take some classes and come away after an entire semester without any evident learning. The alleged waste upsets me deeply.
As a lawyer, a mediator, and an educator, I know not to treat a disgruntled opinion as gospel truth. And I understand that any such classroom experience would grieve most teachers as much as it grieves me. But if I could snap my fingers and change anything it would be this: no teacher who is wasting kids' time would be allowed to stay on the staff.
I don't know how to implement this. I don't even know the scope of the problem. But that would be a "change in a program" I would like to see. This is a change that would probably have to come from the association -- or at least with full support of the majority of the association -- to have any chance of being fair, and thus successful.
Given the limitations in funding, what recommendations would you make regarding priorities for fund allocation in Newberg / Dundee? *
#1: Successful, innovative instruction.
How would you respond to a parent who wants the district to limit access to or remove books or instructional materials from the library or classrooms? *
This is the kind of thing that would need to follow the complaint process. So I would listen with empathy, but direct the parent to talk with the teacher or staff member responsible, then the principal, etc.
I generally favor having a wide range of age-appropriate literature available, wider than might be comfortable for some parents (or even for me). In general, I would prefer that parents have notice of what materials are available, and they should be allowed to direct that their child not be exposed to things they find objectionable. In general, I want the schools to partner with the parents, not be adversarial to them.
In the education of students, what do you see are the parents' responsibilities? The school's responsibilities? *
The parents get to decide fundamental values, including religion, during the child's upbringing. The parents are responsible for creating a culture at home that values education appropriately to their fundamental beliefs.
The PUBLIC school is responsible for educating the child in subjects the state and the district voters believe are necessary for the child to be a contributing member of society, including economically, socially, politically, etc.
The public school is most kids' only access to their equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The tension and/or balance between the parents and the school is critical. The student needs to be prepared for life in the community, but has the right not to be pressed into the cookie cutter.
FINAL NOTE: I wrote all these responses without paying attention to word count. I apologize.
Thank you for these excellent questions.