School Safety, Equity in Education and Budget Management are 3 of the top concerns that Debra will have when elected as School Board Trustee for Antioch Unified.
- **When elected Debra will focus on School Safety because bullying, fighting, cyber bullying, verbal and physical threats of violence is at an all time high for student's from elementary through high school. Students must learn social emotional skills and conflict resolution so that they can problem solve common adolescent issues among themselves and then use the same language to communicate to their parents, teachers and guardians when incidents become too escalated for them to handle. Focused mental health support must be a key component in supporting students and families to become more emotionally attuned to each other for navigating our post modern societal ills. Focused mental health must be used to support students that have chronic emotional matter.
- **Equity in Education, Relevant School Curriculum, and District Policy will be another focus when Debra is elected. Today's youth are media savvy and this does not always translate into intelligence in the classroom. API scores do not reflect how technically smart our students are. Furthermore, a student's ability to navigate cell phones, video games, DVD recorders etc.means that our students are capable of learning engineering and computer skills, electrical , construction and building crafts, however, they have become victims of the "instant access" mind set and this hampers their ability to focus on any instructional learning for sustainable periods of time in the classroom. Therefore, what they learn is fleeting and not retainable and this is one of the many reasons why API scores do not change consistently. Another factor is: students are prepped for test instead of being taught to retain subject matter until they have internalized the concepts. This must change if we are to build a sustainable future for our youth. All students are capable of excelling in the classroom if they are given such expectations by parents and teachers alike. Parents and teachers must learn to speak the same language and this will greatly impact a student's academic life. Teachers must be trained regularly to make sure that their subject matter knowledge stays up to date. Teachers must be trained in cultural competency so that they do not miss-read the intentions of ethnic students and perpetually deny them classroom instructional time. Focused mental health support is a key ingredient in student achievement. As students self esteem increases, so does their abilities to gain mastery over academic tasks and their ability to seek assistance from teachers and other school resources for help.
- **Fiscal Solvency is a matter that is of utmost concern to Debra. Budgets must be complex enough to include all of the necessary line items needed to operate a school environment and simple enough that a parent can read the budget and know at any point and time how the dollars are spent without getting bogged down in technicalities that confuse and distort the actual reporting reality of the Budget. If the District is going to build trust with parents, the Budget must continue to be transparent for all parents to comprehend. Building reserves and finding various financial opportunities must be a constant focus to combat the dilemma of deficits that the School Board will face now and in the future.
|
