- What do you believe the role of a school board member is? Why are you interested in serving ?
I appreciate this question as there is often confusion surrounding board responsibilities. All newly-elected board members attend state-mandated training on their role/responsibility to focus on student academic success. I am thoroughly committed to the mission of preparing our young people for their future success.
At a state level– Elected officials set the framework for our educational system through adopted laws with primary oversight responsibility falling to the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency.
At a local level–Superintendent Grandjean is responsible for managing the district, which includes addressing personnel issues.
The role of a school board member is to work collectively with the entire board to represent the educational interests of Devine students through local oversight aimed at ensuring academic success. Informed by community input, the Board adopts the budget, hires and evaluates the superintendent and adopts policies, goals and priorities for the District.
2. What are your thoughts and ideas to address bullying in schools? And what are your thoughts regarding policies when it comes to students using self defense?
The first step in ensuring students can achieve their academic potential is to make sure their basic needs are me. This includes things like addressing food insecurities and ensuring they feel safe and valued at school. I think our students need to be taught what bullying is and made to feel comfortable in reporting it. They should feel confident that incidents will be addressed swiftly and consistently in the manner necessary to prevent re-occurrence.
I also believe we should provide sufficient mental health resources and social and emotional learning opportunities to teach kids to express themselves more appropriately, with a goal of reducing incidence of bullying.
3. Are you in favor of or opposed to 4-day school weeks and why?
I understand the desire to move toa 4-day school week in an effort to attract and retain talented teachers. I value the work our teachers do and am committed tosupporting initiatives aimed at improving their work environment, providing much needed help, raising their pay and providing affordable benefits.
However, I cannot support initiatives that could have a detrimental affect on student learning. Research does not show that a 4-day week increases student attendance or provides costs savings to the district.A recent study released by TEA showed that students on a 4-day week did not perform as well on the STARR test as their peers on a 5-day week.With the academic declines we have seen post-covid, I don’t think we should risk making any decision that harms student learning.
I always maintain an open mind but I think the verdict is still out on this issue.
4. Please share a little about your previous civic/political/career experience..
I am the Human Resources Director for the City of San Antonio (where I have worked for 18 years) serving a workforce of approximately 14,000 employees. There are more than 40 different departments within the City of San Antonio to include our Pre-K department that provides education to a student population equal to Devine ISD.
In addition to serving on the Devine School Board for the past 6 years, I am also the immediate past President of the Texas Public Sector Human Resources Association
5. What do you believe are some of the biggest issues facing school districts today?
The lack of sufficient school funding, a teacher shortage and an increasing need for mental health resources are three of the biggest issues facing Texas schools.
Despite a rise in inflation, the basic funding allotment for students has remained unchanged in recent years. Devine ISD, like most schools has been forced to make decisions to reduce financial reserves to avoid cutting educational programs. Along with school financing, I believe the state needs to look for ways to better compensate our teachers. Finally, post-covid, all of the major insurance carriers have shown that mental health issues are a top driver of medical claims for young people. This necessitates appropriate action within our homes and our schools.
6. The school voucher program expected to be signed in to law by the governor could have a significant impact on school budgets. What is your experience with budgeting ?
This most definitely will have an impact on school budgets. I am not stranger to expanding and contracting budgets while working to maintain programming and avoid lay-offs. As a school board member for the past 6 years, I have been a part of reviewing and approving the District’s budget (23.4 million for this school year),
In my role as Human Resources Director for the City of San Antonio, I oversee an approximately $200 million dollar department budget that includes both operating expenses for my department and monies for our self-funded benefit programs.
8. What ideas do you have for enhancing communication and understanding between teachers and administrators and district policy makers?
There is no such thing as too much communication. I think it should continue to be a board priority to require the Superintendent to work with campus administrators and teachers to gain a better understanding of what is needed at the campus level. This falls within his realm of responsibility. The Board’s responsibility is to help him address identified issues from a policy perspective.
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